Charming creations
Melanie Balasuriya’s first customer was herself. “I was going through my boho phase,” she remembers, laughing at the memory “and I remember trying desperately to find a dreamcatcher-except they were all so expensive!” Not willing to burn a hole in her wallet, and having always been an arts and crafts girl herself, Melanie decided to give the colourful trinkets a go. They turned out so well that her friends immediately commissioned some for themselves, and Feather Project came to be.
A self-confessed introvert “with no head for the practicalities of business” (although she did study for a degree in business when she returned to Sri Lanka after 15 years in Kuwait), Melanie seems an unusual casting for the title of entrepreneur. Her day job is in social media, so she’s well poised to run Feather Project which operates primarily through Facebook and Instagram. “My friend (Dilini Dissanayake) handles everything to do with orders and pricing and costing,” she tells us. “I make the products. So I have a lot of time and space to get creative!”
Feather Project offers jewellery, such as necklaces, bracelets and earrings, but its primary trade is in dreamcatchers. If you’ve not heard of it that’s because a dreamcatcher is not really jewellery per se, although it can look like one half of an extremely elaborate pair of earrings.
Dreamcatchers is usually adopted in Native American cultures to allow individuals from having unpleasant or negative dreams while ‘letting through’ positive dreams. Traditionally, a dreamcatcher is shaped around a hoop, webbed with a net and balanced by feathers. Melanie’s dreamcatchers are extravagant affairs-bright hues, fancy feathers and intricate webbing make hers a sight to behold. The dreamcatchers come in their original form and also as earrings, which seems to now be the more popular option of the two on Feather Project’s page. “I started out working with my own designs,” says Melanie. “Now a lot of customers customize orders-they’ll send me a design they saw on Pinterest or outline roughly what they want and I’ll make their dreamcatcher to fit those specifications.”
These are priced differently, depending on size (they can be six foot tall, if you want them to be!) and materials used, although she assures us that they try to price their products as fairly as possible. In addition to this Feather Project also offers customized necklaces and bracelets, made with charms chosen by you or hand-stamped with letters and names. Each charm costs Rs. 50, so it depends on buyers as to how much it comes up to.
Melanie is grateful to Colombo Design Market for the platform to reach out to a much wider customer base and says that you’ll find her frequently at the event, making charm bracelets and necklaces on the spot. “The first time we did I was so nervous because people were just standing there watching me make their order,” she laughs. “So now I’m at the back, and Dilini handles the front end.” Having her best friend on board has been an immense blessing, “because she knows how I work and think.”
Her next undertaking will be jewellery made with polymer clay-“I’m waiting to get my hands on some,” she shares. “So we’ll see how it goes when I do.”
Find Feather Project on Facebook-
https://www.facebook.com/featherprojectlk
Magazine cover and story pix courtesy Feather Project