From Yarn to Clay (2)

This is Part Two of my blog, continuing the journey of how I became a ceramist and joined the Dona Paula Potters.

Me trying hard to teach Suhag how to crochet!! True story: till date, she’s only mastered the chain.

It all started with Suhag. Remember my previous blog where I mentioned my ceramic journey and how Leila was my inspiration? Well, Suhag was the key.

This blog is going to be in two parts because, before we get to pottery, it actually started with yarn and a crochet needle. Yes, when I couldn’t do pottery, I turned to making crochet dolls. Upesh bought me a crochet book on making small amigurumi monsters, which fascinated me. Amigurumi is a Japanese style of crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. The word combines the Japanese words 'ami', meaning 'crocheted or knitted', and 'nuigurumi', which means 'stuffed doll'.

I first learned crochet when I was 12, during my hospital days when I couldn’t walk. I found it incredibly therapeutic. But then, adult life happened, and I forgot all about it. Years later, I came across an adorable crochet monster book at a book fair and thought, Why not get back to it? Since ceramics wasn’t an option at the time, crochet became my creative outlet. Unlike ceramics, I didn’t need a kiln or a studio—just yarn, a crochet needle, and a pattern. So, I picked up my old hobby again and started making tiny ninjas, monsters, amazon warriors, and cats. Slowly, Upesh got drawn in, seeing my enthusiasm, he made little box cases for my dolls. Friends started asking for them, so I gifted a few. Then Upesh really got into it—he began sketching superheroes and movie characters that I could crochet, even helping and sewing the finer details of their outfits.

The first drafts of our Amuini crochet dolls you can see Upesh's pencil sketches in the background.

Before we knew it, we thought, This is so cool! Why not turn it into a side hustle? And just like that, Amuini Crochet brand was born—Amuini being a mix of amigurumi and amui (Nepali slang for cute, though we later realized it also means "to join" in Māori). We designed a logo and made stickers.

My top maid Shilpa saw me crocheting and got excited too —she already knew how to crochet and wanted to help. Since this was eating into my design studio time, I got her involved, paying her to make the base the doll bodies for me.

Prototyping Wez from Mad Max II, Upesh adding the fine details to Captain Jack Sparrow, and working on branding and packaging to send out to some of our supportive friends.

Upesh and I quickly became obsessed with yarn, colours, and matching them to the characters we wanted to create. We crafted some of our favorite's—Mad Max: Fury Road characters (the craze was still strong in 2016) and Pirates of the Caribbean (because designing Captain Jack Sparrow was just too fun to resist). We loved the process, and soon, our friends started buying them. But actively selling? That was never our strong suit. Eventually, our little crochet business fizzled out, and we had to focus on running our design studio that actually paid the rent. As for our prototype dolls, they ended up in a basket, only making occasional appearances when we felt like showing them off.

The Gallery !

I’ve started to spot a pattern with Upesh. We'd pick up something just for fun—like our quilling phase or his tape art obsession (more on those delightful detours soon). He’d plunge in with wild enthusiasm, get totally hooked, turn it into a full-blown enterprise... and then, poof—he’d move on. Meanwhile, I’d still be buzzing with excitement, left tangled in colourful yarns and half-used rolls of quilling paper. He’s a bit of a perfectionist too, so even when I tried to carry on solo, it always felt like I was being silently judged by a very discerning phoenix. Eventually, the yarn and crochet needles were gently retired, joining the pile of half-finished sketches, patiently waiting for their comeback tour—one day.

I think I might just be living with a genius.

Then life took a big turn. I needed a total hip arthroplasty—a double hip replacement. From 2018 to 2020, my world revolved around hospitals, while Upesh juggled caring for me and managing the studio. My surgeries were done in Delhi—none of the orthopedic doctors in Bangalore wanted to take on my case. And just to make things more dramatic, it got complicated. I ended up with an autoimmune condition—osteomyelitis. But that’s a story for another day.

You must be wondering—what does all this have to do with ceramics, Suhag, or Dona Paula? Well, wait and see.

Now, back to Suhag. We lost touch after Leila’s passing in 2014.

In 2021, my friend Pooja—a ceramist from Minim Design—invited me to A Sorted Ceramics, a show she was part of at the Bangalore International Centre. Ironically, we hadn’t met through pottery, but while working on a website—she was the content writer, and I was the designer. It was pottery that got us talking beyond work. She creates beautiful, functional ceramics in porcelain.

Suhag was also participating in the show, showcasing her tiled works. There were a lot of familiar faces at the event, and that’s where I reconnected with her. It felt as if no time had passed. From then on, we stayed in touch—going on forest walks and sharing dinners. Thanks to Suhag, Upesh and I discovered the back entrance to Avalahalli Forest, which quickly became one of our favourite walking spots.

A walk through Avalahalli Forest in Yelahanka, Bangalore, with Anand and Suhag.

In 2023, Suhag invited us to her home in Goa for an event she curated with a group of ceramic artists who called themselves the Dona Paula Potters. She encouraged us to join the fun, stay with her, and even bring our Amuini crochet dolls to the pop-up market—she had seen them at our home during one of our show-and-tell moments. And so, the dolls finally saw the daylight of Goa.

But we had little stock left, as most of our creations made between 2016 and 2018 had already been sold or gifted. Whatever remained for the event quickly sold out—except for Hulk. Somehow, he just didn’t look angry enough!

Showing off our ‘Amuinis’—crochet dolls making their debut at the Dona Paula Potters exhibit in Goa!

We were the only non-ceramic artists there, yet it felt so welcoming. I felt at home. This experience encouraged me even more to get back to ceramic and seriously consider moving to Goa. The idea had always been there—convincing the man was the real issue.

See our crochet work here