How soon will our kids go back to offline learning? As parents debate this on our timelines, Olee Maatee’s School Time figurine is a charming reminder of what we once took for granted: a mother with her son, waiting for the school bus. Olee Maatee, a Pune-based craft studio, has been filling up their Instagram page and fans’ work desks and fridge surfaces with handcrafted collectibles — tiny gunny bags of garlic and onion, a mango crate, kingfisher tableware, rickshaw salt and pepper shakes, a Konkan hamlet even.
Launched in 2019 as a Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship, Development and Research (CREDAR), and a showcase of products handmade in the Konkan, the studio aims to empower artists by training them. The creative head and founder, Bharti Pitre, 58, guides the 15-odd artisans, but does the final painting herself. “I try to imbibe whatever I observe from life in my paper-māché figurines. From a lively exchange in a chawl to a father telling a bedtime story to his son, or a woman about to take a selfie, the familiar moments and images we tend to overlook are my muse,” says the acclaimed paper-māché artist.
Having shown at galleries such as Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery, she is also popular with private collectors. The 15 cm School Time figurine (₹11,500) effectively conveys a mother’s love and protectiveness in terracotta. The bamboo and terracotta used is locally sourced.
Collections like Sahayadris Hues and From Konkan with Love are available onoleemaatee.com; ₹500 to ₹13,500.
