How we make our products: from the drawing board to village homes

Every makers’ workshop involves a lot of planning. The process from the drawing board to the final product primarily involves three steps:

First: We detail the selected design concept and create multiple prototypes, iteratively refining and simultaneously devising easy making methods. We also plan what designs we want to teach, and in what sequence and finally cut the jute, our base material, accordingly.

Second: This is the actual workshop where we teach the women, free of cost, how to make the products. The ladies first practice on paper, then rough cloth before moving on to the final materials. Getting the dimensions, alignment and overall perfection right can be tricky at first, so we usually start with simpler designs in the first workshop and then progress to more elaborate ones.

Third: At the end of the workshop is when we handover our prepackaged Maker’s Kit™ that includes coordinated fabrics, embroidery threads in colors meant for that piece, and all cut to perfect size. This helps the makers create the decided designs with ease.

Through the makers’ workshop our women artisans learn much more than technique. They tend to ask us why we chose certain colors, why in that order and why not the reverse etc.. Such questions allow us to delve into color theory, color balance and color weights in a very organic manner, sparking a design sense of their own in our makers.

Whilst with the Maker’s Kit™, our women partners can make products in their village homes and on their own time, ‘easy to make’ has become one of Ohrna’s key tenets to success.