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Smita

"Hi, I am Smita. I am from West Bengal while my husband is from Mumbai. Both of us always had a great inclination toward arts and crafts and always wanted to do something along these lines.

"We thought Bhuj had a huge potential with its exquisite embroidery art, and this is how we decided to move there to work with and for the artisans, especially women. We focused on tailoring. We provide materials to the women, who do the embroidery while the finishing of products is done by our skilled tailoring team.

"Before we actually settled, a massive earthquake rocked the state of Gujarat, devastating thousands of homes. A number of artisans came to us for work and this is how we expanded our area to cover almost 18 villages.

"Our artisans are women and they work from home, since they need to tend to their families and households. They work at their convenience. We do, however, assist them with product development and stress the importance of quality. Different women from different sectors and tribal groups do different types of embroidery, including ahir, neran, pakko, katri, nodai, etc. We started with cushion covers, linens, wall hangings, bags, stoles and scarves, and now we are venturing into garments as well.

"We also encourage women artisans to venture out on their own. After gaining sufficient experience and marketing strategies with us, many are now working on their own. We have trained about 700 women, out of which 500 are still associated with us.

"We also try to support artisans of Kutch and other parts of India through purchasing their products as material for our designs. Handloom weavers in Andhra Pradesh, block printers of Macchlipatam and silk weavers from Bangalore are some of the groups outside Kutch who collaborate with us on a regular basis.

"We are actively engaged in identifying and reviving endangered or dead crafts. The funds to do so come from the sale of products made by the artisans. Some of our success stories are Kutchi Jain embroidery and the revitalization of the Khiloni embroidery stitch.

"I hope you like and appreciate our artisans and their rich crafts."