Today we’d like to introduce you to Bharti Trivedi.
Hi Bharti, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am California-based fiber artist living with my two girls and a supportive husband. While I was born in India, I am now living in Milpitas, California.
I think that an Artist’s journey is special and brings joy to many. My journey has been a roller-coaster ride full of adventures. Be it my journey from India to California or from being a cyber security engineer to a home engineer. What gave wings to this venture (YASHI DESIGNS) is my curiosity in art since childhood.
I believe motherhood gave me a steering wheel to drive my career into the creative art business. Initially, it all started as a filler for the gap to find the perfect art piece for my home. Soon it became my passion and gradually turned into a business venture.
I find this work to be meditative and relaxing and it allows me to process whatever I may be going through in life-it has been a great outlet for me.
Nature has been my greatest inspiration. Most of my product designs are inspired from natural forms of seascapes and landscapes like rivers, waves, leaves, caves, arch, keyhole rocks, mountains, waterfalls, etc. I enjoy and feel honored to be able to recreate nature-inspired designs with my passion for fibers.
To embark on new ideas and translating them into visual reality is a real time-consuming complex process and inevitably we face trials and errors. It takes a lot of patience to shape an idea and watch it develop into a dramatic texture of its own using fiber manipulation and weaving techniques.
Creating with hands fulfills my soul and helps me find joy and peace I have been always striving for.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a creative person, I always wanted to continue to evolve and try new things. This involves lots of risks and uncertainties.
Even though the success of my business has come very rapidly, it has not been easy. There have been many setbacks including supply chain issues in getting raw materials specially during covid.
The growing pains are very real, and it is hard for me to run a business, being a full-time work-from-home Mom and balancing my social life. There have been times where there were lots of pre-orders, non-stop customer inquiries in parallel to packing and shipping existing orders. Meanwhile, balancing my time to look after kids online distance learning can be very stressful. Before I hired my employee it was just me doing everything by myself with the help of my amazing husband, I would stay up until 3 AM working on my business. Taking up this business has helped me follow my dreams and also grow myself as a human with great time management skills. Many-a-times, I was getting split up with several tasks at hand; but at the end of the day, it all felt worthwhile.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My craftsmanship is novel, sustainable and inimitable apart from being exquisite.
I aim for a timeless aesthetic so that the work can be appreciated for the years to come! I like to weave my own canvas by manipulating rope and blend in mid-century modern and minimalistic style in my artwork. You will definitely notice a lot of texture in my work with elements of surprise around. My artwork is highly inspired by nature and is made from sustainable natural fibers. They reflect simplicity and minimalism as our mother nature. It helps me stay closer to nature as much as possible.
I like to integrate texture, shapes & hints of color to design visual impact. I expect people to feel joy and warmth by looking at my artwork. It gives me joy to know when people can relate their feelings with my work.
Modern minimalist could be a word which describes my work. Uniqueness stands by the design and idea behind my artwork. I always get allured by textures of natural materials. That is what drives my designs and fiber art. I like pushing my boundaries to achieve a particular design and manipulate the materials to achieve certain concepts in my mind. I stay on my toes to learn new and implement any pattern or techniques needed to achieve that form.
I am not sure what I am known for 🙂 but I guess the giant versions of my leaf sculpture has given me good fame and traction with commercial clients in the hotel industry and with art consultants & curators. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to know that my work resonates with the needs and thoughts of interior designers, hotel curators and art consultants alike.
I remember the days when I took on a project for a Resort in Napa Valley. It involved bulk order of huge custom 5 feet tall leaf sculptures. So far I was successful in making 4 feet of leaf sculpture but it was challenging to increase the width as it brings in design complexities for the artwork. In the midst of material shortages, I had to experiment a lot to make this fiber sculpture hold its shape and maintain its integrity. Lots of tears and frustration and sleepless nights but when that eureka moment hit, it became my most memorable one. It gives me immense pride to see my nearly impossible Humongous Leaf fiber sculpture to stand high in my studio and the resort rooms. What a moment! So many happy tears! All my work comes from my heart and I am proud of each one of them. I am a fan of my work and that in turn keeps pushing me to create new things.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Patience is the biggest virtue. Explore new materials to work with and always have a plan B!
Contact Info:
- Website: yashidesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yashidesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yashidesigns/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/YASHIDESIGNS
