Meet Archa Maratt who makes beautiful handmade, vintage, and unique non-toxic gifts and products such as fabric rattle toys, fabric mobile, fabric Christmas ornaments, quilts and much more under her brand name ‘The Yellow Kettle.’

Bangalore based Archa, is a trained child psychologist. She started ‘The Yellow Kettle’ to showcase her love for vintage, inspired by country living and her products are a testimony to the same. Her products are in soft, simple, beautiful, and light colors.

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Now, who doesn’t love an old whistling kettle on a wood stove in a chilling winter evening?
She has very aptly named her store, ‘The Yellow Kettle.’ She says, “Color yellow is something Iike…. if I get to be a color which color would I be? I think I will always go for yellow… it’s bright, fresh, happy and it shines, it’s the color of the sun. In short, the Yellow Kettle is ‘Me’ who enjoys simple, beautiful things and to be bright like a sun spreading laughter, love, joy, and smile.”

When she was on her motherhood ride, she started taking small assignments for decorating and planning baby showers, birthday parties, making props for photo shoots, etc. Though she became the talk of the town in no time, she was all alone in handling the business, as well as the creative side of her work. With a small baby to take care of, she started her Facebook page to showcase her artistic abilities to the online world. She started making incredible papercraft items.

One beautiful morning, she was surprised when she got a message from an online friend who required soft fabric toys.

Archa didn’t say no to her first client. With no sewing machine and not even rudimentary sewing skills, she took the first step on her journey.

All she had was a passion for putting her creative skill in some use and loads of excitement. As she says, “Creativity requires courage.”

She made her first elephant, and that took her seven hours! Do check out her cute little Ellie elephant.

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But all the effort was worth it. The client was quite impressed with her work and Archa never looked back since then.

She got interested in creating eco-friendly non-toxic attractive fabric toys for kids. She wants children to play with non -toxic toys in a healthy environment.

Every product is skillfully handcrafted. Clients can customize the products by choosing the fabric and the kind of detail.

She says, if the client wants a red elephant with black ears, then they get to choose whether red striped, red polka dots or red checks. Her customer-centric focus makes the ‘The Yellow Kettle’ unique.

“The clients come to me with their ideas, and I interpret it. The clients get exactly the kind of toy, they had imagined. I make each toy with so much love. I want my toys should bring a sense of joy and happiness on the child’s face.”

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Each toy takes around two to three hours to make. She doesn’t make her products in bulk as then they will lose their uniqueness.

“The Yellow Kettle has given me an opportunity for artistic expression and also a chance to do a bit for the children and environment,” says Archa.

She wants to expand further and wants to have a dedicated workshop for the same. She adds, “ But it shouldn’t be so large that I only manage the show and other people are doing the work. I want to choose the color palette, the design and be responsible for the overall product. Being a perfectionist, I am too cautious about the detailing and overall finish of the product.”

But she wants to train other people in this skill. She wants to empower underprivileged women so that they can be self- dependent.

She says believing in oneself makes all the difference. She says if you have passion and commitment, everything will fall in place. Make a good impression on your client by your work and they would surely come back.

She mentions that What you make shows who you are, so it should better be good. Only then one can be successful. She adds that your product should speak on your behalf.

She wants to thank her extremely talented mother who has been a pillar of support and her husband who is her biggest critique. Her friends have been with her throughout this journey. She says it’s not possible without a good bunch of friends and great family including her sister.

She says that other strong pillars of support have been her clients. They appreciate her work tremendously and send her pictures of the products with their babies. These pictures keep her going!

Don’t forget to check out her products here .