Rangsutra, here we come

• Today we had our Introduction to Rangsutra and started our craft cluster Internship. We woke up to another epic morning chai & friendly greetings from the family. A good start to everyone’s day.
  

      Walking to work
  
  
  
  
  The main Building/ studio we walked to today was only 5 minutes away from our guesthouse. A very short walk but in the sweltering heat felt like a mile, we are all hoping we will adjust to this temperature and it will become second nature in our work here, but in the meantime.. thankyou fans!
  

  The studio was filled with colourful woman and smartly dressed men who all contribute towards the design process and running of the company. There was even a son of one of the textile workers walking about bringing a smile to people’s faces. There was a feeling of hard work but laid back friendly relationships within the workshop. They all work closely together and seem to have a mutual respect for the workers and their situations.
  So we found out all about how the company came about and how it is working today and  gained an idea of the things we will be doing to contribute whilst we are here. The company  started in 2006 and  has offices and craft groups all over Rajasthan. Every group deals with 2 or more crafts. They cater in crafts such as Embroidery, Pakka and suf  Tie Dye and more. They do on the job training with the craft workers and a good percentage of the overall profit goes to the community and Artisans & craftsmen . We discussed a good point today that in most countries Hand made products have always been considered more authentic and worth more due to the trademanship that goes into the product. Despite this a lot of craft workers do not realise the value of their work and hours of craft and can be under the impression people would pay more for Industrial made products. The craft is so engrained in their lives and history they might not realise the worth of the skill they have.  It is important for a company to make the workers aware of their efforts and not take advantage of their misconceptions. Rangsutra seems to take this on board and really respects its workers they have set up a scheme for girls age 12 to 25 to go to schools they have set up 5 in Rajasthan where these girls are trained further in the craft and how they can capitalize on these skills as well as giving them Literacy and numeracy skills which they beforehand would not have been able to learn.
  
  
  Rangsutra has 4 market shareholders, the founders of the company, Artisans  Overseas investors and Fab India 20%. Its main company they supply to is Fab India who has 95% of the supply and overseas export who have 5%, one of these is the well-known UK company Monsoon.  They focus their designs on Women Indian & Men, Infant-Kids garments, Accessories, Jewellery & Home as well as women western wear which they are now trying to expand on to reach more customers over sea’s. They also take part in an ethical fashion week in Paris.
  We learnt whilst we are here some of the things they are interested in us having an input in. They want us to have a detailed documentation of  the crafts and our time here. They want us to spend time at their schools which we are all really excited about! We don’t know what things we can talk to the girls about and what they can learn with us but I think we will learn as much from them as they will us. They also want us to look into western fashion, designs how to cater into the European market with also E commerce which we could give help and feedback on. Today we met a girl called Violet who is doing a two month internship with them. She is from France and designing scarfs and Accessories , she shared some of her experience with us. We are very excited to learn when we are travelling into the villages! We heard last year sometimes the students only got a day’s warning before grabbing a bag and going further into the desert and entering these craft workers life’s. We are all anticipating the experiences ahead working alongside Rangsutra.