Shweta Pai - Muuyee

In their playfulness and collectivity, ants are reminders of the big wonders of small creatures. MuuYee (which is the Konkani word for ant) embodies all kinds of little warriors by turning to Earth’s ceaseless capacity to generate forms and colours. Children’s stories are translated into products through care for their makers, their users and the natural world. Refuse and scraps are upcycled into something helpful and delightful. Hued directly with botanical dyes, textured with Kantha needle-work and patterned by hand with resist-dyeing, these products are a document of native, artisan-led work. It’s what makes MuuYee a sutradhar of many stories: the imagination of little ones, the re-interpretative handiwork of our artisans and the paths trodden by the many wonders of our Earth. 

As a textile and toy designer and the Founder & Creative Director of Muuyee, based out of Bangalore. Shweta Pai is the storyteller that ties all of Muuyee’s worlds together. Attending equally to both the sensitivity of children’s stories and the many earth-friendly choices that help re-imagine them as wearables, homeware, playmates, books and more - Shweta refuses to marry herself to a single material or discipline. Since building the brand in 2017, she’s curated Muuyee’s connection with artisans, writers,  researchers, designers and children, who she regards as her ambassadors. In all their playful and intuitive energies, the children of the world resonate with her own spirit. Her goal is to invest in meaningful and nature-friendly lifestyles that imaginatively nod to all our inner children.