A passionate entrepreneur

Aspirations are achievable faster when you pen them down in your diary or picture it right in front of you. With this thought in mind, Ridhi Gupta, a 20-year-old graduation student came up with an idea to create miniatures, a passion that she turned into an enterprise. SinceMarch 2018, she is not only making her imagination into reality but is bringingothers’ memories to life with ‘Teeny Genie’, a brand of miniature art.

Speaking with The Hans India, Ridhi Gupta says, “People have a sentimental value for some things or moments; and to capture that into a miniature, I created my brand, Teeny Genie - teeny means small and genie is someone who can give you anything.”

By virtue of having a creative bent of mind, Ridhi learnt the art of 3D quilling during her high school days. Having acquired expertise in quilling, she upscaled her interest to miniature art. She relates, “It’s an interest that I developed over a period. From 2016, I started with making miniatures of whatever I imagined, just like my love for readingthat made me put make a miniature library.”

Her inspirations are many and her miniatures include a theme on women entrepreneurship, a proposal scene created for a couple that is going to be a girl’s gift to her fiancée, a conference hall for a corporate company; Ridhi has made around 50 miniatures including the customised orders. 

These miniature arts made with recyclable material like paper, cardboard, cloth, plastic, take more than a week to make depending upon the size. With enormous detailing, effort and time that goes into making the miniature model, Ridhi prefersto accept orders above Rs 2,500 only. 

“I love detailing which is visible in my art too. Though the material cost isn’t expensive, I bill for the hard work that goes into making these. Going ahead, I would be making the models in an acrylic covered shadow box to store it away from dust as an everlasting gift and memory to preserve,” she adds.

Extending her passion to teaching, the art enthusiast has taken two summer classes for children on quilling and miniature art. A step ahead in this directionis using YouTube; the Gen Z entrepreneur has charted out a plan to post tutorial videos on making of miniature art.

She says, “When I didn’t know how to make miniature things, I browsed throughYouTube but couldn’t find an answer. There might be online learners like me not able to find tutorial videos. Being from this generation, I have a free platform available to make use of.”

With zero intention to run away from a not very conventional field, Ridhi is determined to benefit from her passion and set new challenges to achieve in miniature art with a focus to create a name for herself in international space.