SankaranKutty

First in the classic malayalam movie inspired typography series, this rendition explores various facets of Malayalam as a language and its quirkiness.

the negative (silk screen)

 Ee Sankarankuttiku penu venam, is literally translated as: this Sankarankutty wants a girl. It is also a very common phenomenon in Kerala (and India) that parents are really worried if their son or daughter will settled down! So here's a tongue-in-cheek wearable placard that's perfect for the boys.

the process of screen printing takes two sets of hands for large sizes

Now this may stand true for any guy living anywhere is the world, what identifies our guy as a mallu, is his name Sankaran!. Derived from mythological name Shankar, a fairly common name on this subcontinent, the added Sankar..an stamps it typical Kerala.

the brave mallu man!

And then there is kutty.. it is a common suffix, used mostly as a term of endearment (a child is called kutty) but it often ends up becoming a term in one's official name; be it male, female, Hindu/Christian/Muslim.... someone with kutty as part of their name is definitely from Kerala! We even have persons called Babykutty - which translates baby baby!

Silk screen printed on 100% cotton t-shirts, they are meant for.. well, everybody!
Limited edition. Available in stores now.

earth&fire made magnets

Up-cycling the handmade produce from Kerala, we initiated terra-cotta works as Kaithozhil*, hand sculpted & fired earth magnets. 
Following the same thread of idea we are introducing, hand sculpted ceramic magnets. Celebrating the idea of travel and freedom, be it on foot, ubiquitous rickshaws or soaring high in sky, with these little mementos.

Both terra-cotta and ceramic magnets are crafted in similar fashion, made of fired earth even the process almost remains the same. Its the minor changes in temperature, water content, curing etc that brings out such dramatic differences in both these products. And because of certain qualities of ceramic it makes them suitable for glazing. Glaze is a coating fused to a ceramic object to make it non-porous, though it also finds its uses in many other decorative ways. 

 They are available in 3 lively hues. You can pick them up from our Cochin and Thekkady stores.

*hand crafted

A shop via Kerala

Marco and Gianna walked into viakerala for the pre-launch curious to know our italian connection (via = street; in Italian). we told them about the similar connotation in literal postman terminology, but also talked about journey as a motif for artistic exploration.

heres a few things they found interesting - our content wall, works in progress; development drawings, quirky thoughts, design process... even the attention to detail in the fabrics and textures sourced entirely from local weavers.

we're not going to let out the stock list, but heres a sneak peek ;-)