Rustic Motifs - Product & Website Review

About Rustic Motifs: 

Rustic Motifs is a venture started by two young marketing professionals Avantika Heblikar and Merlin Francis. They design handmade interior decor products, working with the less privileged members of our society and providing them an opportunity to showcase their talent.

The team works with rural artisans, self help groups, women empowerment communities and ensure that their creations get a larger audience and also find market acceptance.

Here is a honest review of Rustic Motifs based on my experience of purchasing a stoneware pottery from Manipur and a kasuti embroidered clutch from Karnataka.

I have based my judgement on the following criteria

1.Page design and layout

2.Variety of products

3.Ease of selection & Product Description

4.Mode of payment

5.shipping & delivery

6.USP

Page design & Layout : The home page of RusticMotifs- Tell tale Designs is simple yet appealing. Neatly designed  and grouped into various categories such as Decor, on sale, product categories, NGO partners, gifting, custom projects and Decor tips.

Some of the products are on the featured list. New arrivals are also listed separately thus simplifying navigation, through the entire site.

Product Range: The product range includes Lights, Furnishings,crockery, bags, mats, Jewelry & stationery. The products under each category is surely impressive, sourced from various places across India. 

RusticMotifs lays emphasis on handcrafted products, showcasing the rich diversity of India

I loved their range of black pottery and mats. Black pottery is a specialty of Nagaland and Manipur. These can be directly kept on fire and oven. Such items have utility as well as decor value. 

Similarly the mats are of various materials like banana fibre, hibiscus, river grass etc.

These are an excellent substitute to plastics and paper. 

At the same time, I would love to see an expansion in their product range. Indian artisans  have more to offer. There are many unexplored corners in our country with untapped potential and I sincerely wish RusticMotifs growth in this area.

Ease Of selection & Product Description:

It is easy to navigate through the entire page and choose the product of your liking.

Once you zero in, on the product, the description is well written.You get a good idea of the origin of the product, material used and the process that each product undergoes to get the unique feel.

Here I chose two items from their site.

1. The black pottery soup/condiment bowl from Manipur.

There is an interesting twist in these products. Though the pottery is from Manipur, the lid is wooden and made in Chennapatna in Karnataka.

BLACK POTTERY WITH WOODEN LID

Serpentine and weather rock is mixed in certain ratios to make the clay for this hand moulded pottery and it is heated for over 10 hours before before giving it the rich black colour which comes from a local plant called Chiron-na.

Also the green coloured wooden lid from Chennapatna uses harmless vegetable dye, free from lead.

Such products give immense satisfaction in the knowledge that in our small way, we are contributing towards a bigger goal of providing sustenance to the local artisans and their craft .

2. Kasuti embroidered clutch

Kasuti simply means kai-hands and suti -cotton indicating handiwork with cotton.

This product is from an NGO Kaicrafts which promotes artisans from North Karnataka.

KASUTI EMBROIDERED CLUTCH

The history of Kasuti dates back to the Chalukya period. Kasuti work is very laborious and intricate. It involves counting of each thread on the cloth and sometimes involves putting up to 5,000 stitches by hand. The patterns are stitched without using knots to ensure that both sides of the  cloth look alike.

Mode of payment: Rusticmotifs employs all well known  and secured methods of payment like credit cards, visa master, maestro & netbanking. Also Cash on Delivery option is  currently available  to  Bangalore customers. 

Payment is safe and hassle free.

Shipping & delivery: The products are free of shipping charges. Also the delivery is carried out within 8 working days, once the order has been placed.

I received my products within 2 days in good condition.

Another thoughtful initiative by RusticMotif, that I ought to mention is that they use only paper and recycled packaging material. It's these little things that go a long way in making the world a better place to live in! 

Unique selling point: The USP of RusticMotifs is that all items are handmade. In today's times of mass production, handcrafted products always stands out.

Rustic Motifs  can also customise products for you if needed in bulk. Have a look at some of the items that they have customised for their clients.

Handpainted kettles customised for Luxury hotels

wooden masks  for a lounge bar in Kerala

Pattachitra art work from Orissa ideal for gifting

Bharini Lamps lending a unique touch to the hotel lobbies.

I truly loved my experience of online shopping with RusticMotifs.

For more info visit them at http://www.rusticmotifs.com

There is a wonderful news for all  my readers. RusticMotifs is offering a 10% discount on all its products starting today. To avail the benefit and get the coupon code, simply drop in a line at sangi_eashwaran@yahoo.co.in or in the comment section of this post.