No, she doesn't do card tricks - Nilima Mukherji conjures up greeting cards that leave you spellbound

With hundreds of cards flying around during the season, how do you ensure that yours stands out from the rest? A good bet would be to get yourself unique, personalised cards.

Nilima's come up with a mindboggling repertoire for you to choose from, so that your card can be absolutely unique. She uses a variety of techniques and textures - quilling, parchment, paper-weaving, copper-embossing, paper-cutting, glass painting and mosaic. She textures her cards using dental powder (yes!); she adds stencilling, tattoos, rangoli, block printing or textured cloth, wool and pieces of jute. She embellishes them with tiny colourful origamis or beads, zardozi, lace, kundan, shells, dried flowers and sponge. Everything in her kitchen seems to get diverted into her craft - coffee beans, seeds from fruits and shells from nuts!

Nilima had always been interested in craft. But her Engineering Degree and MBA swept her into the corporate world, where she held key positions in Videocon and Godrej. Even in those seven years, as she immersed herself in planning and boardroom strategies, she nurtured this love at the back of her mind. A shopping spree would never be complete without a trip to some of the well-known stationers and paper merchants. She picked up and stored a whole lot of unusual handmade papers. Her opportunity came about five years ago, when she was expecting her first child and she quit her job.

"Cards are what I want to make," she decided and tried her hand at her first batch. When these were sent to friends and relatives, orders from them poured in. She held her first exhibition in her colony at Versova, Mumbai. Within an hour they were all sold out. Nilima was on a roll. Re-locating to Pune, Nilima continues getting orders from friends and neighbours, mostly in the corporate field. They are the ones who have taken packs of them abroad and sold them out there. Recently, she has completed a large order for a friend's wedding, complete with zardozi and silk tassles.

Nilima also makes gift tags, envelopes, letterheads, coasters, trays and some unusual lampshades. Rakhis are another addition, as are glass etchings. The Internet is her greatest ally, for research, and also to source books and specialised kits. Being an engineer helps too. She modifies tools, makes herself ingenious grids and stencils and other hardware too.

Which material or technique is her favourite? "Well, it's rather like asking a mother who is her favourite child, isn't it?" she laughs. She loves them all, but admits that parchment, although simple, requires the greatest precision, concentration and dedication.

While she started out by pricing her cards at a very modest Rs. 10, now she has pegged them a little higher - around Rs. 30, which is quite reasonable considering the labour that goes into it.

Is she thinking of 'going bigger' with framed pictures? To that she replies, "A card is something that most people can afford and since they are so beautiful, they don't throw it away - they often frame it." Quite the 'two-in-one' isn't it?

Nilima Mukherji can be contacted at A9, Flat No. 102, Ganga Satellite, Wanowrie, Phone: 26803590.

Mita Banerjee