Ensures fair living wage for producers
Discloses the community being impacted
Reduces the environmental impact
Focusses on women producers
Created using handcrafted methods
Reduces/Reuses/
Recycles resources
Recycles resources
Made out of responsible materials
Avoids use of chemicals or toxic materials
Khamir in Kachchhi means “intrinsic pride”, and that’s what they stand for. Taking pride in everything traditional and handmade, Khamir works towards supporting and celebrating arts, crafts, and its people. Khamir is an engine of growth in the handicraft sector working at the intersection of crafts, culture, and the environment, raising awareness on locally rooted ethical production and consumption.
Purpose
Khamir advocates for a future that is handmade, and works towards reviving, preserving, and sharing the art and craft traditions of Kachchh to create an equal and enabling socio-economic environment, especially for the younger generation. Their Desi Wool Initiative highlights the role of wool in pastoral movements, cultures, and economies. With the aim to revive an entire value chain of indigenous Patanwadi wool, to support Kachchh’s traditional pastoral systems, they have been working with about 100 artisans and herders, as well as with designers to put the “desi” back into the wool.
People
Promoting a community working environment, Khamir strives to be a democratic and enabling space that works with 1500 artisans and 350 artisan units from the diverse communities spread across Kachchh. Their commitment is towards building a vibrant and sustainable craft sector. They are working to revive Kachchh's desi oon economy. Their initiatives focus on increasing the size of the traditional Patanwadi flocks, breathing new life into heritage weaves of disappearing traditions like Tangaliya, and bringing the nomadic tribal dhabla shawls into fashion, thereby encouraging pastoral and artisan livelihoods.
Planet
Khamir’s work with desi wool has evolved through continuous dialogue with local communities about their needs. Encouraging pastoralism is a step towards protecting and conserving the region’s biodiversity and local ecology, and also increasing the Patanwadi flocks. Their work has been instrumental towards reviving the once traditional skill of natural dyeing through intensive training and experimentation.
The push for handloom weaving (flying shuttle, galicha, and kharad) and hand spinning (doshi charkha or rolling by hand), use of natural dyes, and the use of traditional knowledge and craft skills, helps them keep their process eco-friendly. Desi oon by default is natural, renewable, and biodegradable, does not absorb stains, and keeps the skin dry and cool.