What it had to solve
SHED, founded in Surat by Parsons-trained architect Priyanka Shah, built its name on one-off custom pieces — fairy-tale carousels, marble carrom boards inlaid with Patan Patola motifs — that take months of conversation per client. The studio wanted its storytelling to reach more people than bespoke commissions allow.
The idea
Turn a city's memory into a hand-cranked carousel: three tiers of miniature Mumbai — fishing boats, autos, Rajabai Clock Tower — that rotate when you wind it.
How it works
The BomBay Carousel stacks Mumbai's slipping skyline on three tiers in wood, brass and glass: fishing boats on a blue shoreline at the base, auto rickshaws and vintage traffic above, the University of Mumbai, Rajabai Clock Tower and Bombay High Court on top, all turning when you twist the hand-crank near the base. The studio hacked its family diamond factory's precision equipment — glass on a lapping wheel, a metal lathe for wood — to build it, and showed it at Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light in Venice among 30 Indian artisans and ateliers, a JSW Foundation collaboration with the Michelangelo Foundation.
What it did
The carousel line carried SHED into Homo Faber 2026, one of the world's flagship handmade-artistry biennials, alongside commissions like a 7.5-ft Old City Carousel (2024) and a golden-bird piece for Prime Minister Modi. Collector demand pushed the studio to launch the SHED Shop this month: a new drop every three months of six to eight limited-edition pieces.
Background
Priyanka Shah returned to Surat in 2014 after architecture at Parsons and started SHED, a multidisciplinary studio in a city known for diamonds and textiles, not design. Its signature emerged in 2021, when a family friend's commission became the first hand-cranked carousel: roughly six months of figuring out how to make a static object move, then a cascade of new themes — castles, woodlands, libraries.
The BomBay Carousel is the line's most public piece: a three-tiered ode to Mumbai's slipping landmarks, from fishing boats and auto rickshaws to the Rajabai Clock Tower and Bombay High Court, crafted in wood, brass and glass and set rotating by a hand-crank. 'I am fascinated by the idea of creating movement in a static object,' Shah says. The breakthrough came with the 7.5-ft Old City Carousel in 2024; other commissions include the Sone Ki Chidiya for Prime Minister Modi — golden birds over a monument of stepwells and indigo-dyed textiles.
The making is as particular: Shah's family diamond factory lends precision infrastructure — glass on a diamond lapping wheel, wood on a lathe built for metals — to a 45-person team of artisans, many migrant workers trained on the job. The line peaked at Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light, the Venice biennial of handmade artistry, where SHED showed among 30 Indian artisans and ateliers in a JSW Foundation collaboration with the Michelangelo Foundation. That demand is pulling SHED beyond bespoke: the SHED Shop launches this month with quarterly drops of six to eight limited editions.
Why it lands
The mechanism is singular and nameable — hand-cranked miniature cityscapes — not a generic 'luxury collectible'.
A verifiable third-party showcase: Homo Faber 2026 in Venice, among 30 Indian ateliers.
Concrete execution details: materials, crank placement, named landmarks, diamond-factory tooling, 7.5-ft scale.
A real business decision follows the craft: a retail shop with quarterly limited drops, a shift from pure bespoke.
What you can take
A signature mechanism — movement in a static object — can carry a studio: one commissioned carousel became a product line, a Venice biennial invite and a retail pivot.
Since then
The SHED Shop's first drop pairs desk objects — a calendar that is also a magnetic pinboard and digital clock, miniature stone-glass-brass rules — with a festive edit: a Shagun diya set inspired by sweets, idols of Lakshmi, Saraswati and Ganesh, and a minimalist take on the studio's carrom boards. Carousels may join the inventory; the team will read consumer response over the next year. Shah, now based in Amsterdam, continues bespoke commissions alongside the retail experiment.
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