A collective, not a brand

Kala Kutch was set up in Bhuj in 2013 by three people who had spent a decade working with craft NGOs and were tired of watching a Bandhani dupatta that took eleven days to tie sell for ₹600 at the cluster and ₹4,000 in a city boutique. We started with six families, a bank account and a rule: pay half at commission, half on delivery, never on sale-or-return.

Today that means 240 artisans in fourteen clusters. Patola from the Salvi weavers in Patan, where a single double-ikat length takes four to seven months on the loom because warp and weft are both tied and dyed before a thread is woven. Bandhani from Jamnagar and Mandvi, where the tying is done by women working at home and paid by the knot. Ajrakh from Ajrakhpur, Rogan from Nirona, pottery from Khavda, embroidery from the Rabari, Ahir and Suf communities around Sumrasar Sheikh, copper bells from the Luhar families, lacquered wood from Nirona and leatherwork from Hodka.

We do not use the word "empowerment". These are skilled people running small businesses; what they lacked was a buyer who paid on time and did not haggle. So our prices are higher than a roadside emporium and we are comfortable explaining why: 62 paise of every rupee reaches the maker, the rest covers dyeing, freight, photography, GST and the three of us in Bhuj. Ask us for the breakdown on any piece and we will send it.