Eco - The Marble & Mandir Trunk

The devotional trunk with weight to it — lit mandir, brass ghanti, marble and cork light.

An eight-inch preserved-forest mandir sits lit at the centre, adapter included. The rest is deliberately heavy — stone that has been cut rather than printed, brass that has been cast rather than plated. Four raw honeys give the trunk something to open at the table once the prayer is over.

• The mandir is a year-round object. Preserved moss and flowers need nothing done to them, and the integrated LED runs off a standard adapter.
• Marble and brass, not lookalikes. Natural stone with real brass inlay, and a pure-brass ghanti — the pieces still in use long after the festival.
• Two floating cork diyas refill and re-light rather than burning down once. Preserved botanicals are harvested a single time and displayed for years, with no water and no replacement.
• Rigid MDF wrapped in forest-green rexine, with a cushioned woven-fabric lid panel bordered in twin gold lines. Gold foil inside the lid, ivory ruched satin in the base, a brass clasp and twisted gold rope handles — carried by hand, and kept long afterwards.