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Areka Accessories
An attempt in making lifestyle accessories from the bark of the Areka leaf.
What started off as a client project became and study in material and design.
The story of how a designer met his Areka.
The story of this particular project started off with one of my dear friend requesting me to make a custom card holder for him with natural materials. he wanted to go the natural route in his life. What started off as a small interest in a request made me venture on to different materials and designs. I finally struck gold when I was in a party and they were serving food in Areka leaves plate. A 100w light bulb just blinked over my head.
Study in Areka
I had collected as much areka leaves as possible and also read on various publications to understand the property of the material. Did some experiments on my own with paint, lacquer, different types of glue etc. to understand the material. I also wanted to see how it would react to heat, sunlight, pressure etc. Various visits were also done to areka plate making plants on how they function and how the material is utilized properly.
Lets get to work.
After the research was done I started out with sketches and models for my friend to choose from. Had sat with him and we conversed on what his requirements are and how he would go about using the products. Even though his demands were very flamboyant, I was able to make him understand the limitations of the material that we were working with and was able to narrow down the requirement to a card holder with his name engraved and a credit card holder for a start.
Exhibit Number 1 - Credit card holder
My friend or my client as a matter of fact was somebody who rarely used currency notes. He did most of his transactions with cards or digital money. The need for a wallet was striked out and we had finalized on a card holder.
Credit card holder design considerations
Bending the the leaves without breaking or tearing was a challenge. I had to heat the side to make it more viable to bending. Once I had figured out the shape and dimension of the areka to be cut, I had devised a stencil that would make my job much easier.
Credit card holder design considerations
For making the card holder I wanted to use multiple materials to give it a very rustic feel. Along with Areka leaves I had used leather on the back side. There were grooves on the side to help take the cards out easily.
Credit card holder design considerations
Going forward I would love to take this design and play around with the form factor a bit more to bring in more design iterations. Its been years since I had made this design for him and happy to inform that he still uses it, having stood the test of time.
Exhibit Number 2 - Visiting card holder
This was much easier job to pull off as it was a immobile design. The challenging part was engraving his name on to the final design. I then reversed the process and did the engraving first and then finished the form factor. The design had to be such that it can hold at least 25 cards at one time.
Visiting card holder design considerations
One of the thing I wanted to have was the first letter of his name to accentuate the top of the card holder. The top part with the black color was designed in such a manner to showcase the letter S.
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