Poola Studio
Painted cloth, gilded panels, inlaid metal and handwoven silk, chosen one piece at a time from the families who still make them.
View the collection“Poola” means flowers. Every piece here grew from one place, one family and one way of working, sometimes over hundreds of years.The Poola Studio promise
An antique South Indian door carved by hand from solid teak. Four arched niches hold dancing and seated deities. Above them sits a crown of scrolling vines, winged yalis and a seated goddess under a pillared shrine.
Brass knobs, a lion-face ring pull and leaf-shaped keyhole plates catch the light against the dark wood. Pierced jaali side panels are hung with tiny brass bells.
Krishna stands on a white lotus beneath three jewelled arches, crowned with a peacock feather and hung with garlands and pearls. Two gopis attend him on either side, dressed in finely patterned saris.
The arches, jewellery and borders are built up in raised gesso and covered in shimmering foil, set with small coloured stones in the Thanjavur tradition. It is housed in a carved antique wooden frame.
The coronation of Rama, the happiest moment of the Ramayana, after his return to Ayodhya. Rama sits enthroned at the centre beneath a jewelled royal canopy, with Sita beside him. His brothers stand close with the royal fans, and devoted Hanuman kneels at his feet.
Sages and kings gather on the left, the monkey army and the court below, and celestial beings shower blessings from above beneath the sun and the moon. Raised gesso, gold detailing and set stones catch the light, and the painting sits in a carved wooden frame.
Rows of panels teem with life: deer, peacocks, fish, snakes, tortoises, birds in flight and flowering branches, drawn in strong black outlines and filled with warm earth browns and ochres on cream.
Sohrai is painted by the women of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. Each year, for the harvest festival of Sohrai, they paint the mud walls of their homes with animals and plants to welcome the cattle home and give thanks for the crops. It is now also painted on paper and cloth so the tradition can travel.
Three oil paintings of Indian trees in full bloom, painted about fifty years ago and still in their original textured frames.
A tall jacaranda covered in lilac-purple blossom rises over a green meadow, with a woman and child resting in its shade.
A great tree in full golden-yellow flower stands beside a pink flowering shrub, with a woman in a pink sari walking through the grass.
A wide, spreading tree in white blossom crowns a grassy hill above a river, with two figures and a small stone shrine beneath it.
Nineteen original Gond paintings by Kailash Pradhan, each signed by the artist.
Gond art comes from the Gond people of central India, one of the largest Adivasi communities, whose homeland stretches across the forests of Madhya Pradesh. It began as digna and bhittichitra, patterns painted on the mud walls and floors of village homes for festivals and weddings.
Every shape is filled with tiny repeating marks: dots, dashes, fish scales, seeds and fine lines. Each artist develops a personal pattern, almost a signature, and Gond belief holds that a good image brings good fortune to the home it hangs in. Elephants, birds and trees, the creatures of the forest, are among its best-loved subjects.
An unusual antique carving of a young soldier. He wears a cap and a fitted coat of armour, holds a piece of fruit in one hand and stands with one leg crossed, between two parrots above a band of leaves.
He sits on a carved teak console table with a curved top, a border of scrolling leaves around a central flower, turned finials and a carved pedestal.
Krishna grew up as a cowherd in Vrindavan, and as Gopala, the protector of cows, he is loved as the playful child god. Here he sits on a cow beneath a spreading tree, his flute raised to his lips and a long scarf over his shoulders.
Carved from a single piece of teak with a rich dark finish, with fine detail in his crown, necklaces and belt and in the leaves of the tree above him.
A miniature temple swing carved in teak about sixty years ago. Radha and Krishna sit together on a red velvet seat that hangs from chains beneath a beaded canopy.
Elephant brackets support the roof, the four turned pillars are carved in a diamond pattern, and the side panels are pierced with scrolling flowers.
Hand-carved South Indian teak panels, about fifty years old. Rati, Ganesha and Nandi were carved as a matching set of three.
New pieces are being chosen for the studio. Ask us what is on its way.
Ask about textilesCast-iron children’s money boxes that put on a little show. Drop in a coin, press the lever, and the figures spring into action.
Place a coin in the dog’s mouth and press the lever. The clown holds up his hoop, the dog leaps through it, and drops the coin into the barrel.
Load a coin into the rifle and press his foot. William Tell takes aim, the coin shoots the apple off the boy’s head, and it lands in the castle tower.
New pieces are being chosen for the studio. Ask us what is on its way.
Ask about heritage crafts
Poola Studio works directly with master artisans across India. We visit the villages and workshops, learn how each piece is made, and pay the maker fairly.
Every work comes with the artist’s name, where it was made and the story behind it, so it can be passed on as a true heirloom.
Commission a pieceNo machine prints and no shortcuts. Only work made the traditional way.
Every piece is signed or traced back to the artist and their family.
Natural dyes, real metals and archival framing, ready to hand down.
