Working with artisanal sectors in India is challenging to say the least. We’ve been fortunate to have the support (moral and fiscal!) of so many during our journey.

In our initial days, we were supported by the Pune Chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). INTACH provided us the early marketing platform and artisan community mobilisation efforts. Our project matured further with seed funding support from The Forbes Marshall Foundation. Eventually Coppre was hived off into a Social Enterprise through an angel investment by the Late Mr. Adhar Mirchandani.

India’s Artisan base is primarily rural and it follows naturally that the craft outcomes of this sector are an expresssion of geographical, local and community-based traditions. The data on the Artisanal sector in India still remains uncertain, with data numbers pointing to a range from 7 million to 200 million. Craft communities are diverse and distributed accross all of India’s regions.

Artisanal Craft cultures of India are rich repositories of indigenous tangible and intangible knowledge systems. Many of these are oral, and passed down generations. Some are embedded into crafts processes, material know-how, tools and skills. Still others are encapsulated within rituals, festivals and customs.