Yogita Persaud has a mission at which she is determined to excel: taking handmade cards to the next level. Her business, Lotus Crafts, also produces explosion boxes, invitations, Iris foldings, and photo props.
Yogita started making personalised cards back in 2017. However, in 2018 she was employed with Everything Makes Craft and owing to there being a conflict of interest between her job and her budding business, since the company was also producing handmade cards, she put her business on hold.
However, Yogita decided to leave her job last year and in January this year, she returned to card making through her business.
Although art was one of the subjects she wrote at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations, the former St Roses High student said that she has never really been artistic. Her art classes focused more on textile design, which she enjoyed though she found it stressful.
Her entry to card making began some years ago when she decided that she wanted to make her husband a personalised birthday card. Initially, she had no idea what she was going to do, but after watching several videos, she came across a tuxedo card. Following the instructions in the video step by step, she was able to replicate it and recalled that her husband loved the card.
Flushed with success, the next day, she decided to try her hand at something else and ended up doing origami. This led to her making 12 origami boxes, which she decided to use for an adventure hunt. This saw her leaving clues via notes around her home so that her husband could find where she had hidden the boxes.
Sometime later, a friend of hers saw the card she had made for her husband and asked Yogita to make one for her boyfriend. She turned out to be Yogita’s first paying customer. She subsequently established Lotus Crafts. The reason behind the name, aside from the lotus being her favourite flower, was the beautiful memories associated with it and her late grandfather.
“I grew up with my grandparents. Every afternoon, my grandfather would take me on drives and he would always stop around the Sheriff Street area by the gas station there. He would go down and pick me a lotus flower. I also happen to be the only granddaughter on his side of the family. When I started the business, I wanted it to be something to remember him by and in tribute to the memories we shared,” Yogita said.
After returning to her business in January, Yogita participated in an UpMarket in February. There she had some measure of success, selling several Valentine’s Day themed cards.
Recently, Yogita made 70 invitations for her aunt’s 50th birth anniversary celebration, though she credited some of the work to her husband who helped with cutting out some of the designs. The invitations, she said, were made from gold cardboard onto which she pasted the cutout designs. They were folded and ribbons were tied on top. The invitations were a buzz at the event; so much so that her aunt made an announcement to that effect at her birthday gathering.
Yogita’s Instagram page also attracts customers, but nothing beats word of mouth which is how she gets most of her customers.
While there are those who rave about her work, the artisan shared that she has relatives who do not consider what she does as a job, since she doesn’t work regular hours or earn a steady income. Nevertheless, Yogita is thankful for the family and friends who do support her. Not only have they been encouraging but some of her friends are repeat customers who pay for her services and never try to take advantage of their friendship.
Among the challenges she faces is some customers complaining about her prices. She believes this is because they fail to understand the time and effort she puts into creating a card, unlike when it is being printed or mass produced. It is sad, she added, and somewhat discouraging that some Guyanese are not as supportive of the local arts.
One of her biggest challenges, however, is sourcing materials. Yogita said she tries as much to get her materials locally but this is not always possible. While she is able to source cardboard, tape and similar materials, locally, pattern cards have to be imported. She also shops online for her cutting dies and embossing folders. But Yogita said the advantage of doing what she loves outweighs all of the challenges.
To get the desired effect for her cards, Yogita uses an embossing and cutting machine. The machine allows the design to acquire a raised effect. Meanwhile, the cutting dies provide the perfectly cut shapes that are added to the cards or invitations by hand.
Yogita is currently employed full time at another company and does her Lotus Crafts productions on her own time and at her own pace. There are nights though when she has to stay up until 2 am to finish a card but she is committed. Of all the advantages, nothing beats the excited faces when customers pick up one of her cards. It’s what she lives for.
During her downtime, Yogita likes watching pictures of cards on Pinterest and YouTube tutorials. These serve as inspiration. She also draws inspiration during her quiet moments alone and from holidays and special occasions like Mother’s and Father’s Day. She is also inspired when customers share about the things they like.
She also recently began making gift bags for her cards. Sharing on how this idea came about, Yogita said one of her customers who is now a friend and who learnt of Lotus Crafts through word of mouth had placed an order for a card. Yogita noted that usually her cards come with handmade envelopes, but this one had a lot of paper flowers. Her friend suggested that she make a gift bag for the card instead of an envelope. Now, most customers go for cards with the gift bags though they still have the option of getting them with envelopes.
Yogita’s other productions include explosion boxes, which have decorative colours and sides with different compartments that can hold 12 pictures or words. When open, the box falls flat. Then there is the Iris Folding which once completed can be hung on a wall. She is yet to sell one of these.
Yogita is hoping to learn paper quilling next and is currently watching tutorials. Whenever she isn’t honing a skill she already has, the artisan likes learning new ones. Just last week she learned to make origami envelopes and ended up making 12 different patterns.
If all goes as planned, she will be running her business full time someday.
For the time being, along with everything else, she is pursuing a diploma in Business Management at Nations University.
Yogita can be followed on Facebook at Lotus Crafts and on Instagram @lotuscrafts2022. Orders for customised and personalised cards can be placed via WhatsApp at 653-6737 and should be made three days in advance. For explosion boxes she requires five days’ notice and at least a month for invitations.
