“House Of Heart” Making Potholders

As I write this the women at Soma’s House of Hearts, in India, are making potholders.

Our visit came at a good time for the women at House of Hearts.  

They’ve been making blankets for a while and did well selling them.  But  this year turned out to be a difficult one.   The blankets weren’t selling.  They were struggling to find a way to market what they were making.  They were also experimenting, trying to find other marketable items  that were less expensive to make and sell.   They made some fabric shoulder bags and shopping bags.

So the idea of making potholders was a natural and seemed to come at a good time.

The women at House of Hearts were eager to learn how to make the potholders and being experienced sewers they picked it up easily.

When we left Soma’s house (where House of Hearts is located)  Dahn put up the money and placed an order for 100 potholders.

The plan is for me to sell the potholders on my website.  Dahn will also sell some of the potholders through her church.  The profits from the potholders will be donated back  to House of Hearts.

That’s the short term plan.  I’m not sure where this will go, but I’m already thinking of purchasing some of the other items that the women at House of Hearts makes and selling them too.  It that works, I’ll put a permanent page on my blog to sell their work.

But that will come with time.

This is certainly not what I expected when I set out on my trip to India.  I wasn’t planning on creating a market the potholders.  But it’s a market that House of Hearts needs for all their work. It’s something that will reveal itself with time.

I hope this will be a long term relationship.

For now, the women of House of Hearts are busy filling their first order for 100 potholders.

Kelly, who owns The Village Experience, (the organization that we traveled with you can read more about it here) is helping coordinate the making and shipping of the potholders.  She’s worked with Soma before (as has Dahn and Nadine) and knows the business well.  It’s still all new to me.  I’m  learning as I go.

Kelly sent me the photos of the potholders the women are working on now.   They’re made from scraps of cotton saris.

It’s exciting to see the work in progress.   Here’s some more of the potholders being made…

You can see House of Hearts facebook page here.