WHAT began as making a simple ‘flower-crown’ for a friend who wanted a gift for his girlfriend, transformed itself into an entrepreneurial venture that would aptly occupy 19-year-old Renuka Tewari’s spare time.

You see, Renuka is someone who hates wasting time and that’s probably why she keeps herself busy with managing her craft business and her full-time studies at the University of Guyana.

“I’m kind of like a bee,” she joked, “Always here, there and everywhere.”

A few months ago, after making that flower-crown, she decided to post the product on her Facebook account and it surprised her when her friends indicated that they would actually support her if she began making more.

“People were being so kind with their compliments and it was the little extra push I needed to start,” she related.

It was there that ‘CraftCreation&Smiles’ was birthed and according to her the words aren’t separated because “there’s no space for negativity.” She initially began making flower crowns but eventually expanded to other craft items.

And you can tell that the products made are all her own. Whether brightly coloured, intricately designed or eccentric in nature, each piece is a reflection of Renuka Tewari and the happiness and positivity she tries to share.

Perhaps what garners the overwhelming support she has been receiving is that all these items are also entirely unique.

“I just want to create pieces that won’t be found on YouTube in a tutorial that the whole world could replicate, so I do designs that are fully freestyled and not limited to a rulebook.” In spite of this, she assures that she isn’t a “know- it- all”.

“I love being active and doing things that are constructive, quite literally [and] I love people a lot. I love making them smile even if it means being awkward, clumsy me,” she said.

She recalled that her calling for making craft items perhaps came from her school days. “In school, I would always go crazy and be extra on my projects because that was like my little avenue to shine,” she said. “I wasn’t a bad student, I was just better at craft than exams.”

Her enthusiasm for a business in art and craft was dampened in her younger days when she was told that there’s no money in the ‘art stuff’. Fortunately, now she can proudly say that that clearly isn’t true.

“The support thus far has been like a dream come true,” the entrepreneur said. “Never in a million years, would I have thought it possible to actually make a living off of doing what you love.”

In the past few months, she has been able to see so many people fuss over her art and encourage her to keep going strong. Plying her trade at the recent Curl Fete was definitely a highlight for her.

It was like she did a full circle- back to where she began- because she made a few floral crowns which sold like hotcakes at a fair. She related that persons were even requesting that she sell the one she was wearing and that was a moment of huge pride for her. She recalled being truly surprised that people liked her little creations.

Making her parents proud has always been the cornerstone of the young woman’s pursuits too and her successes have been able to do so. In fact, she ventured into the world of business and craft to help her parents afford her tertiary studies (and well because she wanted to also).

The past few months- since starting her craft business- have been the busiest for Tewari. Commuting from school to her home in Tuschen (which is quite a distance), attending classes during the day and ‘crafting’ in the nights and during the weekends would be enough to make anyone wish for a few more hours in their day.

And that’s exactly what Renuka wishes for since time is a huge challenge. “If I could have just a few more hours in my day, I would be so much more at ease and I would be able to expand my business so easily.”

She loves what she does nonetheless, so it’s not half bad having only 24 hours in her day.