Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Once Upon a….

Sounds like a line from a long forgotten fairy tale?
Today Rang Decor brings to you one such narrative where dreams become reality when one decides to go that extra mile.

Once Upon A Tea Time…a blog by Priya Iyer tells a story, a visual story of creative individuals, bohemian art and global design all painted against the backdrop of floral tea cups, pattern play of hand block print, Suzani textiles and of vibrant dreams.

Priya Iyer is a research biologist and public health professional by training but she loves sharing her great love of global design and eclectic decor on her blog where the readers are invited to a virtual tea party with delightful imagery of decorative cups of tea and where creative conversations are initiated.

Having grown up in Middle East and spent the last 18 years in the United States, she says that her style is more global, bordering on Bohemian-style and her love for block print patterns and textiles can't be denied.

To commemorate 5 years of blogging in 2013, Priya decided to start a digital publication- A magazine. She even decided to try publishing it on a monthly basis. 

She says, "With every issue I wanted to tell stories, introduce amazing people with boundless creativity and share them with my readers. For the whole of last year, we published on Issuu and our magazines were available for free."
A glimpse into her studio…

Here are some visuals of Once Upon A Tea Time... magazine evolving with each issue.




Priya describes the Once Upon A Tea Time magazine as a space where the readers can dive deeper into the stories behind a great product or read about the creative journeys undertaken by an artist.
 …all this over cups of tea.


The Anniversary Issue…



Publishing a magazine demands dedication and hard work. From the editorial team to the wonderful people that OUATT magazine collaborates with to publish every issue. What Priya learnt is that she really wanted to put together the curated platform and to make their  efforts sustainable and to grow, they needed to transition into a paid publication. 

Once Upon A Tea Time…Magazine can now be subscribed to or bought on Joomag.com

The April, 2015 Issue was the first paid issue and with the May, 2015 Issue Priya plans to bring a lot more to the table.
A new Audio feature to make it more interactive!

Talking about the new feature she says, "Growing up, the two things that inspired me most were books and the radio, and the two are still my favorite things to do in my down time. (I even tried out for a radio presenter job back when I was 17 but they thought I was too young.) Bringing the magazine to the point where it integrates both has been a cherished goal and with our May issue, we are there. I can talk to you and so do some of our contributors, and it promises to be inspiring and reflect the best traditions of storytelling."

Click here to hear what Priya has to say about the Audio feature in the magazine. 


OUATT Magazine shares few exclusive visuals for Rang Decor readers from their Mother's Day celebration ideas in their May 2015 Issue.




It's wonderful to see Once Upon A Tea Time... spread it's wings from a blog to a magazine to a paid interactive publication.
Dreams do come true and hope you enjoyed this beautiful story as much I did with my big mug of tea.

Rang Decor wishes Once Upon A Tea Time…magazine and Priya Iyer loads of success in her future endeavours…!

(Images by OUATT and are copyrighted)



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautifully written post, Archana! Pacchai

Karthika - Dvara Team said...

Congratulations Priya! - A wonderful way to showcase some of the amazing talent out there and congratulations the transition from blog to magazine - its a wonderful journey and wishing you the very best. The floral tea cups are stunning!
Thank you Archana for sharing these stories....