Shilpi Patel of kSemya has brought the Deval Utensils Factory’s line of silver plated tableware and is surprised at how the city has taken to the elegant and useable utensils.
Shilpi Patel of kSemya has brought the Deval Utensils Factory’s line of silver plated tableware and is surprised at how the city has taken to the elegant and useable utensils. DNA speaks to her..
How old is the store?
I started kSemya on April 28, this year.
What is the concept behind kSemya?
kSmeya means auspicious in Sanskrit. We sought to bring Deval silverware (a Pune-based line) to South India. Our product range consists of silver plated household utensils, tableware, puja items and corporate gift items. These are crafted out of prime brass and coated with a layer of pure silver, which is about 20 microns thick.
Why would one overlook silverware to go for these?
Silver is now very expensive and is priced above Rs60,000 a kilo. Now, one large thali would require you to use about a kilo or maybe 800gm of silver. That makes its price way beyond most people’s budget.
But at kSemya, the Deval products, which use silver coating, are priced much more affordably and we offer the benefit of customisation too. One can opt for a beaten finish, a matte finish or the normal silver sheen and if you get a brass article that you’d like us to replicate, we try to get it made.
What pushed you to start kSemya?
I had grown up using Deval products. In fact, when I got married, my mother gave me a dinner service from them. She felt that a proper silver service would be too difficult to maintain and there’s always the fear of having pieces stolen. And whenever people came over, they’d comment on the service and I ended up helping several friends and family members buy their own sets. So at some point of time, I thought I might as well start a store in Bangalore.
What has been the response like?
The response has been surprisingly good. Even Deval Utensils Factory was apprehensive about the Bangalore market. Everyone told me the city is a conservative market that won’t take to this concept.
But I have seen traditional families walking in to kSemya to buy entire dinner services for weddings and the likes. And my happiest moments come when people, who otherwise won’t be able to afford pure silver, come in and buy a piece. In fact, I have women from the nearby offices drop in to pick up some pieces.
Recently, one of them came in and told me that she was looking for a puja thali for the Vara Mahalakshmi Puja. She said she wouldn’t be able to buy a pure silver one, but she was really happy to see the things we had and bought a thali. It made her day and her happiness made mine.
Any thoughts on expansion?
I do not want to get into home décor accessories and the likes. I felt there was need for this such tableware and would like to keep on doing this. However recently, Casa Bugatti approached us to stock some of their appliances and we’ve started keeping a small range of their products too.
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