Exploring technology for improving livelihood of craftsmen
1. Exploring technology for improving
livelihood of craftsmen
by
Dhyan Suman
(09633004)
Guide
Prof. Anirudha Joshi
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
degree of
Master of Design in Interaction Design
Industrial Design Centre
Indian Institute of Technology
Powai, Mumbai
2011
Interaction Design Project 3
2.
3. Declaration
I declare that this written submission represents my ideas in my own
words and where others’ ideas or words have been included, I have
adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I also declare that
I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and
have not misrepresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact/
source in my submission. I understand that any violation of the above
will be cause for disciplinary action by the Institute and can also evoke
penal action from the sources which have thus not been properly cited
or from whom proper permission has not been taken when needed.
_________________________________
(Signature)
________________________________
(Name of the student)
_________________________________
(Roll No.)
Date: __________
4.
5. Approval sheet
The Interaction Design—Project 3 entitled ‘Exploring Technology for
Livelihood of Craftsmen’ by Dhyan Suman is approved, in partial fulfill-
ment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design in Inter-
action Design.
Guide:
Chairman:
Internal Examiner:
External Examiner:
6.
7. Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge the support of the following people for
their contribution and thank them for making it work out in a very suc-
cessful manner.
First of all I would like to thank my parents and family for their love,
blessings and support.
My special thanks to Prof. Anirudha Joshi, for his invaluable guidance
and support. I would also like to thank Prof. Ravi Poovaiah and Prof.
Pramod Khambete for their time to time inputs.
Also Sanjay Chippa and Mukesh Jajpura for helping me in user studies.
8.
9. Contents
1. Overview
Abstract 1
Objective 3
Introduction 4
2. Literature review
Research papers & articles 6
3. Primary Study
Finalizing on User group 10
Pharad: about craft 13
The process 15
User study 21
The System 33
People and Process 37
4. Problems & Insights 38
What are the things that drive a craft 42
Experts views on craft 43
Why people buy 44
Consumer’s view 45
5. Parallel Study
Organizations working in craft sector 46
Business models 49
Grameen Bank 49
Amul 53
Ebay 57
Selling online 58
6. Design Brief
Design directions 59
Design Goal 61
7. Early Concepts 63
Concept 1 65
Concept 1.2 67
Concept 2 69
Concept 3 71
Concept 4 73
Concept 5 75
Concept 6 77
8. Final Concept 79
Working of system 82
Explorations 103
Final Interface 113
9. Evaluation 115
Reference 116
Bibliography 117
10.
11. 1
Abstract
The aim of the project is to use technology to help craftsmen in mar-
keting/ reaching out to more customers. The project proposes a system
involving Indian Postal Service and mobile technology to connect
craftsmen to consumers on an online buyer-seller portal.
As part of this project various organizations working in craft sectors
were analyzed and different types of business models (especially deal-
ing with social benefit) were studied. A detailed analysis of Pharad
craft from Bagru town was done.
The online portal is proposed to be one dedicated only to crafts where
the buyers would be enlightened with crafts’ history, making process
and to information about all the craftsmen connected to the system.
Also it was taken care that the solution should not force craftsmen to
learn new technology to get benefited. A simple way of accessing to
the online world of selling with the present knowledge of technology;
in this case it was use of a basic mobile phone.
Keywords:
Craftsmen, System design, mobile application
1. Overview
13. 3
Objective
The earlier projects I did at IDC were mainly focused on learning
about electronics and tangible interaction, this time I wanted to ex-
pand my horizon by learning other skills in interaction design.
In this project I wanted to work for a real cause, issues inspired from
my past experience, thus I chose working for craftsmen. I always had
inclination towards crafts and through this project I would get a better
understanding of the business model followed and the opportunity to
come up with some solution that would help them. I also wanted to
do more user study and contextual inquiry based project to hone my
skills of interviewing and researching.
14. 4
Introduction
India is land of vast variety, a land of vast diversity in climate, culture,
traditions, cuisines and crafts. The range and diversity of Indian craft
is incredible, it’s a reflection of connections with social, economic,
cultural and religious forces. The craft is a mirror of the deep-rooted
culture, rich heritage and the true character of Indian-ness; be it the
Papier-mache of Kashmir, the mashroo fabrics of Gujarat, the durries
of Rajasthan, the Chikankari of Lucknow, the meenakari and kundan
works of North India and many more.
Handicrafts and handloom is not source of livelihood of 130 lakh
weavers and artisans, buts also an environment friendly, energy sav-
ing form of art that has secured India’s presence in millions of home
across the globe[1].
These craft persons equipped with inherent skill, technique, and tra-
ditional craftsmanship are finding it difficult to compete with the vast
force of globalization. The local markets filled with cheap replicas of
crafts and all mass-produced items, makes it difficult for the crafts per-
son to survive; the look alike Banarasi saree and Kanchivaram sarees
mass produced in china, made up of synthetic yarn, might be very
reasonable and functional, but do not have the authenticity of place,
handmadeness and emotional value attached with the crafts. With
vanishing local haat culture (in detail in chapter 6), majority of Indian
craftsmen suffer from limitations in accessing and understanding pos-
sible new markets.
This project is an attempt to help the craftsman to create a niche for him-
self that would help him in sustaining himself and his family and to gener-
ate employment through his traditional knowledge and craftsmanship.
16. 6
Research papers & articles
In India, crafts is one of the major industry and India being one of the
important suppliers of the handicrafts to the world market. There has
been rapid growth of handicraft items in export and domestic market
since last few years (table 1 & 2). Though recent recession has also ef-
fected the handicrafts exports, employment has increased since 90s till
now; 19.7 % increase in 1994-95 (table 1) and there has been a con-
stant growth in number of people employed in handicrafts (table 2).
Paradoxically, with the growth in handicrafts, the struggling craftsmen
are not benefited. A report on Andhra Pradesh weavers by Gopinath
Reddy have harsh and tragic stories where talented and skilled weav-
ers have died from starvation or have committed suicide [2]. The
example of Andhra weavers is an extreme one, but a vast majority of
possessors of traditional knowledge are struggling to earn a living.
Source: Offices of the Development Commissioner (Handlooms, Handicraft s), Ministry of
Textiles, New Delhi , India.
Table 2 Performance of Handicraft sector during 11th five year plan
2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 (P)
Handicrafts production (Rs
crore)
38,660 31,940 19,376 20,221.5
Employment (lakh persons)
handicrafts
67.69 69.72 71.81 73.96
Handicrafts export (Rs crore) 20,963 17,536 10,891 11,224.27
Source: National Sample Survey of Unorganized Manufacturing (45th and 51st rounds), 1989-
90 and 1994-5, New Delhi , India.
Table 1 Handicrafts in India: Basic Statistics
2. Literature Review
17. 7
According to numerous articles I went through, the major problems
faced by Indian craft person are —
Artisans generally lack knowledge of and access to means of•
increasing quality and productivity, especially in the areas of skill
development, design input (to meet market requirements), and
technical innovation (in such areas as labour saving methodology,
standardization, productivity enhancement and environmental
concerns and consumer safety) [3].
Craft producers who have lost their traditional markets often are not•
aware of the potential new markets for their products, in urban India
and abroad. The low level of education and rural orientation of the
majority of crafts people leave them vulnerable to exploitation by all
those middleman who are their only means of access to distant mar-
kets. Craft producers suffer greatly from lack of working capital and
access to credit and loan facilities. The producer who receives a large
order will often not be able to find the funds necessary to purchase raw
material in bulk, or to support the family while work is in process [3].
Various credit schemes are available to crafts person, primarily through
government institutions, but it is difficult for the uneducated artisan
to understand and access these programs, and its often impossible for
a poor crafts person to manage the necessary collateral or funds for
required bribes. Craftsmen generally suffer from weak marketing, lack
of negotiation power and inability to display their items in appropriate
manner.They need better market infrastructure, professionally orga-
nized exhibition of products at the international level, efficient system
of supply chain management, brand promotion and standardization [5].
When they do have the opportunity to interact directly with a•
buyer, the problems multiply. The essentially agrarian, rural world
view of the producer does not match with the exacting demands of
the international market, and experiments in direct market access
often end in a total failure[5].
A major disadvantage of this unorganized sector is the total lack of•
civic, professional and social service infrastructure. The individual
crafts person suffers from all of these problems. Scarce and irregu-
lar electricity, lack of good roads and absence of transportation
facilities are professional problems as well as daily aggravations.
Craft specific professional infrastructure—work sheds, storage
space, shipping and packaging facilities is totally lacking for most
rural crafts producers. And social services infrastructure—insur-
ance, medical care, pension plan is something beyond hope [3].
The crafts person in most cases gets little recognition or tangible•
reward for extraordinary skills or talents. The craft producer has
little means of protecting individual creative innovations or tradi-
tional community knowledge [4]. Copying is a way of life in India,
and exploitation is pervasive at every level. And craftsmen often
leak unique designs belonging to their clients to the highest bidder.
18. 8
The exact ratio between the amount a crafts producer is paid for an•
item at source and the final selling price of that item is extremely
difficult to determine. These are matters of extreme secrecy for
dealers, traders, and exporters and crafts producers themselves are
reluctant to divulge this information. According a case study of a
single piece had the craft producer/retail ratio of 1:70 [3]. Handi-
craft export is certainly a profitable business, but little of the profit
reaches the hand of the creator. Craft producers who specialize in
unique, time consuming processes suffer competition from cheap
knockoffs in local markets.
19. 9
Through numerous promotional schemes Government of India, State
government and other agencies has helped crafts of rural and urban
centers with great effect over past years. With intention to reach all
corners of the country Government has set up avenues with help of
handloom and handicrafts board and office of development commis-
sioner of handicrafts. Government support to crafts for a viable local
and export industry is visible through the consistent growth and de-
mand in handicraft in local and international market
Though Governments efforts to develop the handicraft sector, the earli-
er stated problems exists everywhere. Suggestions have been made by
the authors of these articles, on possible solutions to these problems.
To increase the income of crafts producers, the requirements are•
adaptation of skills and products to meet new market requirements
and improvement in market access and supply.
To sustain the traditional skill base and to protect the artisans’•
traditional knowledge resources, the priority is development and
implementation of appropriate IPR legislation.
Adapting traditional skills to new products for changing markets.•
This adaptation can be accomplished in many areas in India, in-
cluding fashion, home furnishings and tourism.
Repositioning skills and products for upscale markets that appreci-•
ate and are willing to pay premiums for handcrafted quality and
character.
There are two main acts especially relevant to crafts –1) The Copy-
right Act of 1957 was amended in 1994 to afford greater protection to
original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. 2) The Trade and
Merchandize Marks Act of 1958 and The Design Act of 1911 have also
been replaced. The new Trademarks Act, among others, amplifies the
definition of trademarks to incorporate collective marks. [3]
We can see some of the good and successful examples of develop-
ment in few craft clusters. One of the most successful examples is
fashion designer Ritu Kumar, who has been working with traditional
textile artists since 1970s, to produce Indian and fusion clothing that is
finding an international market.
Two of the highly respected firm in craft—FabIndia and Anokhi, main-
taining the high standards in crafts with providing education, health
and other social program to their artisan group.
Some organizations (URMUL & SEWA) run by craft producers seems
to prove the possibility of community organizational structures that
function fairly effective, benefiting the artisans directly.
20. 10
Finalizing on User Group
Since it would have been impossible to look at all the crafts for this
projects in the available time span, but it is my genuine wish to come
up with a solution that can help other craft clusters. For this project,
‘Pharad’ craft—hand block with natural dyes has been the focus of
study.
Finalizing on a groups of craftsmen or a craft from the hundreds of
available in India was quite a dilemma. Looking at the given time
frame for this project it was wiser to choose a craft from the perspec-
tive of understanding of language; that is choosing a craft where com-
municating with craftsmen is not a problem.
The best way to figure out number of crafts was to go through the
‘Handmade in India’ book. To my surprise there were 178 crafts
around north India where I believed I would be comfortable talking
to. The next criteria to narrow down was the closeness in distance and
time; how easy and fast to commute to the place. And finally on the
basis of the commercialization/exposure to the craft; is the craft dying
or flourishing or just managing to sustain itself.
3. Primary Study
21. 11
With a soft corner for textile crafts, I finally chose ‘Pharad’—natural
dye hand block printing, as final crafts person group.
Another criteria for chosing craft was to look at crafts from its value
addition to the society. How does one decide whether a particular
craft is worth preserving or not ? With mechanized manufacturing pro-
cesses the products can be produced faster and at less product cost as
compared to handmade process, it feels that there might be no need
of few crafts in today’s world. But these crafts passed on from one
generation to another have the historical and traditional importance
which can not be measured. They are our direct connection with
the history. By not being judgemental about any craft and not to hurt
anyone’s feelings (directly/indirectly) I kept this criteria aside for time
being.
I chose five crafts near or around Jaipur, which I thought had potential
to do much better than they were doing presently, They were—
1. Natural perfumed dyes: Unfortunately, the crafts person I knew
who did this was no more and none of his son knew how to do it.
Sadly, this craft was never even documented.
2. Bakhtar craft: Its a craft of making iron dress used for battles us-
ing small loops of iron wire. There are few craftsmen in Udaipur area
who still make products out of this technique.
3. Pharad (natural dye hand block): Mainly from Bagru,
a small town near Jaipur, Pharad is the hand block printing using only
natural dyes. Traditionally only natural dyes were used in block print-
ing, but with exposure to easy to use chemical dyes, lots of printers
have stopped practising this craft.
4. Block making: Block making is a part of process in block print-
ing. There is a separate group of craftsmen who just make these wood-
en blocks.
5. Taziya making: Taziya is a structure of a mosque made for the
procession in Moharram festival of Muslims. The structure is usually
made by bamboo and the decorated with colored paper.
23. 13
Pharad
About the Craft
Block printing is done in many places in Rajasthan, but Sanganer and
Bagru are quite famous with their style. Bagru, is a small town situated
at a distance of 32kms from Jaipur. Traditionally the Bagru hand block
print was done using natural colors and dyes, but craft persons have
started using chemical dyes. For getting rich colors in designs and
motifs prints, natural material like Indigo for blue, Alizarin for red, Iron
for black, Turmeric for bright yellow are used on cotton fabric.
There no written literature available to trace the starting of printing in
Bagru. According to a legend, the hand printer community ‘Chippa’
came to Bagru around 350 yrs. ago from Sawai Madhopur, Alwar,
Jhunjhunu and Sikar.
Another insight on ‘chippa’ settling down in Bagru was availability
suitable conditions for dyeing and printing and availability of water—
Sanjariya river, which used to provide water to the town has turned
into a dirty nala today. The Bagru town has around 130-140 families
who does block printing, but very few are remaining who do it with
natural colors.
24. 14
Figure 4. A sequence model from manufacturing to buyers, made by the user
25. 15
The Process
1. First the grey fabric is kept overnight or for a day in water mixed
with T.R.O. (earlier cow dung was used in place of TRO) to remove
starch. Next day the fabric is washed to remove the starch and
other impurities.
2. Once the fabric is dried, it is then treated in a mixture of Harda,
Gingelly oil in water and then spread on ground for drying (fig 4).
After drying the fabric will be ready for printing.
3. First the outline of the motif is printed with a dark color paste made
out of natural ingredients (fig 5).
4. After printing the fabric is washed to remove extra gum and is dried
again.
Figure 4. Harda treatment of fabric
Figure 5. Block printing
26. 16
5. Now the cloth is treated with alizarin process. A furnace is pre-
pared where alizarin, dhawari flowers are boiled in a copper vessel
to get rich shade of red (fig 6). Once Alizarin process is over con-
go-red color is added to the dye bath and the fabric is boiled for
another half an hour and washed with clean water at the end.
6. Before sending the fabric for next step of printing, ‘kundi’ a substi-
tute to ironing is performed.
Figure 6. fabric being dyed in Alizarin.
27. 17
7. Thereafter, the resist or Dabu (fig 7 & 8) is applied and cloth is
dried in sun again. As name suggest it resists parts of fabric where
we don’t want the dye to go.
8. The fabric is then dyed in cold nasphal dye bath, which was pre-
pared a day before. The fabric is kept in dye bath for few minutes
and taken out and dried again.
Figure 7. Dabu printing Figure 8. Fabric before and after Dabu printing
28. 18
9. The dried fabric is then put in the indigo dye bath (fig 9). This pro-
cess would give the fabric blackish blue color. The fabrics is again
dried under the sun.
10. Next process is fixing the colors by treating the fabric in alum
solution. The alum weaken the resist paste, so it can be easily
washed out in next process. The fabric is again kept for drying.
11. The fabric is then thoroughly washed in clean water to remove the
resist paste and extra dye (fig 10).
Once dried and ironed the fabric is ready to use.
Few of Pharad patterns require a second dabu printing at the end of
whole process and hence making the process even lengthier.
Figure 9. Indigo dye bath Figure 10. Finished fabric kept for drying
29. 19
Pharad in past have been mainly used by the localities. Especially
women of different castes wore as printed skirts (Ghaghra, fig 11) and
duppatta. Specific motifs and color denoted a particular catse, for ex-
ample Gurjar wore Asmani Pharad with motifs of Dhania, Chobundi
and Pat. According to attire people could verify the community. Now
a days, Pharad got extended to sarees, stoles, shirts, table covers and
bed covers.
Figure 11. Localite wearing
pharad skirt
Figure 12. Pharad prints
People mostly confuse Sanganeri prints (fig 13) with Pharad prints (fig
14). The Sanganeri prints are mainly done on white base, while Pharad
has various shades of natural dyes. The speciality of Pharad is in creat-
ing so many shades in natural dyes by using blocks precisely and by
following the manufacturing process correctly. After so many washes
the grains of the fabric loose their position and it become tricky to put
the dabu block in right place. This precision comes with practice and
cannot be achieved in screen printing.
Figure 13. Sanganeri print Figure 14. Pharad print
31. 21
User Study
As described earlier the users or the final group was chosen according
to the craft they were doing. In the case here it was Pharad, I started
with one user I knew and got contacts of other craftsmen in this craft.
The user study is done with the aim of getting information about the
users, understanding their environment, their opinions, their goals and
factors that effect their life.
The contextual interviews were conducted mostly in Bagru and one
of it in Jaipur. The user group consist of four users, two of them from
the next generation of the craftsman’s family and two from the older
generation.
User 1
Mr. Sanjay Chippa, a craftsman, designer and businessman
User 2
Mr. Ratan lal, hand block printer
User 3
Mr. Mukesh Jajpura, craftsman and businessman
User 4
Mr. Sachin Chippa, hand block printer
32. 22
User 1
Male, 25, (Designer & printer), married, graduation in design from
IICD,
family of five, lives in Jaipur
He is also a craftsman turned into entrepreneur. He studied in Indian
institute of Craft and Design where his fees was waived off because he
belonged to crafts family. He knew the importance of craft and did his
graduation in design from IICD.
Only few families practice ‘Pharad’ style of printing at present. The
craft itself is expensive in manufacturing, including various steps of
dyeing, block printing and resisting process.
The skills of the craftsmen is degrading in terms of natural dyeing pro-
cess and fine quality of block printing.
Most of the craftsmen have the midset for ensuring quantity and not
quality.
He is eager to know more about natural dyes and how to create more
shades.
He has never tried selling his product online, but would not mind it.
He has few permanent buyers and otherwise sells through exhibitions
organized by govt. and private organizations. He does not export him-
self but sell to few buyers who does export of it.
The exhibitions system has lottery system to allot space for craftsmen,
due to high demand of craftsmen trying to display.
The big buyers like FabIndia usually give less as compared to the price
in wholesale market, thus making craftsmen to cut down on quality,
skipping few process in dyeing or shifting to cheap dyes.
Other than that there are few designers to whom he sells his product.
Till his father was handling the craft, he was able to make around 4
lakh per annum as turnover for a family of five. Now he mainly works
on the natural dyes ‘pharad’ and with little design intervention has
been able to increase the turn over to 30 lakh in just 1.5 yr.
Since the process is expensive his products are a bit expensive as
compared to the market, and few of his buyers did try other craftsmen
for less amount but no one can give the quality he is providing and so
does his buyers came to him only for that.
Its just not possible for someone to get the same thing with natural
dyes and with screen printing, that’s his USP and with more awareness
towards eco friendly dyes and going organic way this craft can gain
more popularity.
33. 23
User 2
Male, 65-68yrs, printer, married, two daughters married.
He and his wife, lives in Bagru
He used to work in Pharad printing earlier. At present he does the
Dabu resist. He has been working in hand block printing around 50+
yrs. Hand block printing has been passed on from generation to gen-
eration in his family.
“I have become old and do not have the power in my body to do
Pharad anymore
”.
“Only old and learned people can do Pharad. The new generation
kids do not have the skills do it. That’s why it has become less.
”
He does not have any son. He has two daughters who are married,
now its him and his wife. His daughters are married in the family of
block printers. One stays in Bagru and another stays in Jaipur.
Other than dabu resist work, his wife has a small suitcase based shop
(opened recently), selling biscuits, paan, biddi, tobacco etc.
The ‘seth’ provides him with material, resist paste and the blocks to
work.
“I have become a labourer
”.
Pharad work is done in Bagru only, Sanganer has totally turned to
screen printing now. Sanganer printers do not have the skills to do
Pharad.
“I had a business earlier. Worked for clients from Delhi. Had two
tables also, did all the work, but now I have become old and can not
do anything.
”
“karo aap kuch, order- worder laao
”
His business closed down because of shortage of craftsmen to work
and he did not had any son also to take care of business.
The speed of work depends on his health; If he is not well then cannot
even finish 10 mts in a day otherwise if he is able to sit for long he can
do 100 mts in day.
For Pharad, in a month one can produce 300-400 mts including all
the processes. Pharad is time taking process and now its value is not
much.
“Earlier I used to develop around 600 mts fabric of Pharad.
”
Earlier they used to prepare the whole fabric by themselves and sell it
in the monthly haat at ‘choti chaupar’ in Jaipur.
34. 24
“We used to start early in the morning, around 5 am and reach there
by 6, sell the material and return to home by evening. By 8-9 o’ clock
everything used to be sold.
”
Yes I do have a mobile. I do not give my number to people.
“pare-
shaan karte hain.
”
I don’t go and ask for work. If ‘seth’ has got work to do, he will come
and give material and things to him.
“kaam karana hai to ghar aana
hai
”.
The money is usually given at the end. Sometimes a part of it is given
in advance. His workplace is his home. He has never tried or went
to join bigger units of block printing. He is paid 1-2 rs. per/mt, It may
vary also depending upon the intricacy of the print. If I am not well I
sometimes do not take the orders.
I have built this house and got my two daughters married by this craft.
No, I don’t have bank account. I haven’t opened the account.
“pet hi nahi barata hai hamara, to jama kahan se karwayenge hum?
”
The dealing is usually just word of mouth.
No paper slip or written things is done for record.
His wife does the final check or repair work of the resist before giving
it back to ‘seth’.
35. 25
User 3
Male, 25 yrs, printer, married, M.com,
lives in joint family, lives in Bagru
His unit has block printers from his family and other from his cast
(chippa). Earlier his father and grandfather used to print Pharad, but
now only his grandfather do it regularly. His grandfather used to go
to Haat in choti chaupar in Jaipur to sell fabric, around 25 ago. There
were 10-15 families in Bagru, who used to do Pharad.
Since the process is lengthy the final costing of the fabric is relatively
high. The size of the block for Pharad printing is usually small and thus
lots of printers do not want to do such a labour intensive work. For a
normal hand block printing on an average a craftsman can do 60-70
mts in a day , but in Pharad he might be able to do just 30 mts. in a
day.
People who understand about natural dye, only they buy this fabric.
Monsoon and winter season is not favorable for printing.
He showed the images from a fashion show where his fabric was used.
He used to give to DCH (govt. organization) but have stopped since last
6-7 years. DCH used to give less money. The fabric cost has increase 30
to 40 rs. and even the raw materials are expensive, so the price of final
fabric increased, but DCH still wanted to give less amount. One more
trouble was that each piece of fabric was checked again at their office.
So if he went in morning to DCH office in Jaipur for say 200 pcs. It will
be night by the time he would finish rechecking of the pieces.
His father tried to supply to fabindia, his father went to Delhi for that,
but did not have any connections or known people in fabindia. For
example, if he gave his samples of fabric to fabindia, but they would
give order to their known supplier to get screen printed.
“Today most of the Fabindia print is screen printed, even in anokhi.
”
Pharad can not be screen printed. If tried screen printing the motifs,
would not come at right place.
“aajkal customer ko chahiye thoda reasonable rate aur quality achhi
”
“We have been working for this customer since 9-10 yrs, now we
know the sized he requires. For example he has written 103 table
cloths, we know which size he wants.
”
Sometimes he makes the designs and sometimes customer too gives
designs. Then he will give it to block makers to make blocks of that
design. The designs and samples are usually sent through courier.
He has customers from Delhi who exports. He has been thinking of
doing export. One of their customer from Jaipur does export.
There are lots of things involved in export; you need license, then
there is quality factor, the money transaction, sometimes buyers visit
36. 26
the unit also. And finding buyer is difficult. Then how to supply, how
will the transaction or money transfer would happen.
“fir konsa form export ka, kya hai uska knowledge nahi hai
”.
“export ke liye mediator hona achha rahata hai
”
He can supply the material to the mediator and sending / selling is his
botheration. Since they know the mediator (the person who exports)
they can ask for money anytime.
He told an incident of the person who exports, where an order of
4000-5000 pcs got cancelled because of late delivery. But he sold that
stuff next year
“apana hote to fans jaate.
”
Orders of table covers, coasters are repeated through out the year.
There is always demand of these products. One design goes on for
around 10-12 yrs.
One block can be used for around 1000 mts, after that it looses the
ability to absorb the dye and a new block has to be made. Presently
they get their blocks made in Bagru itself, earlier they used to get
blocks made from Jaipur.
He might not continue doing Pharad after his grandfather, since there
is no manpower to do.
He work on orders from customers. They keep order sheets with
details of no. of pcs. design and color combination. They keep order
sheets till 3-4 yrs with them. Sometimes he makes the sample and
send it to customers, then after approving they give order. The pc size
depends on what is it for like is it a saree, or table cover or dress mate-
rial. For around 500-1000 mt order the mode of payment is cheque.
For small orders cash is preferred.
He wants to increase business in printing base market; what are the
new trends, what customer wants, that comes in marketing. By mar-
keting we can outsource the production from printers and can take
good price from customers. for eg. fabric is around 35-40 p/mt +
25/30 p/mt printing outsourced and we can sell that at 90/100 to cus-
tomer. He had catalogue and visiting cards.
The delivery due date is usually 90 days. Usually printers take half
money in advance by 7-8 the day of work and rest when he gets all
the job done. Then it will take 8-10 days for packaging, then it goes to
customer. Then customers usually do the payment within 30-45 days
“The customer has become smart these days, he is risking our money
initially. He will add his profit to the order and sells it and when he
gets the money, he will pay us and keep the profit with him.
”
Sometimes if we ask the customer gives some advance payment too
For a new customer we keep the cash transaction in cash. After gain-
ing trust then we do the cheque transaction and the payment period of
30 days.
37. 27
Now a days they use money transfer as mode of payment. The cus-
tomer takes their account no. and deposits the money. Once its con-
firmed the delivery is done.
Internet is not working since 2-3 months lately. He searches for new
buyers on internet. On net you can search for the contact details and
meet them later on. But nothing can replace face to face talk.
If required by customer they get the door delivery done by transport
companies in Jaipur. For sending parcels they have to go to Sanganer.
38. 28
User 4
Male, 40 yrs, (printer), married, education- 8th std,
family of three, lives in Bagru
He used to work in Kota printing sarees earlier. His whole family and
relatives stays in Kota, and most of them are in govt. services. Only
him, his wife and kid stays in Bagru. He is the only one who is in
printing.
His wife is working at the public water provider setup by govt at Anaaj
mandi. She has been working there since last 7 years in hope of get-
ting a permanent govt job. He is even ready to give bribe of 50-60k ,
or even 1 lakh for that.
He has helped a lot of people in getting jobs in units. He told the
story of his nephew, who earned around 80-100rs daily and was a
labourer. He has taught his nephew this craft and got him placed in a
unit in Sanganer. His nephew learnt the gold block printing there (1gm
pigment dye) and started earning good. Later he used to go to market
to supply the finished material. Now his nephew has his own unit and
around 30 block printers work for him. He works completely for the
local market of Jaipur. He never tried to open his own unit.
The craft and this business is not difficult, if someone has interest can
do quite good in this.
If you want to export then there are people in Jaipur and Delhi. You
can supply your material to them and they will export it, anywhere in
the world. Direct connection to client is usually not possible.
“Direct karna chaho to karlo, woh to contact hona chahiye na apna.
”
“Ab export ki knowledge to kya, sab ke bas ki baat nahi hai
”
One can put up his showroom, have a good margin. The local market
has also developed now (normal printing). You have to send sample of
the design with four color variation to the client. When they approve,
they might order for 2000 /500/100 mts. If you have direct contact
with clients in Delhi, Mumbai. You can just make samples, get them
approved and outsource the manufacturing. Lot of outside clients
come to Bagru, some take ready stuff and some chose the sample on
fabric provided by printer for the order.
Preparation for pigment is not difficult. Buy the pigment dye and start
printing, it’s hassle free.
The fabric printed with rapid dyes has to be washed in acid and nitrate
mixture. Sanganer works in rapid dyes, all materials like dress materi-
als, bedcovers, dupattas, are done in rapid dyes. Rapid dyes require
more water than pigment. Pigment dye is not as fast as rapid dyes.
He didn’t know about the side effects of the chemical dyes.
39. 29
For natural dyes here the water is kept on boiling and dawariya is
added. Then the fabric is put in that water and tossed for 1-2 hrs to get
the color.
“yeh mehnat ka kaam hai, Bagru ka kaam to kya hai bekaar hai pura.
lekin sabse badhiya kaam to kya hai ki pigment ka dye laao, pigment
lagao aur pigment ke upar as pass gold/silver ka patli line lagao.
”
Earlier direct gold color paste was used on odhani, lugadi, palla. Now
better gold powder is used (100gm/ per kg), with binder for better du-
rability. Here the demand is of traditional black and red color prepared
from iron, alum etc. for export.
In pigment one need not to do the final washing, the fabric is printed,
dried, ironed and given to the customer. Lots of sarees come in for
printing are printed, ironed and sent directly.
These stuff would not be bought by any other person, the standard VIP
people buy these sarees of rs. 1500, 2000, 2500 and on. They will use
it 3-4 times and wont use it more. These pieces (table covers) would
go to showrooms, wholesalers, big hotels. Will be used/washed twice/
thrice and will be thrown away.
If you want to get that in natural dyes, its difficult and laborious work.
But sarees are doing good, one can do business in sarees, have a
showroom or supply to showrooms. Now very less people do Pharad.
There is no manpower/craftsmen left to do pharad.
His has son, 10 yrs old. He doesn’t want him to teach this craft. He
himself does not have any interest in this craft anymore
“usse to padhayenge, likhayange.
”
We are printers, we just do the printing
There is a unit who works for a Sardar from Delhi, who does export.
Some foreign clients come directly to units. A Japanese used to come
His seth ji (owner of the unit) does not go out for orders. They work
for clients from Delhi, Ahmedabad.
“phone aa jata hai, phone par saare order ki baat ho jati hai.
”
“Give me any design in print, I will certainly do it
”,
“I learnt the
work in just 7 days
”
Earlier we used to work with big size blocks, now they are no more
used. For sarees we used the metal wired blocks for finer lines and
worked with rapid dyes. Kota works mainly in saree printing. Most of
the supplies went to Gwalior, Indore, none was exported. Saree print-
ing was not practiced in Jaipur earlier, people did not knew about it.
Around 25-30 km away from Kota there is village of weavers where
40. 30
Kota-malsuria sarees are made, it used to cost around 1500 rs. The du-
plicate of that is made in banaras and costs around 90-100. Earlier the
Kota-malsuria used to plain, now they have started using zari, giving
borders.
“aaj kal to kai hai, ki 1,2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, tak ginti sikha aur
sochta hai 100 tak ginti aagyi apan ko
”
Rapid dye is much better than pigment, the fabric might wear & tear
but the color won’t become dull. We have to do the matching of col-
ors initially and then the printing job.
Now a days lot of people have put up showrooms (shops) in Bagru.
Sometimes clients come to these showrooms, they are shown the unit
also and sold the ready stuff.
“aajkal to computer se hone lag gaya na yeh (printing)
”
If a hand block printer could do 50 mts in a day, screen printers used
to do 500 mts, so the hand block printing is less practiced .
He has worked for 18 years in a karkhana (unit) in Bagru. He left it to
see opportunities outside, to make contacts and to learn what is going
on. He went to Sanganer, Ajmer after that, gained lot of knowledge.
Then he did work for a seth near to Pushkar, who was into export busi-
ness. He worked there for 8 days and left the job. That village was too
far and separated, he didn’t like it there so left it. The seth asked him to
take advance money but to return back. He said that if would want he
would come back. He asked few printers to work for seth in that vil-
lage on 300 rs wages, but no one wants to go so far. The seth was even
ready to give 350/400 rs per day but no one is still ready.
“I have never gone to people to ask for work
”
“Jaise kisi ne pooch liya kahan laga hai…. Kahin nahi.. to mere ya-
han aaja.
”
Work is usually given through social links and known people. He has
worked in 5-6 places and know a lot of people. To get printers for a
unit is based on personal contacts. Like seth said we need more peo-
ple, I will ask people I know to join.
Printers work on daily basis and the fabric printed. For eg. on at rate
of 1.90 / rs 2 if he printed 100 mts in a day.. so he would earn around
200 rs. The price of printing is dependent on intricacy of block (no. of
blocks).
Sanganer has salary system. 9-5 job with 1 hr break for lunch. It has
security of fixed income, but here is the choice of work. Good skilled
craftsmen do not have problem of availability of work.
41. 31
User 5
Male, 40 yrs, damaskas craft, lives in Udaipur
This user is a one in a million example of craftsman who are selling
online. Though he did not fall under our targeted group, it was a good
and interesting enough case to be studied.
He believes that he is the best in damaskas in Udaipur. He got to
know about ebay from one of his client who is also a good friend
around 7-8 years ago. His friend also taught him to use email, so they
can send orders through email. Even few exporters to whom he used
to supply products used Ebay. Everyone around him seemed using
Ebay.
He felt the need of trying it himself, so around 2-3 yrs ago, with two
of his other friends they registered a firm, got a credit card and current
account for Ebay. In team of three, one of them was a computer savvy
person and he was the one to handle all online things.
In beginning they uploaded ten products consisting of some folding
knife and some English knife. The first product got sold was the folding
knife and in a weeks time they sold around three products. Then they
added damaskas bar to their product list. They got really good re-
sponse and thirty-five feedbacks in a month’s time. In a period of three
months they sold around 40-50 items and had a sale of about 1.5 to 2
lakh rupees. They continued to sell on Ebay for another 6 months and
later quit because Ebay started charging a lot.
Through Ebay they got connected to lots of other clients. They even
got few big orders from them, but could handle in such large quantity
and hence lost business with those clients. He prefers selling in local
market than exporting, as a minor change in product or a 2-3 days
delay do not matter much in here.
They have different prices for different customers; for a new client they
would sell a product on 200% margin and to their old and regular cli-
ents sometime they sell at 25-30% margin. On Ebay they used to sell
at 300-400% margin, but the quantity was too less.
For Ebay the product was wrapped in foam sheet and then bubble sheet
with company’s hot seal on it, whereas for local market, they just wrap it up
in an old newspaper and give it.
There were no issues with trust factor with Ebay, seeing as it asks for a
security deposit from buyer and the seller. In case there was any fraud, Ebay
took the responsibility. Still he feels more convenient dealing in local mar-
ket, as Ebay is too strict with deadlines, quality checks and other regulations
and one have to wait for 10-14 days to see if his products are sold. While
dealing in local market they can ask for an advance (around 70-80%) on a
bigger order whereas Ebay doesn’t have that option. Lastly Ebay was never
their primary source of income, it was more like a side business. One can-
not really guarantee the number of pieces would sell on Ebay.
Recently he has started working with few designers and feels that the design
intervention has helped in preserving their craft and also increased their
income.
43. 33
The System
The Pharad craft or for that matter most of the craft business/industry
have different tasks performed by different members of the system. We
can divide the system on two distinct activities—
1. Production of the Pharad
2. Marketing of it.
Through user study we learnt that around 20-25 yrs. ago the business
model was totally different from what it is now. The crafts person used
to do the whole process of washing, printing and dyeing by them-
selves and sell their products to the customers at the monthly Haat
bazaar held at choti chaupar in Jaipur. Ideally this business model
was perfect where the there was no middle man and the whole profit
went directly to crafts person (fig 15). But then the demand and the
production was limited and the craftsman was capable in meeting the
demand with quality work. With increase in demand crafts person had
lot to produce and hence opportunity for a mediator between craft
producer and consumer came. Then the marketing was handled by the
mediator (fig 16).
45. 35
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-2000
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
According to the statistics by EPCH (fig 18) the rise in export of handi-
crafts can be seen from 1997-98 and since then it has increased a lot.
So with the growing market the craftsmen were bound to produce
more and with help of chemical dyes the speed of production also in-
creased. The lure international buyers mediators wants craft products
at throw away prices, this lead to the degradation of quality in craft
and a new mentality in craftsmen developed of quantity then quality
in products. Though the quantity in work grew but at the price of fine
craftsmanship and the whole essence of the craft.
In present system lot of middle men are there at various steps between
craftsmen and consumer. Middlemen or the mediator does not always
mean a bad thing, some add value to the system.
The present system also shows the fragmentation or division of work
among the craftsmen (fig 17). Earlier the work which was totally done
by one crafts person/family is now divided in different groups. There
are few people who just do the washing of the fabric, other do the
printing of the fabric, some other group would do the resist part. To
be optimistic in approach, we can say that there has been increase in
work and thus division of work make it more efficient for the system
to produce more, for e.g. if a single crafts
person had to do all thing on himself today
he might not have been able to complete
even one order.
Other than through mediators, craftsmen
sell their products in the exhibitions and
fairs organized by government and private
organizations. But chances of getting a stall
is less since no. of craftsmen are more and
the final decision is taken through lottery
system.
Source: Export Promotion Council for Handicraft
Figure 18. Exports of Handicrafts
46. 36
washing dyeing
block
printing
1
8
4
3
2
5
6
7
-VE +VE
• too much
washing
•no machines
used in washing
•washer man is
from printersʼ
community
• printers need
not worry about
washing
•happens early in
the morning, so
they get whole
day free
SHOP/HOME
-VE
•bad presentation
•Donʼt know how
to sell story. Weak
marketing
+VE
•platform to
contact customers
directly
DEALERS
-VE
•eat up lot of profit of
the product
•mentality of
producing more-low
skills and bad quality
products
+VE
•marketing no hassle
for craftsmen
•do not need to reply
on final consumer for
money
•gets bigger orders
•He is the link to global
marketing
•adds value to product
by nice presentation
Govt./NGOs
exhibition
-VE
•lottery system
•Govt. offices give
less money
•bribing people to
get schemes
sanctioned
+VE
•direct contact
with customers
•exposure to new
market
•workshops and
schemes for
craftsmen
consumer
Figure 19. From manufacturing to final product and people involved
47. 37
People and Process
I have tried to look at positive side and negative side of process and
people involved in the system. Lets start with the manufacturing pro-
cess (fig 19).
For Pharad craft it takes around 8 steps of washing, dyeing and print-
ing stretched over a period of 8 to 11 days, to make a final product. It
is quite lengthy and time taking process, and involves lot of washing
by a group in the printers’ community. Washing in it self is not a craft
and mechanizing the washing process could save time and manpower.
But if look at the positive side, other printers and dyers do not need
to worry about the washing part as there a dedicated group for doing
that. The washing starts early in the morning around 4am and finishes
by 11 am, thus the washer men have the whole day almost free.
The final product is then passed through three type of groups before
reaching to the customer – 1)home/shop, 2)dealers, and 3) Govt. &
NGOs organized exhibitions.
1. Home/shop – Few of the craftsmen have made a small outside
their houses or in the local market or sometimes deal directly from
their home. These types of setup definitely help them and provide a
platform to reach the local customers and clients directly, without the
middleman.
2. Dealers – here by dealers I mean the wholesalers, the showroom
owners, the exporters and designers. We always have a stereotypical
image of the middleman, who only thinks of his profits and exploits
the producers to the fullest, but it’s not case in real life. They provide a
hassle free marketing to the craftsmen; it came out from the user study
that most of the craftsmen wanted to have the mediator to handle the
transaction and paper work part, because they do not want to get into
complexity. The craftsmen also need not reply on the final customer
for money, the middleman directly pays them. It’s through the media-
tors that the craftsmen are able to get bigger orders. He is their link to
the global market. Dealers like showroom owners and designers add
value to the craftsmen products. The middleman seems to have lot
of positive effects on craftsmen but as said and believed they do take
a major portion from the profits. Getting bigger order and demand
of competitive price have resulted in developing a mentality among
craftsmen of producing more with compromise on the quality.
3. Govt. & NGOs organized exhibitions – the exhibitions
provide lot of opportunity for the craftsmen to get directly connected
with clients, exposure to new places and new markets. Indirectly these
exhibitions help craftsmen to improve on their presentation part. These
organizations also conduct workshops for craftsmen and have welfare
schemes for them. But getting a space in exhibitions is very difficult, as
numbers of booths are limited and very less as compared to number of
craftsmen eager to exhibit. The booths are allotted on lottery system.
Govt. introduces a lot of schemes for the rural and craftsmen sector,
but to get benefit of that one needs to bribe officials at various level in
govt. offices.
48. 38
Problems & Insights
Challenges with the craft
Raw material sourcing
Raw material for natural dyes is not easily available. The craftsmen
have to go to Jaipur to buy it.
Lengthy manufacturing process
Due to so many steps involved in Pharad, the final product become
very expensive as compared to the other products available in market.
Being a lengthy process also hinders production or taking orders for
large quantity.
Deteriorating skills
With very less demand of high quality products, craftsmen have lost
their skills of doing fine work. A common mentality has developed to
produce more than focusing on quality of the product. So for a craft
person who wants to produce quality Pharad, the availability of skilled
craft person is difficult.
Season dependent
The craft has lot of steps in process where the fabric needs to be dried
under the son, hence winter and monsoon are not good period for
printing and dyeing.
4. Problems & Insights
49. 39
Limited buyers
According to users the most difficult part of the craft is finding clients.
Today consumer wants reasonable and durable product, and would
not mind buying machine made/ printed fabric. The customers for
Pharad are very limited; only once who know and understand the
beauty of this craft buy it. With earlier business model where crafts-
men used to sell his product at haat bazaar to customers, he never had
to go and find customers. Customers used to come to them to buy.
With local markets gone and crafts person do not have access to the
global market and lacks awareness about potential new markets.
Information gap
The user wanted to know more about natural colors and techniques,
which he could not find from any source.
Three out of four users talked about exports, their fears related to it
and some stories of failed attempts to do export by other people. There
is lot of desire to grow in this craft, but fear of not knowing what to do,
holds them back.
Not many craftsmen knew about Government schemes and other
scholarships available for crafts persons’ children in education.
Exposure to market
The problem I see here is that the final profit does not go to the pro-
ducers, because they are working as laborers now for the middle-
man or the business man today. The system of division of work is very
similar to of any industry, but the main problem is that all these groups
work as an independent group and not as parts of a single organiza-
tion.
With many gaps in the system it become easy for middle man to enter
the system, and with each new middle man in the system reduces the
profit for craftsmen and increased price for customer.
Only few of the craftsmen who are exposed to the market and know
what sells, have been successful in getting connected with customers
directly.
50. 40
Figure 21. A design sample
from a buyer
Figure 20. Receipts and invoices from clients
51. 41
Insights
Necessity of middleman
Based on user study few behaviors of users were noted down which
might be helpful in understanding the user. All the users agreed that
having a middleman is important. Its surprising because these are the
people whom we blame that are not letting the profit reach the craft
people. But I guess the craftsman do not want to tackle the hassle of
finding clients, getting orders, doing shipping and maintaining re-
cords.
Self esteem
It was seen in the older generation of craftsmen that they never go and
ask for work to people. If someone wants to get work done, they have
to come to the craftsman’s place. They get work through their social
network and known links. Though the users said that they do not ask
for work, during the interview one of the user asked me to get work
for him, this way he would not asking for work directly to people. I
think this is why they feel mediators are important.
A way of marketing their skills
The place where hand block printing is done is usually attached with
the craftsman’s house. It is a room, which has doors opening towards
the road outside house. It serves as a purpose of a shop, where the
craftsman wants others to know about his profession and the open
doors are an indication that he is open for taking work. It is like mar-
keting yourself.
Importance of networking
Networking within the community was observed. As mentioned earlier
that social network helps in getting work, freelance printers try to work
in different units to make more contacts. It is like securing ones future.
Awareness towards their rights
Bagru has a committee of printers and they have applied to get pat-
ent of Bagru prints, after which an authentic seal would be provided
by Govt. to them. Awareness about getting authenticity seal, patent or
craftmark is developing in craftsmen.
Trading methods
In this craft, no transaction or deal is recorded on paper within the
printer’s community. For buyers, yes they do have proper order sheets,
bills that are given to clients and design and color samples for produc-
tion (fig 20 & 21).
Inheritor of the tradition
Having son decides if the craft would be passed on to the next gen-
eration or not. The girls are not taught this craft since they will get
married and go away, so girls are not looked up as someone who will
continue the tradition of craft.
Influential people
Most of hand block printers work on orders from the buyers or media-
tors of bigger clients. The buyer is a very important part of influencing
the craft, since they are the once who indirectly control the produc-
tion and the price.
52. 42
What are things that drive a craft
After the user study I was thinking over a point that why craft products
sell? What are the things that add value to any craft product? What are
the elements to a particular craft product which increases its perceived
value?
With my understanding and experiences, its the skill of the crafts
person which adds value to the product. How well and intricately is
the work done is most important among the things that drive a craft.
Next thing would be the process or the technique used to perform that
skill, for example a fine handwoven shawl from Kashmir; here ‘fine’ is
the skill and ‘handwoven’ is the process or technique used. Later on
comes the material used to make that product and then the design or
motifs/pattern.
The whole charm of buying a craft product is the story of the craft and
craftsmen who has put in so much effort to make the product. Stories
sensitize the buyers towards the skills, process, material, design and
the efforts. Imagine you got a gift of a pair of wooden shoes made in
some part of Europe. What value does it have to you, just that it is
foreign made... nothing? But when someone tells you the story behind
that product, the value of that thing actually increases a lot.
We can also analyze at craft products from point of view of Don Nor-
man’s three level of design: Visceral (appearance), Behavioral (func-
tionality) and Reflective (emotional)[15]. Lets see it through an ex-
ample, a handwoven carpet from Kashmir is beautiful to look at with
its intricate patterns and also fulfills the its function as a carpet, but
what distinguishes it from the other machine made carpets is emotions
attached to it. Don Norman’s says that reflective level is about the
message, the culture and about the meaning of a product. The value
of the Kashmir carpet is in making process, its history and association
with place. Hand-crafted products are more than owning a product,
they reflect the buyers belief in the culture, the eye to appreciate effort
of the craftsmen and a contribution towards helping craft & craftsmen.
53. 43
Experts views on craft
There are some great examples of organizations that have tried and
been successful in promoting craft’s value in India and abroad. One
of the organizations was Craftsbridge India Pvt. Ltd. started by Shibani
Jain.
“It was exciting to visualize a situation where we could be the bridge
between the rural/grass roots producer who has no market access and
the end buyer who has no idea about the craft producer and their sto-
ries. It was interesting from a social and creative perspective.
”–Shibani Jain [9]
Craftsbridge’s one of the main marketing tool was through Internet,
and their web site worked more as a promotional tool than getting
real business. Shibani suggested to have unique offerings, good tie-ups
with partner sites to get attention of right people and to have constant
renewal of content and offerings to promote one’s web site and make
it more productive in terms of generating business.
Another great example is Industree Crafts Pvt. Ltd. by Neelam Chib-
ber and Gita Ram who believes that charity doesn’t work if you want
people to be self-sustainable in livelihood, one needs to make profits.
“If you focus directly on your primary stakeholders, you cannot give
up on them.
”– Neelam Chibber [10]
Industree crafts model works similar to Grameen bank model; the
stakeholders of Industree are the craftsmen who create the products.
Industree crafts also have a non-profit organization (Industree crafts
foundation) which assist the craftsmen in becoming entrepreneurs,
with micro loans and information on trends, techniques and materials.
“Handicrafts can make a great statement. People relate to the cultural
underpinning of a craft item when they pick up one,
”says Adarsh
Kumar, one of the founding members of the All India Artisans & Craft
workers Welfare Association (AIACA) [11]
AIACA has been involved in reviving dying art and crafts across the
country. AIACA is also the one who has launched a certification trade-
mark called ‘Craftmark’. It’s a seal of authenticity on handmade prod-
uct accentuating that they are not machine-made. Craft producers,
organizations and companies can apply for Craftmark and a nominal
fee is charged for the same. Till now Craftmark is the only certifica-
tion mark for handmade craft products and a lot of big organizations
are using it like FabIndia, Dastakar, Anokhi, The Next Shop etc.
“Handcrafted items will always be in vogue,
”says Kumar. According
to him, anyone who look for exclusivity for themselves or their home
go for handcrafted products, it’s stylish to own pieces that are not
churned out in industrial quantities.
54. 44
Why people buy
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs human beings are animals
who constantly want. No matter how many of their needs have been
satisfied, they always struggle to reach higher levels and Maslow has
defined these needs in five levels. The first is of lowest and most pow-
erful needs, which includes hunger, thirst, sex, air and rest. The second
level is of security and safety needs. Third level of love and belong-
ing needs; human seek friendship, love, affection and will eventually
want to start a family. Fourth level is the level of esteem needs, where
people need respect, recognition, independence, importance and ap-
preciation. The fifth and the highest level is the self-actualization.
About 75% percent of buying decisions are based on unconscious
needs and wants, such as prestige , habit, or perceived values. Accord-
ing to marketing point of view, satisfying lower level needs first should
have priority; if the lower demands aren’t presently being met, selling
products that meet people’s higher needs would not help [12].
While buying customers especially women buyers go on the recom-
mendations from friends and acquaintances before they buy, and
if they are happy with a product or service, they will talk it up and
recommend it to others. Buyers look for products with warranties and
guaranties [13].
55. 45
Consumer’s view
Retail buyers
Buying craft products online is not very ususal in India especially an
finding people who have bought craft product onoine was another big
task. After trying out contacts here and there, I decide to to talk to buy-
ers who buy or have bought garments or accessories online recently.
Informal telecommunications with them explained their concerns
about the authenticity of the web site and the brand (for web sites
where international brands are sold on discounted rates). To test the
system or gain confidence two of them chose the option of cash on
delivery for the first order. Those who used their cards ordered the
least expensive product initially.
For the cards security one of them look of secure word in the web ad-
dress and others look for the verisign and other security logo. Most of
the times they are recommended by their friends and known people to
such websites. Most of the websites also have no. of friends who have
liked it.
Before buying all of them followed the website for quite sometime.
One of buyer has stopped buying from her favorite discount web site
because of the price fluctuation. She explained the reason that once
she bought a watch and was pretty happy with the deal, but then after
a month or so the same model was available for really less.
Designers
A brief conversation with designers working with craft sector cleared
that whenever they need to look for a craftsman, they mostly prefer to
work with recommended ones, because it helps to assure the quality
of work, pricing of the products and reliability of deliverable. Word of
mouth seems to be most powerful among the designer community for
searching a craftsman. They also look if the crafts person has earlier
worked with designers or not, it helps since few craftsmen are not very
comfortable in making products other than their traditional ones.
56. 46
Organizations working in Craft sector
There are many NGOs, organizations and companies working in craft
sector. A breif study of such organization would help me comparing
and analyzing my solution with what they are doing. I looked at few
organizations working helping people in craft sector.
Craft Council of India:
Craft Council of India is a voluntary non-profit organization working
for the welfare or craftsmen and craftswas established in 1964. CCI
conducts workshops for craftsmen to learn about new techniques,
designs, new tools and new materials. CCI also have scholarship
programs for craftsmen’s children. Other than that CCI also focuses on
research and documentations of crafts.
Kala Raksha:
Established in 1993 as a society and trust, Kala Raksha was started
as model for development through handicrafts, by preserving the age
old traditions and generating income with contemporary work. Kala
Raksha today work with around 1,000 embroiders and seven ethnic
communities [6]. Kala Raksha artisans also attend Preventive Health
Care and Basic Education programs.
5. Parallel Study
57. 47
Industree crafts:
Industree is a hybrid social enterprize started in 1994 in Bangalore,
supporting livelihoods of rural producers and agricultural workers.
Industree connects two ends of the spectrum - the producer and the
market, for this there are two entities , Industree Crafts pvt ltd with the
Mother Earth brand and Industree Crafts Foundation. Industree Crafts
Foundation was set up in the year 2000 to focus it’s work with rural
producers on developing design, technical and skill initiatives in the
natural fibre sector [14].
Rural Mart:
Rural Mart are a collaboration of National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development (NABARD) and the Human Welfare Associa-
tion (HWA). NABARD has opened the first Rural mart in U.P. and
has launched the scheme of setting up Rural mart at district and sub
district level [5]. The aim is to facilitate both artisans and buyers, by
cutting down the middlemen. The Rural mart would be linked to the
website of the Consortium of Handicraft and Artisan Society.
Rural Mart as a concept sound quite similar to my project, where its
trying to cut down the middleman and provide opportunity to crafts-
men to meet buyers directly online. I do not know the details of how
Rural mart website system works, but my project also looks at giving
information about the craft, the process and the system mainly works
towards making it easier for the craftsmen to sell online.
58. 48
Group of 5
Center
(comprising of 8-10
groups)
Area Office
Central Branch
Zonal Office
Figure 1. Workings structure of Grameen Bank
1,253,160 groups
144,106 centers
2,562 Branch offices
Branch Office (comprizing
of 50 centers)
83,458 villages covered
7,970,616 members
59. 49
Business Models
The craft field is huge in variety and it’s easy to get puzzled, as there
could be many ways to approach the subject. With advice of my
guide I started looking through different types of business models and
see how do they work, since in the end my project was to improving
craftsmen livelihood, or one can say generating more opportunity for
them.
Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank formaly established as Bank in 1983, reversed the
conventional banking practicing by removing the security and started
a system based on mutial trust and participation [7].
Grameen Bank is social business, a business that is cause driven rather
than profit driven. Muhammad Yunus describes that a social busi-
ness is company that is cause driven rather than profit driven, with
the potential to act as a change agent for the world. A social business
has to be self-sustaining, self-propelling, self-perpetuating and self-
expanding.
61. 51
No one who borrows from Grameen Bank stands alone. Each belongs
to a self made group of five friends, no two them can be closely re-
lated. So when one wants to take out a loan, she needs approval from
the remaining four. 8-10 such group have their weekly meeting at
‘Center’.
Fifty of such centers for a ‘Branch’ office of Grameen bank, and then
five branch offices makes ‘Area’ office. Five area offices makes a Zonal
office and all zonal offices to the Central office (fig 1).
Similar to Grameen Bank where poor people were benefited, my
project also aimed at helping the craftsmen, who come in the bottom
of the piramid. Though I was not planning to help the craftsmen finan-
cially but by creating more opportunities for them to earn based on
their skills and knowledge. Looking at Grameen Bank’s case study and
its system increased my understanding towards social business models
and how we can use the cultural and social factors in the system.
63. 53
Amul
Amul was founded in 1946 in leadership of Tribhuwandas Patel with
guidance from Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and Morarji Desai, to stop
the exploitation of milk producers by the middlemen. It started with
two villages and 247 ltr. of milk [8].
Amul is a cooperative system which places the instruments of the de-
velopment in the hands of farmers. It is owned by the 2.6 million milk
producers of Gujarat, who daily travel to give the milk at the Village
Dairy co-ooperative Society. In village dairy a managing committee
is chosen by milk producers, who choose the chairman. The price of
milk is given on basis of quality and quantity.
The milk then travels to District Unions for packaging and for other
milk products. District union owns and operates a balancing dairy
plants. a borad of directors is chosen by chairmen of Village Dairy Co-
opeative society. The board of directors then choose their Chairman.
65. 55
The milk and milk products then go to the State Federation, from
where the centralized marketing, common branding and quality con-
trol takes place.
The District Unions also provide good quality cattle feed for bet-
ter quality of milk, Vet services, Rural health schemes, dividends on
shares and bonus to Village Dairy co-operatives to benefir milk pro-
ducers (fig 2).
Amul is one of the great examples of unity of people against exploi-
tation and developing a co-operative system which benefited their
people directly. In present scenario of the craft I studied for project,
the craftsmen are competing with eachother and thus giving more op-
portunity for middleman to take advantage. It would be an ideal situa-
tion where all the craftsmen of a place work as a co-opeartive society,
but for it we need great leaders from the craftsmen’s society.
66. 56
Seller Buyer
Lists the
items at Ebay
Highest bidder
wins
Buyer pays for the item plus
shipping charges and
handling fees through ebay.
A fee is paid by seller
to ebay for the sold
item
Buyer ships the item
to seller
Figure 3. Ebay’s business model
67. 57
Ebay
Ebay is actually a broker which brings buyers and sellers together and
takes fee or commission on successful transactions (fig 3). The advan-
tages of having an online platform are:
Not effected by the space limitation. Its a virtual space and there•
is no actual limit to it. More and more sellers can put up thingsfor
sale without worrying about space.
No limitation of location. Since it is online and not fixed at par-•
ticular place, anyone with internet connection and browser can
connect to Ebay.
The auction broking system of Ebay is such that it continues on its•
own.
Geographical locations do not mean anything. Any product put up•
on Ebay would cost same all over the world, even if the seller lives
right next to your house.
•
The system of Ebay was studied to understand things involved in an
online buyer-seller platform. Ebay and other portals provide a place
where the manufacturer can contact the consumers directly without
a lot of middlemen in the cycle. It can provide a good opportunity to
craftsmen to reach its consumers all over the world.
Till now, such portals required buyers and sellers to have good knowl-
edge of operating computers and have credit card, company name
and other bank requirements, which seems too much to ask from the
user group I was dealing with.
68. 58
Selling online
A few parameters to keep in mind while selling online:
Making people safe when they order from your web site. Using a•
secure server for payment and affirming that all their information
will be kept confidential.
Its important to remind people to visit your web site through e-•
mags, subscriptions, alerts etc. People usually don’t purchase at
the first time they visit. The more they visit your site, greater the
chances they will buy from your web site.
Customers feel comfortable when they know from whom they are•
buying. It is advisable to have ‘about us’ section with business de-
tails, history of company and contact information.
Having a professional look to your web site helps in building trust•
with customer. The web site should be easy to navigate through.
Accepting different modes of payments.•
Your advertisements and marketing techniques should attract•
you’re your target audience.
Creating urgency to buy your product. If there is no urgency,•
people put off buying for later on even if they are interested in a
product.
69. 59
Design directions
Based on the user study and the analysis of the process, I could see
two broad approaches towards designing the solution.
1) Improved and streamlined production process:
Better washing & drying solution for the manufacturing process,•
which consumes less water
Making block making fast and easier to use.•
Making use of the rejected blocks.•
Better packaging for value addition to the product.•
Less time consuming patterns that also go with global trends.•
Introducing new materials and new products.•
Developing more shades with natural dyes.•
A system that makes manufacturing process more efficient; con-•
suming less water, faster production with no compromise on qual-
ity.
2) System for marketing and selling craft:
Designing a cooperative system for Bagru printers where instead of•
competing with each other they will make mark in global market.
This would also help them in handling bigger orders and because
of no competition among themselves; they can quote their desired
price. The profit would also come directly to them, which can be
used for their community’s welfare.
A system for authenticating the craft; Govt. Seal, Craftsmark, Intel-•
lectual property rights for their designs.
Empowering craftsmen with information/opportunities.•
Bridging the gap between craftsman-consumers.•
6. Design Brief
70. 60
Exposure to the online world of selling products.•
Connecting craftsmen and designers.•
Making a directory of craftsmen with details for their expertise.•
Making easy to source raw material and dispatching orders.•
Improving on marketing skills and techniques.•
Conceptual model of how to start export and approach buyers.•
Improvement in production process is an interesting direction to work
on, but most of the ideas I could think of were related to product de-
signing or textile designing and to come up with a system for efficient
production, first the printer community needs to have a unity or work
as a team. Through literature review and primary research, problems
of information gap, reaching the consumers and marketing were
among the main problems. So I opted for second approach towards
designing the solution ‘system for marketing and selling crafts’. Based
on it the Design Goal was defined.
71. 61
Design Goal
Designing a system that
Bridges gap between craftsmen and consumer.•
Provide exposure to the online world of selling online.•
Empower craftsmen to required information.•
73. 63
Early Concepts
The solution was a system design and from beginning I was sure that I
wanted to infuse other existing system in my proposed system design.
It was observed from other ICT projects that creating a totally new
system might not really work; the best example is the kiosk system,
which weren’t a hit among targeted users. I feel that it’s always better
to add something to the existing system or combine two-three systems
and create a new one.
7. Early Concepts
74. 64
Figure 22. A Kiosk based system model with local
cyber cafe’ person involved
75. 65
Concept 1
A craft product gets its value adding only when there is a story at-
tached to it. If a buyer who doesn’t have any knowledge of a craft,
might not cherish a handcrafted product well unless he knew the his-
tory of craft, the cultural/religious value and the hardship went behind
that product.
This concept is about a portal of Crafts in India, similar to a web ver-
sion of ‘Handmade in India’ book, which tells the tale of the craft, the
makers of it and then links to a platform for buying that craft products
(fig 22).
The products can be uploaded by craftsman from a kiosk set up at a
cyber café in his village. Here, I have tried to involve the cyber cafe
guy who will actually do the uploading process and he can charge a
small amount per use/ per upload. The idea was inspired from present
scenario of booking train tickets with help of cyber café person, who
acts like an agent.
The kiosk suggested here is a tiny tabletop kiosk always connected to
the server with a camera fixed with pre installed settings. For transac-
tion purpose the craftsman can submit his account information in his
account on the server through kiosk.
It’s advantage
Till now there haven’t been good online information portal that takes
through the journey of Indian crafts, craftsmen and also have the op-
tion of buying craft products directly from craftsmen. The concept tries
to fill that missing link and provide an opportunity to craft producer to
connect to the global market.
Through this model the craftsmen need not to learn about comput-
ers and how to operate Internet, the cyber café person who is already
have become a comfortable with that technology can help the crafts-
man and earn an extra income.
It’s limitations
As learnt from the earlier projects in ICTD in India, kiosks have not
been very successful (give Kentaro’s paper ref). From the user study
that most of the craftsmen would never go and ask for work to people.
If someone wants to get work done, they have to come to the crafts-
man’s place. So chances of them going to kiosk with their product are
a bit less.
Till the product is small and easy to carry, it is possible to get it to the
kiosk, but if it is furniture or a product in stone, something big in size,
it will become difficult for the craftsmen and the cyber café person to
upload the image.
76. 66
Figure 23. A Telemarketing service initiated system,
to upload data through phone
77. 67
Concept 1.2
This concept is similar to the earlier concept; the basic difference is
that the registration, uploading of product and other information is
handled by the telemarketing service centers (fig 23). Since most of
the craftsmen own mobile, its not very difficult to reach them.
The process is that telemarketers ask through sms to craftsman if they
want to be listed on the server, on replying ‘yes’ the telemarketers call
them and open their account with their details and also sends a small
app to their phone. The app would be embedded with tutorials of how
to use the system, with facility to sending the images of their products
to the telemarketers company. The telemarketing company then up-
loads images of the product to various online portals like ebay, rediff,
amazon, etsy etc. sms alerts are sent to craftsmen on sell, transactions,
or any changes.
It’s advantages
This system gives the craftsman the freedom to upload his products’
images, his information, and access account from his mobile. As com-
pared to earlier concept, the craftsman need not to take his products
to any kiosk and the issue of size of product is also taken care. The
craftsman can also upload videos of the craft products.
It’s limitations
To have full advantage of this system, the craftsmen are required to
have a cell phone supporting good quality image & video facility and
GPRS/3G connection. The uploading of images & videos and access-
ing account might cost them a bit, since the mobile network provider
would provide this service. Teaching them to use this application
would be another task in itself.
79. 69
Concept 2
This concept is based on scenario where the craftsman has different
prices for different buyers (fig 24 & 25). Based on user study research,
craftsmen usually have separate price for retail buyers (when they sell
directly to the customer), the wholesalers or the merchants who buy
in bulk and for designers who buys in less but have lot of experimen-
tations.
It is an addition to the earlier
concept and here we assume
that the craftsman has the service
to register, upload products and
add other things on the server.
It’s advantages
The craftsmen have the facility to
have separate prices for different
buyers.
It’s limitations
This concept cannot be a whole
system in itself; it can be an add-
on the system.
Figure 25. A Phone application
which helps craftsmen in
putting separate prices of a
same product for different
buyers.
81. 71
Concept 3
The model of Haat bazaar was that it used to happen weekly or fort-
nightly and gave the craftsman opportunity to deal with the final user.
This concept tries to create a virtual haat online where the craftsman
can put on his products throughout the week and it would be open
only on a particular day (fig 26).
Another feature is that it has the option of bargaining. The buyers can
negotiate with the price put by the craftsman through the virtual haat
server. The craftsman gets alerts of each bargain done by buyers and
he can either accept or deny it.
Craftsman’s cell sim can work as his user ID and login can be based
on voice recognition system.
It’s advantages
The craftsman can accumulate products throughout the week for sale,
instead of uploading daily. This feature would also give buyers lot of
options to buy from. Similarly to a Haat bazaar, the sale would be for
limited time, which would create rarity and an urgency to buy. The
craftsman also needs not to wait for 10-15 days to know whether his
products got sold (as in ebay).
It’s limitations
The bargaining feature might be a little time taking, as both, the buyer
and seller might not be available at the same time.
83. 73
Concept 4
This concept aims at scenario where craftsman need information re-
lated to craft, marketing and new techniques and materials. It’s a voice
based information portal, where people can ask questions, reply to
questions and listen to other questions and answers (fig 27).
The portal can be taken cared by organizations like Dessert Craft Han-
dloom and Export Promotion Council of Handicraft. When a question
is answered the craftsman gets an alert on his mobile with a link to
listen the answer. He can also download the answer and save it for
future references.
It’s advantages
At present for any inquiry related to exhibitions, schemes or other
information related to craft, the craftsmen of Bagru, had to either ask
their peers or go to the DCH. This system provides the craftsman of fa-
cility of asking/replying questions, listening to experts’ comments and
saving the answers without going anywhere.
It’s limitations
The limitation of an IVR system would be that high level of interaction
would not be available. To find the right question might take a lot of
time that might demotivate the users for using the service in long run.
84. 74
Figure 28. Craft tour based system to get exposure
with help of social media
85. 75
Concept 5
This concept is about using social media for promotion of craft. The idea
is developed around tourism, which would lead to sharing experiences,
images, and videos about craft by tourists on social networking sites,
which finally would help craftsmen to generate extra income (fig 28).
Craft tour advertisements/information would be added to travel blogs,
ticket booking sites, review sites like trip advisor or raahi and also at lo-
cal travel agencies by the craft community, who will organize these craft
tours. Tourists would be taken around the craft community, they will
get a first hand experience of making of handcrafted products and get
the chance to meet the crafts person. The tour can end at the craft com-
munity’s shop and tourists would now have lot to share, which would
indirectly authenticate the craft and also open up opportunities the craft
producers.
It’s advantages
The power of social media for promotion of the craft is explored in this
system. The story and the value is added to the craft product through the
tour.
It’s limitations
Though the social media might help the crafts person indirectly in long
run, the emphasis in this concept is more on tourism then the craft.
86. 76
Figure 29. An order and supply chain management
system for printer’s co-operative society.
87. 77
Concept 6
This concept is on a hypothetical situation where the printer commu-
nity has formed a cooperative society and works as a single entity. The
concept is about dealing with information of raw materials, products,
payments, events and schemes by the managing team of society and
all members (fig 29).
88. 78
Figure 30. A system involving Indian Postal Service to
help craftsmen get exposed to online selling.
Ramlal has heard about people
selling on internet, but doesnʼt
know how to operate computer.
He has knowledge of basic phone.
He wants to get more opportunity
Open the App
- New user
- fill details of the craftsman
- voice recognition/thumb
print as login ID
- clicks photos of product
and upload it to site
- can also upload video about
craftsmenSMS alerts on
- account confirmation
- product sold with
details
Craftsman
Postman
Merchant
Designer
Retail buyer
Desi haat portal
Buyer pays to the
portal
A small commission is
kept by the portal and
rest sent to India Post
The product is
sent using India
Post
Money is trans-
ferred as money
order
The postman gets
an incentive on
products sold
Merchants and
designers can
directly contact
the carftsman for
deals/inquiries.
89. 79
The final concept has to rise above the limitations of the concepts
mentioned and has to incorporate as many as possible advantages in
it. The final concept focused on bridging the craftsman-consumer gap
by providing a direct contact through Internet, enabling the craftsman
to deal with different buyers differently, making the system and inter-
face user friendly for both; craftsmen and consumer and involving an
existing system (fig 30). The system mainly focuses on the crafts per-
sons that do not get to reach the consumers and are mainly based in
villages.
Indian Postal Service has its reach in the nook and corner of India
and integrating it in system would help to reach the craftsmen even
in smallest village. We assume that most of the craftsmen would have
access to some mobile and the organization, which will handle the
online craft portal, would provide the postmen with special mobile
with internet facility for this system. The shipment of product and pay-
ment of money is handled by the Indian Postal Service.
My contribution in this system, as an Interaction designer would be at
three points -
1. Smart mobile application of Desi haat on handset given to postman
2. Simple mobile with the craftsman
3. The server or the portal where information about crafts is provided
with a online shopping option.
8. Final Concept
92. 82
Working of the system
Seller
Ramlal is a block printer at Bagru village. He has learnt this craft from
his father and has continued the tradition of passing on the art to next
generation. Earlier he and other craftsmen used to go to a weekly Haat
bazaar in a near by city to sell there craft products. Now the scenario
has changed and he sells his product to a seth in local village and
other wholesale dealers. He has heard about people selling products
online, but does not have any idea to whom to go and how to do it.
He does not know how to operate a computer. The technical knowl-
edge he has is of operating a basic mobile phone.
One day the postman of their area was on his regular visit and came
to Ram lal’s house on the way. He told Ram lal about the new facility
of India Post and an NPO (non-profit organization) to help craftsmen
reach global market.
93. 83
The postman fills in the details
of Ram lal like name, craft ex-
pertise, village, experience and
phone no.
On Ram lal’s request the post-
man takes out the handset given
by organization to open Ram lal
online account.
After that he asks Ram lal to
swipe his finger twice for ac-
count security. A visual feedback
is also given when on confirming
the finger print match. Within
few seconds Ram lal receives a
welcome sms from the Desi haat
server and details about his ac-
count.
94. 84
Once account is made postman
helps Ram lal to login through
the handset and asks if he wants
to put some product for sell.
He selects the upload prod-
uct option, which turns on the
camera of the handset with front
view suggested on screen of the
handset.
For better images Postman would
be given a white sheet foldable
structure for background of the
product.
Similarly other views like side
view, top view and close up are
taken and the summary page of
product upload is comes.
95. 85
This page shows asks to fill in
detail of the product and prices
according to number of pieces.
Once information is filled in, by
pressing upload key, all images
with details are sent to the Desi
haat server.
Similarly with help of postman
Ram lal can add more informa-
tion to his profile, add videos of
making of craft products, put in
request for any query to the dis-
cussion forum, see his transaction
details and present orders.
96. 86
Buyer
The Desi haat web site changes its interface and the content layout
according to the buyer. Based on user study three type of buyers were
identified 1) designers, 2) wholesalers or merchants, and 3) retail buy-
ers,. For designers and merchants the system would require to know
their profession or the purpose to visit the web site, so as it can show
related content. The user registration for them can be done in begin-
ning or in parts through the task flow.
1. Designer - The home page for designers would have ‘Newly add-
ed crafts’ and ‘Recommended craftsmen’ (fig 20). The ‘Newly added
crafts’ (fig 31.1) would have the making of the crafts, details of crafts-
men and the history of it. For a designer its important and advantage to
know about the craft, where is it done and how is it done, so as they
can design accordingly.
97. 87
1.
2.
4.
3.
Figure 31. Home page for a designer
The Second main focus on the home page is the ‘Recommended
craftsmen’ (fig 31.2) ; since designers usually look for skills of crafts-
men, a list of recommended craftsmen would help them to decide
with whom they want to get their samples/products made.
The designer can connect his linkedin account with the site (fig 31.3),
which would tell how many of his friends are using the site (which in-
directly creates trust towards the system), and how many of them have
recommended which craftsmen. The number of likes and number of
people shopped creates trust with the system (fig 31.4).
In the search option here searches craftsmen rather than products.
98. 88
One can search craftsmen by various parameters. Through the search
results, designer can have option of comparing craftsmen on basis of
ratings, punctuality, quality. This feature can be optional since it feels in-
human to compare people and it will make them feel as products. In a
particular craft there might now be so many options that one needs to
compare. Various craftsmen can be selected sent inquiry directly from
the web site.
On selection of a craftsman’s profile, the page would have his latest
Figure 32. On search for craftsmen Figure 33. Comparing and sending inquiry
99. 89
product in focus and rest at bottom (fig 34.1). The benefit in designer’s
and merchant’s interface is that they would be shown all the product
from starting till now, by that craftsmen. Since designers and mer-
chants would be buying in large quantity and the deadline for order
completion can be discussed by them offline.
The craftsman’s profile page also shows his connection to or number
of designers he has worked with (fig 34.2). A percentage of custom-
ers is also shown who would deal with him in future again (fig 34.3).
These features authenticate the person and his service.
A feature of customer order inquiry (fig 34.4) is only available in de-
signer’s interface, since designers get a lot of sampling done before the
final order. On sending customer order inquiry, the craftsmen gets an
alert on his mobile with detail of the buyer.
Figure 34. A craftsman’s profile
1.
2.
3.
4.
100. 90
On rolling the cursor over the image of product (fig 35.1), the right
side of page turns into a zoom in version of the image (fig 35.2). A
small translucent box appears in place of cursor and the user can navi-
gate through the details of the image.
1.
2.
Figure 35. Details of the product
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On clicking read feedback, the web site connects to a forum where
buyers have commented and given rating to the craftsman. The forum
also lets buyer to connect to another buyer who have written com-
ments, through server’s mail service (fig 36).
The ratings and comments are translated in local language and sent
to craftsman’s mobile as sms. This feature would help craftsman to
improve and also positive feedbacks would help him in gaining confi-
dence in himself and his skills.
Figure 36. Feedback forum
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2. Wholesaler/merchant - A merchant’s need would be different
from a designer and from a retail buyer. The price of the product is in
their priority list and merchants usually do not design products, they
go with regular designs going in the market. According to their needs,
their home page would have ‘best prices’ (fig 37.1) of products and
‘latest products’ (fig 37.2) as main focus columns.
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Figure 37. Home page for merchants
1.
2.
3.
The ‘best prices’ feature would let them compare products based on
prices, material, punctuality of the craftsmen and maximum order the
craftsmen can take.
The search option of merchant would have an additional parameter
- ‘maximum order’ (fig 37.3). This feature would allow him to search
through craftsmen’s capacity of production and help him distribute his
order among craftsmen.
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The compare feature would let him select various products and send
inquiry in a click. All the craftsmen, whose products are selected will
be notified through sms with details of the buyer.
Figure 38. Comparision of products and sending inquiry
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The search option would let the buyer sort out products according to
recency, price, rating and most viewed (fig 39). As mentioned earlier,
all the products irrespective of the fact whether they are available for
sale or not are shown to merchant and designers.
Figure 39. Search result for product
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3. Retail buyer - The retail buyer need not to register for buying any
product. The home page (fig 40) here would be the default one show-
ing ‘most viewed crafts’ and ‘featured products’. In this interface we
want visitors to have an option of going through the story of the craft.
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Figure 40. Home page for retail buyers
On search of products the retail buyer would shown only the prod-
ucts that are available for sale.
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While going through a product (fig 41), the retail buyer interface has
an additional feature called -’how would it look on you?’ The feature
gives the buyer on option of trying the fabric or accessory virtually.
Figure 41. Product details
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On clicking ‘how would it look on you?’ (fig 42) would activate the
webcam of your PC or laptop and a dress or accessory would come as
a frame over that. The buyer can adjust himself accordingly and get a
feel of trying it on.
Figure 42. ‘How would it look on you?’
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Figure 43. Order fulfilment, step one Figure 44. Order fulfilment, step two
111. 101
Order fulfillment - Once buy option is selected , a three step pay-
ment interface uploads. First tab consists of details of buyer and the
order (fig 43).
Second tab is getting the card information of the user (fig 44). The user
can select the mode of payment suitable to him, i.e.; Debit card, credit
card, cash on delivery, cheque and demand draft. The order is recon-
firmed with buyer before final payment.
The payment button connects to secure payment gateway and after
that third tab confirms the payment with receipt of it with details of
delivery (fig 45). An receipt through email is also sent to the buyer. The
buyer also gets an option of printing the receipt.
Figure 45. Order fulfilment, step three
