DUBAI: A Dubai-based Indian is spreading the joy of reading by making keychains designed after books and gifting them to friends.
Menaka Ramakrishnan, 24, has made over 100 keychains that have miniature replicas of bestselling books such as John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars, Dan Brown’s Inferno and Ravinder Singh’s I Too Had A Love Story, among others.
An ardent lover of reading, she believes her book keychains can instil the habit of reading into its owner.
“I use polymer clay to make the miniature books with each taking about 40 minutes to complete,” said Ramakrishnan, adding that she learnt her craft by watching YouTube.
But what inspired her to make these chains?
“I am traveller. In the past six years I have visited 40 countries and more than 80 cities and plan to visit many more places around the world. And every time I return from a new destination, I make it point to bring back a souvenir keychain from that place.
Souvenir collection
“I now have more than 150 keychains collected from my journeys around the world. But then I am also an avid reader – I just love books. One day it just struck me: I can combine my two hobbies by making keychains of books. From there on, I simply relied on YouTube to learn the craft of making miniature replicas of books using polymer clay,” said Ramakrishnan.
A content writer by profession, she has a collection of distinctive keychains representing the cities she has been to. “I have always been fascinated by keychains since I was young, so I thought why not take back a part of every place I visit in the form of keychains. I always look for unique designs but if I can’t find them I will settle for ordinary ones,” she said while arranging the keychains on a stand.
“It all started in 2010, when I got an opportunity to study abroad. I stayed in Singapore for two years, followed by two years in Australia. I also visited France as part of an exchange programme. So I got to travel to countries in three continents and also several cities within those countries,” said Ramakrishnan, who is also a singer and a ukulele player.
Currently, she runs a blog called Keychain Diaries where she writes stories about the places that she has been to and also showcases her keychains in the hope inspiring others to travel and read.
