During a recce in 2022, we identified a few marginalised communities of women artisans in Goa who had minimal means of creating a sustainable livelihood off their craft talent and skill. It was due to the lack of relevance of their products and inaccessibility to national or global markets. It all began with Milagrina Fernandes—a homemaker whose husband lost his job in the pandemic. The couple had taken a loan to pay an agent to find a steady job. Meanwhile, their only source of income to support their living and childrens’ education was crochet and stitching. Milagrina took orders for school uniforms and custom crochet designs. After attending TMH’s first training workshop, which had a footfall of 15 women, Milagrina impacted both her design commercialisation and personal lifestyle in small ways. Since then, we at TMH have conducted other training sessions that resulted in 26 talented Milagrinas with their unique design footprints. Today, they produce delicate and detailed pieces while being employed with TMH.
Our trust is in the process of building a new craft training center that will provide a safe, supportive space for artisans to work and create. Your contribution, big or small, can help us create a positive impact on the lives of the artisans we serve.
Just a hook and some yarn is enough to make the craft of crochet a perfect fit for a Work From Home (WFH) ecosystem for women artisans with domestic duties. It is a zero-waste production technique that has the potential for circularity via recycling, repair, and reuse strategies.
A minimal aesthetic with global use is at the core of our design research and development. TMH goes beyond the traditional designs, and tweaks them just enough to be absorbed into an urban and semi-urban market.