Brace yourselves! The JWB Weekend blog is here again! And our latest weekend activity was all cool and colorful!

This weekend, umm, I mean the previous weekend, we met a Jaipur-based woman who has found out a really creative and lucrative way of utilizing glass bottles.

Be it Johnny Walker, or be it 100 Pipers, she knows how to have her way with them and their sorts. Ready to meet her and to know what it is that she does?

Okay then! Clink your bottles and glasses with Mukta Basandani’s decorated bottles and glasses. She works from home and sells her products online through her label: . Originally from Gujarat, Mukta is married in Jaipur and has an adorable 2-year old daughter, Kim.

When our JWB troop entered Mukta’s house, we went all Gaga over Kim. Trust me, she’s so adorable that our blogger-in-chief- Lavanya almost ate her.

Anyhoo, we tried to introduce and present ourselves in the politest manner possible with the secret ambition of concealing our innate clumsiness.

Though, it is a different thing that Mukta eventually had a rendezvous with our clumsy sides when we girls got down to get our hands dirty! But, what really surprised us is the kind smile with which she entertained us and overlooked our flaw-full attempts at bottle-decoration.

Our escapades began with all of us being assigned Johnny Walker, 100 Pipers, Jack Daniel bottles. Empty bottles, that is. Our teacher of the hour had planned a different type of decoration for each one of us. Damn! No scope for cheating then, I silently mused.

All this while, Shivani was unusually over-brimming with excitement. I suppose she has a fancy for bottle décor, or for alcohol bottles. Hmmm. Interesting.

Mukta assigned ribbon decor to this excited member amongst us. And like a playful 2-year old kid, Shivani swirled and swayed her ribbons.

Oh, while I’m mentioning 2-year olds, did you know that Mukta’s daughter Kim has masterpieces of her own? She has inherited her mother’s creativity which could be seen in the form of an array of painted, sequin-ced, glitter-ed bottles and glasses around.

Me: So, how and when did you conceive the idea of bottle décor, Mukta? I asked her while admiring one of Kim’s bottles.

Mukta: I have always been fond of art and craft. Even though I pursued MBA for my higher studies, I always knew there was an artistic streak within me. Right after my post-grad, I was taking care of my father’s friend’s school as an administrator. After which, I started experimenting with bottles.

Me: Why bottles particularly?

Mukta: Glass painting is very common. But, bottle décor is something that was not at all in the mainstream back when I started. Even after I got married and shifted here, I continued experimenting with different styles and techniques of decorating bottles.

Just then, our dear Ayushi ended up in a mischief. And all of us, including the teacher, had eyes on her. She had been assigned glass-painting colors and in her endeavour to outshine us all by finishing the task at hand quickly, this happened.

There is a reason I call her ‘the nerdy work patriot‘. #JustSaying

So, apparently, the color pooped on her fingers. Nobody fancies black poop. And Ayushi is no exception to the rule. She quickly wiped it away and got back to work with utter devotion.

Meanwhile, Komal was drawing musical notes on her bottle with ceramic cones. Don’t blame her, she’s a musician after all. But something strange was up with her.

Me: Komal, why are you so quiet? All good, bro?

Komal: Yeah. I’m just quiet because you’re sitting next to me. You’ll be writing about this activity, and keeping in mind what I did to to your hair in the last activity, I don’t want to give you any chance of teasing me. God! I know you will still somehow!

Komal, you know me so well, my love. I still haven’t forgotten that disastrous hair-style. I will pull your leg here, I promise.

Lavanya: I want to decorate a glass! *With eyes like our Lady-boss’s cat* Can I do a glass, Mukta?

Mukta: Sure! Wanna try your hand at spray-painting?

Lavanya: *Excitedly* Yesss! Yayyy!

And off Lavanya and Mukta went to the back side. Shivani had her eyes glued to the spray-painting task. Meanwhile, Mukta taught Lavanya how few strips of cello-tape had to be applied on the glass.

Confused, but sincere, Lavanya followed the instructions. She spray-painted with utmost dedication. Mukta had awakened the Pablo Picasso within Lavanya.

Back here on the table, I was struggling to paint flowers on my bottle with acrylic colors. After all these months of Eng. Lit. classes, Wordsworth and Keats had developed in me a love for nature. Well, one look at my weird-looking flowers, and you’d know I wasn’t doing justice to the aforementioned poets.

The spray-painting task was successfully accomplished and now Mukta stripped off the tape from the glass.

And Lavanya went all ecstatic seeing the beautiful alternate blue lines that had formed on the glass. She came and sat next to me to share the acrylic colors. I won’t give you my colors! I pouted like a grumpy child!

Next, Mukta offered us all some fresh juice. Few moments after that, a blunder happened!

And who was the blunder-er, you may ask? Our very own new-found Picasso, Lavanya.

She accidentally dipped her paint loaded paint-brush in my glass of juice assuming it to be the glass we were using to wash our paintbrushes. Well, I don’t really blame her. The color of that solution had changed from blue to green to red to orange. And finally it ended up looking like this.

But wait! This sly woman called Lavanya quickly pulled back her brush from my glass of juice; the act being completely unnoticed by me. Few minutes later when I was about to take a sip is when she told me about her clumsy mischief. What if I had drank that? What if my face would have turned all pink and yellow due to consuming paint? I plead mercy, milord!

On the other hand of the table was our teacher all glad and happy with what Ayushi had created.

To be honest, we all looked at her bottle with admiration and with the thought running in our minds: ‘Let me quickly grab that bottle and hide it in my purse when no one’s looking. To steal or not to steal?’.

Ayushi probably sensed our unuttered words and wrote her name on her bottle. Besides our theft intents, she also had the Paris attacks in her mind. Which is why her initial looks so much like the Eiffel Tower. Don’t you think so?

Fascinated by all that was happening, and motivated by Mukta, even our photographer ditched her camera to get her hands dirty in the mess that we girls had created. Here’s what Nupur made:

We laughed. We painted. We chatted. We rejoiced. That is what the JWB Weekend activities do to us. Guess who’s got a super-cool boss? Us!

And of course, we have Mukta to thank for the lovely day and the lovely art! We wouldn’t have imagined that we could create such beautiful pieces, if it was not for Mukta and her patience with us.

Before taking our leave, we of course had to show-off! Our masterpieces, that is. We all mutually decided to do a regular normal pose with our bottles, but then here’s how we ended up.

PS: Mukta writes for  regularly. Her articles appear every Tuesday and she is soon to conduct a workshop at Jaipur Moms’ upcoming event in December. If you wish to register for the workshop, feel free to contact Mukta at : .

Photo courtesy: