Home Options Feature

Two best friends create Spindle and Moon to tell stories about Singapore through a wide range of homewares

Audrey Simon
Audrey Simon • 5 min read

Gretel Quintal (left) and Shabnam Das met more than 40 years ago as teenagers in the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Katong and have maintained their friendship over the years. Now that their children are grown up, they decided to start a new chapter in their lives with an online business that features items for the home. Their aim is to represent local artists with some vintage touches.
With that Spindle and Moon (spindleandmoon.com) was born late last year — and the name holds a lot of meaning for them. The spindle is a symbol that is found on their school badge that represents womanly labour and the dignity of work. The moon, well, as Quintal says: “We both believe in a little magic.”
The dream is evolving as the initial idea was to produce and curate lifestyle products that would uplift the buyer. This stemmed from the recent Covid-19 outbreak and they wanted to lift spirits and remind people of all the good things.

She adds: “We started looking at products that we could work with that could do that. We got lucky and met up with some local artists, which took the business on a small turn. We then thought ... maybe we work with local artists to produce products that would include the art piece, were usable and would uplift spirits. We were excited.”
To date, their best-selling items are the Grand Dames in the Red Dot series and the Bulbul bird out of the cage tray. For the Red Dot series, Spindle and Moon worked with commercial photographer Nicholas Leong where his images are printed on lacquered trays or tea boxes. It features Singapore landmarks such as the Raffles Hotel but with a symbolic red sports car to make you stop and take a closer look at the contrasting images. Also included in the collection is a picture of The Central Fire Station, the oldest fire station in Singapore, with a red fire engine outside.

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