BENGALURU: A Hundred Hands aim to create a livelihood for those in need of financial stability and strives for towards sustainability.
The team makes sustainable, evironment friendly products from scratch or from discarded goods.
Started as a non-profit organisation in the heart of Bengaluru off MG Road in August 2010, sisters Mala and Sonia Dhawan want to help facilitate the sale of products for the urban crowd by eliminating middlemen.
Apart from a host of handicraft and food items, their annual handmade collective, a exhibition is on its seventh leap this year in the city.
The team aims to expand to in other cities. The handcrafted alternatives are a healthy choice for everyone specially for those looking for a good living, inform the duo. As for the upcycling part, they have a range of products made from old denim jeans.
From denim footwear called mojaris, to bum bags, envelope clutches, dog harnesses and quilts, they have made optimum use of jeans to make a host of products. The initiative was started to help the patients at NIMHANS to assist monetary aid while they were undergoing treatment.
The trendy bags and footwear also provide livelihood to women from self help groups and NGOs.
“As A Hundred Hands has 86 artisan member groups, we thought we should collaborate with them as well and the idea of the denim mojaris and denim bum bags with tribal embroidery emerged,” says Mala Dhawan.
The designs on the products are made catchy to attract the urban crowd and it has earned quite a good fan base on the social platform, with over 13K likes.
“A Hundred Hands handmade collective is a commission free programme where all the collections from sales goes back a 100% to the creators. This eliminates the middle man or trader who just sources and sells without any value add and adds huge margins. Here the artist and the consumer come face to face so it is educative on both sides and a fair price to consumers and a fair earning for the artisan.” she adds.
Many people get to know about their initiative through word of mouth, posts on social media and through the coverage provided by the media. “Lambadi tribal embroidery and traditional leatherwork (bags and mojaris) are a big hit and unique in nature,” she says.