From Childhood Festivals to West London Workshops: The Story of Art Dubba
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There's a particular kind of magic that happens when you sit down with colours, a blank page, and people you love.
For me, that magic started in childhood, in the chaos and colour of Indian festivals. Rangoli patterns chalked across doorsteps at Diwali. The smell of marigolds and incense in my neighbours house during Ganesh Chaturthi. Brothers and sisters tying threads at Raksha Bandhan, laughing about nothing and everything. These weren't just celebrations. They were creativity in action, art made by ordinary hands, carrying centuries of meaning.
Growing up between two cultures in the UK, I felt that magic quietly disappear. Festival traditions got smaller. Art got left behind. And somewhere along the way, the simple act of making something beautiful together, with your hands, stopped feeling like something adults were supposed to do.
Art Dubba is my attempt to bring it back.
What Does "Art Dubba" Mean?
Dubba (डब्बा) means "box" in Hindi and Gujarati. It's the lunch box your mum packed. The tin your naani kept buttons in. The container that carried something precious.
Art Dubba is exactly that ... a box that carries creativity, culture, and connection. Everything we make is designed to be picked up, opened, and explored: by children, adults, families, and anyone who's ever wanted to make something beautiful but didn't think they were "arty enough."
How It Started
Art Dubba began the way most honest things do, with a personal need.
I wanted to do something creative that felt meaningful. I wanted to connect with my Indian heritage in a way that made sense in my daily life. And I wanted to share that with other people, South Asian families who'd grown up with these traditions but lost the thread, and UK communities who'd never encountered them and were curious.
So I started small. Selling one or two kits at school fairs and then on Etsy. Running a first workshop in a local café, terrified, with too many supplies and not enough chairs.
That first session sold out.
The second one did too.
And somewhere in the laughter and the paint and the conversations that kept going long after the session ended, I knew I was onto something.
What Art Dubba Is Today
Art Dubba is a creative arts and wellbeing social enterprise based in Harrow, West London, operating across three pillars:
Mindful Mandala — wellbeing products including plain mandala kits, tealight holders, coasters, and intention bookmarks, designed to bring calm, focus, and intentionality into everyday life.
DIY Art Kits — culturally themed and character-based art kits for all ages, celebrating Indian festivals and art forms through hands-on making.
Culture Connect — workshops, digital activity sheets, and community experiences that bring Indian art traditions and festivals to UK audiences in a way that's warm, accessible, and genuinely educational.
Everything is eco-friendly, compostable, and designed with zero single-use plastic. Everything is made to be gifted, shared, and used — not left on a shelf.
The Values Behind the Brand
Art Dubba isn't just a product business. It's a social enterprise — which means profit is a means to purpose, not the purpose itself.
Our mission is to make creativity and cultural connection accessible to everyone. That means:
- Keeping workshops affordable and community-rooted
- Designing kits that genuinely include beginners (no experience required, ever)
- Celebrating South Asian art forms with accuracy, depth, and love — not as novelty
- Supporting the communities we come from and work within
We're proud to be a women-owned, bootstrapped business, built from personal savings, run solo, and grown entirely through community word-of-mouth, 35+ Google reviews, and the kind of loyalty that only comes when something genuinely means something to people.
Art Dubba for Wellbeing Professionals and Retreats
Art Dubba wasn't just designed for individuals and families. From the very beginning, we had another audience in mind: the people who hold space for others.
Therapists, trauma coaches, yoga teachers, counsellors, mindfulness facilitators, retreat leaders — if your work involves helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and find calm, our kits were made with you in mind.
Here's why mandala-making works so well in a therapeutic or retreat context:
No experience required. Unlike open art sessions, which can trigger anxiety in people who "can't draw," mandala kits offer a structure. The pattern is already there. The participant simply fills it in. This makes the activity genuinely accessible to everyone in a group — regardless of confidence or experience.
It's non-verbal. Some of the most important processing happens without words. Mandala colouring gives participants something to do with their hands while their minds settle — creating the kind of quiet, reflective state that talk-based sessions can sometimes struggle to reach.
It's a tangible takeaway. At the end of a retreat or session, participants leave with something they made. A physical object that holds the memory of that experience — a mandala they coloured on the day they felt something shift.
It anchors intention. Our kits include an intention bookmark — a prompt to set a quiet intention before beginning. For therapists and facilitators working with intention-setting or goal-clarification, this is a ready-made, elegant tool.
How Wellbeing Professionals Use Art Dubba Kits
- Group therapy sessions — one kit per participant, used as a grounding or closing activity
- Yoga and meditation retreats — as a creative complement to breathwork and movement
- Corporate wellbeing days — mandala-making as a team mindfulness activity (no facilitation skills required)
- Women's circles and wellbeing events — we run our own Creative Circle women's evening workshops, and our kits translate beautifully into self-led group settings
- One-to-one therapy — offered to clients as a between-session grounding practice
- Hospital and care settings — we've heard from practitioners using our kits in palliative care, mental health units, and recovery settings as a gentle, accessible creative activity
We offer bulk orders from 15 units with straightforward pricing. If you're equipping a retreat or planning a series of group sessions, get in touch to discuss quantities and lead times.
We offer bulk orders from 15 units with straightforward pricing. If you're equipping a retreat or planning a series of group sessions, get in touch to discuss quantities and lead times.
📧 artdubba.uk@gmail.com | 📱 07875 689147
The End-of-Year Teacher Gift That Actually Means Something
It's July. The school year is ending. And if you're a parent, you know exactly what's happening right now.
The frantic group chat. The collection. The debate about whether a voucher feels impersonal. The last-minute dash to find something that says thank you in a way that feels genuine — not just obligatory.
We'd like to offer an alternative.
A teacher spends their year giving. Giving attention, patience, creativity, energy. The best gift you can give them at the end of the year is an invitation to receive — to sit down, slow down, and do something purely for themselves.
Our Mindful Mandala Kit is exactly that.
It's not a candle (though we love candles). It's not a voucher. It's a beautifully packaged, eco-friendly kit that says: you deserve time to create. Time that is entirely yours.
Why teachers love it:
- It's genuinely relaxing — no skill required, just colour and calm
- The packaging is beautiful enough to feel like a real gift
- The intention bookmark is a meaningful touch that sets it apart from generic presents
- It's eco-friendly and plastic-free — which matters to a lot of teachers and schools
- It's something they genuinely wouldn't buy for themselves — which is the best kind of gift
For group collections: our kits work beautifully as a class gift — one kit per teacher, or a set of coasters and a tealight holder as a curated bundle. We can advise on the best combination for your budget.
For schools: if you're a school leader or PTA looking to gift several staff members at end of term, we offer bulk ordering with simple, straightforward pricing. A meaningful, cohesive staff gift that supports a local, women-owned social enterprise — we think that's a good story for any school to tell.
Order by mid-July for guaranteed pre-term delivery.
What's Coming
Over the next six months, we'll be celebrating some of the most meaningful moments in the Indian calendar — Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, and Diwali — through workshops, new kits, and this very blog.
We'll also be exploring the quiet magic of mindful creativity as the year draws to a close — because the need to make something beautiful with your hands doesn't belong to any one culture. It belongs to all of us.
If you're looking for art workshops in Harrow or West London, culturally meaningful gifts, or a creative experience for your family, team, or community — you're in the right place.
Welcome to Art Dubba. The world of mindfulness & creativity
🌐 artdubba.co.uk | 📧 artdubba.uk@gmail.com | 📍 Harrow, London
Published: July 2026