Putting the Heart into Supply

Ian snow ltd

www.iansnow.com

Why we do it

What brought us here: Our Story

What makes Ian Snow products fairtrade?

- What’s the point in artisan goods?- Human-machine symbiosis- Sustainability of materials- Sustainability of Skills- The love of crafting

Why Handmade Matters To Us

- Handmade goods are better for the environment- Handmade goods can now be bought more easily- Handmade items are unique- Handmade items continue a legacy

Who we do business with

- A Day In The Life of Oscar, Chile - A Day In The Life of Maheswor, Nepal - A Day In The Life of Vineet, Delhi, India - A Day In The Life of Gopal, Jaipur, India- A Day In The Life of Babulal, Jaipur, India- A Day In The Life of Pallavi, Moradabad, India- A Day In The Life of Frank, Bangalore, India - A Day In The Life of Dinesh, Delhi, India

contents

Ian Snow wishes to be a brand that represents how humanity can do things better. That is such a simplistic statement and yet it drives how we approach each day. We are a team of individuals who are passionate about creating original, beautiful items, from all parts of the world that will unleash a torrent of colour, culture and creativity on their beholders. I could write pages on what motivates us to search for exceptional quality and individuality but essentially I can capture our vision in three bold statements:

- We deal with suppliers in beautiful and characterful regions of the world with the same respect, ethics, and business acumen as we would with those residing in the UK

- We live to expand our view of the world and the people in it, channelling our experiences and the diversity of what we discover back into the Ian Snow brand

- We wish to challenge the conventional notion of online shopping and make sure that the small traders, unique collections, and handmade items have as much presence as mass produced stock

The three words beneath our logo represent the heart and soul of our company:

Perhaps a better question to ‘why we do it?’ would be ‘why would we not do it?’

This document is very much a compilation of what drives us and makes Ian Snow an original brand with mainstream ambitions. We hope you enjoy the insight into our world!

why we do it!

handmade, fairtrade, bohemian

Ian left Liverpool in 1969 at the age of 19 to hitch-hike to India on his own, he did fencing jobs and saved up £70 for his trip. The journey look him a month to complete.

When he arrived in Delhi the first thing he did was go to the Indian Coffee House and have some Chai, he then hitch-hiked to Nepal and went to the Monkey Temple – what he did for the remaining 5 months we’ve never really been told, he just says he ‘explored’ still living off the £70 he earn’t in Liverpool, then he hitch-hiked back home.

He didn’t return to India for 5 years, then when he did he had saved up enough to get a bus across land from England to India – the bus took quite a while though and he didn’t think it would ever reach India, so he decided to leave the bus and people he was traveling with whilst going through Turkey to hitch-hike the rest of the way. At the time there was a war going on in Turkey and the whole city was blacked out. He was one of the first westerners to trek through Zanskar which is in a hidden valley through Ladakh and Kashmir, it had just been opened

up, there were no maps available so he had to follow rivers and go across glaciers. It took him 15 days to walk the 500 miles through the valley.

He arrived India and decided to study the Tabla (Indian drums) for two years, whilst living with an Indian family in Varanassi and getting more and more involved in the culture. When he returned to England he brought with him a lot of Indian wares which he sold on markets in Portobello road and markets in Wales and Liverpool. He then went back again and again until he had to open a shop,

and the another shop, and then another shop, and then, due to his hoarding issues, it became a wholesale business as well!

Jakki first met Ian in 1986 when she was 22 and he was 36 whilst she was working as an accountant for Laura Ashley in the same town as one of Ian’s shops, she saw him out on the market selling his wares and thought he was a very strange and mysterious hippy who wore the most amazing clothes!

In 1989 Jakki left her job in the town to set up her own textile recycling business called Scrap Scrap. Whilst exhibiting her range for the first time

What brought

us here: our storyHow the madness

began...

at a local craft centre, Ian and Jakki’s paths crossed once again, this was the first time they properly met and he told her that her business wouldn’t work.

However he liked Jakki so soon started to order products from her to sell in his shops – she ran Scrap Scrap for 5 years and in that time it became a very successful business, she had her collection in Liberty, Harrods, Barneys in New York, Lane & Crawford in Hong Kong and had concessions in 8 Topshop stores, all whilst living in a house made out of pallets in her factory in lronbridge Shropshire and employing 40+ machinists & artisans. She continued to supply Ian with her goods for about 4 years after they first met. He used to place small orders and always took a long time so she dreaded him arriving on her tradeshow stand but he compensated for this by bringing the young 20 something Jakki,

samosa’s and other little food parcels!

Jakki closed Scrap Scarp in 1994 at the age of 30 because the grunge look was going over, she had ran out of ideas and felt the business had ran its course, 5 years of absolute madness, wildly exciting times and non-stop hard work was over.

Jakki and Ian were together by this time and a trip to India was on the cards, she soon became pregnant with Daisy, and when back from India, turned her attention to Ian’s business to try and get some shape on things – with a newborn baby! They decided to try selling his dead stock at festivals and for 4 years the

three of them spent most of their time on the road living in a tiny caravan. When not travelling they lived in Carno, Mid Wales, central to the shops before moving to Devon in 1999 to be closer to Jakki’s mum and dad. By now they had their second child – India & they bought a farm to run the wholesale business from, leaving the retail shops in Wales. Jakki took over running the wholesale side of the business leaving Ian (who is still a bit of a wandering hippy) to run his two retail shops.

Over the last few years, a new term has acquired traction in the worlds of homeware, cookery, carpentry, building and just about everything else that requires skilled craftsmanship: Artisan. Strictly speaking, this isn’t a new term; it’s been around for almost as long as these items have been made.

Confusion over what the term means has led to its ubiquity in marketing circles. The term is applied liberally to any item which isn’t built on a production line by an enormous robot. At its worst, the term is a buzzword, shamelessly employed by faceless conglomerates in order to more effectively sell something which is clearly machine made in bulk. In order to combat this, we at Ian Snow would like to make clear exactly what we mean when we talk about artisanal goods, and to demonstrate exactly why we consider them so important.

An artisan is an exceptionally skilled craftsperson who makes high-quality goods in ways that a machine just cannot replicate. Early artisans were a serving class who catered to the whims of their rulers. If a king, pharaoh, emperor, sultan or shogun wanted a special item crafted, they would turn to their resident highly-skilled craftspeople, who in return would be allowed to live a life of relative luxury in the royal residence. Modern artisans are a great deal more autonomous, and able to choose who they sell their work to.

Before proceeding, it’s worth considering exactly why artisanal goods might still be worthwhile. One could be forgiven for thinking that human involvement in manufacture is an unseemly inconvenience, doomed to one day be forgotten entirely. After all, technology is constantly advancing, and mechanisation has already lead to some sorts of labour becoming obsolete. Cash machines and self-service supermarket checkouts have already altered the service industries, while steamrollers, mechanical diggers and other such innovations have revolutionised construction.

The first thing to note is that, as machines go, the human body is a thoroughly underrated one. It’s capable of translating electrical activity in the brain into a fabulously complicated mechanical motion of the fingers, arms (and in some cases, legs), which in turn is capable of transforming a block of raw materials into a rocking horse, a Stradivarius, or Michelangelo’s David. Looking back at our heritage it is not the prints, replicas, and copies that we remember, but the originals.

Far from destroying craftsmanship, many machines have helped to elevate it. One of the human body’s best advantages is its ability to work in conjunction with machines. For an example of this, you need only consider those responsible for building high-performance sports car engines, such as Nissan’s legendary ‘Takumi’ engineers.

What’s the point in artisan goods?

What makes Ian Snow

products fairtrade?

Human-machine symbiosis

Similarly, a master pianist might use the keyboard of their piano rather than striking the strings directly with their knuckles, and an artisan rug-weaver might use their body in perfect harmony with their loom – and we’re happy to say that the work of this latter example is exhibited in our supply chain.

A hand-knotted rug is one where each individual strand is knotted by hand. The knotting process is aided by a loom – a machine which makes use of vertical threads on a frame. By moving a shuttle attached to a horizontal ‘weft’ string, the operator can make a knot, cut the string and tie it in just a few seconds. As you might imagine, this is an excruciatingly long process, involving many months of work, but the result is a unique item.

All of this effort yields tangible results. You can tell relatively easily whether or not a rug is machine-made or hand-made by examining the fringe (the frilly bit at the end of the rug). Now, in a hand-made rug the fringe exists only as a happy accident – once the strands have all been woven together, there will be a little bit left over at the end. This spare section is cut to produce the fringe.

In a machine-made rug, this fringe is entirely absent, and is added on afterwards in order to replicate the feel of a hand-made rug. Consequently, you’ll notice if you look at the reverse of the rug that the fringe is sewn to the rug. On the other hand, look at the back of a hand-crafted rug and you’ll see that the fringe and the main body of the rug seamlessly flow into one another.

Other methods of carpet-weaving employ more modern innovations. A hand-tufted rug is one where the craftsperson gets a little technological help in the form of a hand-held gun. No knot-tying is involved; instead, loops of material are threaded through a backing, onto which is printed the design. This material is then glued into place using latex. After this has dried, another layer of cloth is placed over the top.

Hand-tufted rugs are more affordable than their hand-knotted brethren. They’re more durable, too, being able to withstand high levels of footfall for years on end. What’s more, they look much the same from the front. On the other hand, hand-tufted rugs are not as unique and valuable as hand-knotted ones, and are hence less valuable to collectors. The value that hand-knotted rugs hold among collectors is one of the things that preserves this ancient art, and helps to ensure that its practitioners enjoy favourable working and living conditions.

Our teak branch chair and stool (FT270 and FT271) have been lovingly made in Indonesia from wood which is sustainably grown. A VLK certificate is issued for every shipment, which shows the tracability of the wood used. This is an Indonesian effort to assure the legality of its timber products, which is in line with the trend of major timber markets globally.

Just a few decades ago, the environment was not a pressing issue. It was, rather, the sole concern of proto-anarchists with a laissez-fairre attitude toward grooming. Whilst cynics might claim that little has changed since that time, the reality is that attitudes have transformed enormously since then.

Nowadays the need to responsibly source the products we enjoy is almost become a truism. The overwhelming majority now accept the need to preserve the environment. Politicians often grandstand over the need to address global warming – even if their actions don’t quite square with their words. Food suppliers might make herculean efforts to convince the public that their products is ‘sustainably

Sustainability of

materials

sourced’ – and when it’s revealed that some of those producers have been making claims of their product that don’t match the reality, the result is widespread outrage. Just ask the folks over at John West tuna. Environmental consciousness has even become a moral imperative. Even religious leaders like the Pope have called attention to climate change.

These environmental concerns are largely a reaction to a revolution that’s occurred in manufacturing and industry. Human beings, as a species, are now more capable than ever of extracting resources and turning them into goods. Unfortunately, there is a cost to these practices.

Artisan crafting takes a great deal of time and meticulous effort – and so, necessarily, resources aren’t churned through at quite such an extraordinary rate. Moreover, artisan goods are built to last a long time, and so the rate of consumption is lessened. For this reason, many environmentally-conscious people are turning to artisan crafters for ethical reasons.

Artisan skills are passed from generation to generation, with each teaching the next the craft in question. We’ve all been exposed, through film and television, to the image of a potter sitting at a wheel, spinning a lump of clay into something exquisitely beautiful. But pottery is just one component of a vast and varied branch of the artisan vessel-making family tree. Over at our pots and vases page, you’ll find items crafted from glass, metal, wood and clay. As you might imagine, each of these require entirely different skill sets.

But artisan crafting not only ensures

sustainability of raw materials, but of the skills used to turn those raw materials into finished products. Our etched brass pot (MH523), demonstrates how artisan skills can be passed through generations – it’s the product of a family metalworking business which has been passed through generations, and whose owner was awarded the ‘Shilip Guru’ title by the President of India. The prestigious award recognises exceptional Indian craftsmanship – it’s rather like a knighthood, but one which is solely awarded to people in a specific field, and one whose recipients are chosen from a pool of more than a billion rather than a mere few million.

As we’ve noted, the human hands are very complicated and capable machines. Their evolution has allowed us to hold and manipulate the world around us, and allowed us to construct wonders.

But were it just a matter of sophistication, we’d merely be waiting for a very, very complicated machine to come along and render us all obsolete – which might well not be as long a wait away as we imagine.

But that machinery is also attached to the most complicated thing in the known universe: the human brain. And so, not only are the hands, capable of performing highly complex, technical challenges – they’re also hugely powerful expressive tools, too. After years of practice, these links between the brain – the source of all creativity – and the hands and limbs can be honed to the point of mastery – and it’s at that point that art it produced.

The final point in favour of artisanship is that the products produced by artisans are each

Sustainability of

skills

the love of crafting

works of art. Friedrich Nietzsche was a man who wrote many controversial things. But when he claimed that life without music would be a mistake, he spoke for many. A well-made, beautiful piece of furniture has a value which extends beyond its immediate purpose, just as the Taj Mahal is more than a mere building.

You might for this reason feel a tug of real emotion whenever you encounter a particularly well-carved chair. Is there some beauty in the sculpture? Is there some hidden poetry in each individual lathe-mark? It could, on the other hand, be that you’ve not had a chance to sit down in a while – fortunately, artisan goods have function as well as form.

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to fill a home with nothing but mass-produced items, just as it’s possible to spend a lifetime eating nothing but microwaved jalfrezi, watching only old re-runs of Open All Hours and listening to nothing but computer-orchestrated pan-pipe music. However much one might love all of those things, such an existence is bound to appear a little humdrum after a while. It will lack something intangible. It will lack character. It will have no soul.

When you buy an artisan product, you’ll do so knowing that some other human being has spent time in creating that product – not a whole series of items, to be mechanistically churned out by a robot or a division of unskilled labour – but just the item you’re looking at, or smelling, or holding in your hands. The person who made it did so just for you – even if they didn’t know it at the time.

The term ‘artisan is one which refers to a select few craftspeople – those who produce goods of such exceptional quality that they could justly be described as art. These are people who are so good at what they do that they couldn’t help but produce items of great beauty – even if they themselves are more concerned with function, and with the joy of creation. And it’s this expressive power which separates merely accomplished crafters with

master ones – and defines artisanal goods.

So, if you’re looking to enter the wonderful world of the artisan, be sure to take a look through our catalogue. There you’ll find rugs, pots, furniture, clothes and everything else in between. Each is sourced sustainably, from small crafters whose work is as beautiful as it is functional.

It may seem as though the question of what constitutes a hand-crafted item has a rather self-explanatory answer. But things aren’t quite so simple. The dividing line between a mass-produced product and a hand-crafted one can be a blurry one. After all, almost all labour is performed using one’s hands – one could envisage a production line in which twenty people perform small, repetitive tasks over and over in order to turn raw materials into a long procession of finished products. Products created using such a method could accurately be described as ‘hand crafted’, but they would not really fit with the spirit of handmade goods that we’re venerating here.

So what do we mean when we say ‘handmade’? Well, we use the word to refer to the work of a few highly-skilled individuals (or even just one) crafting their product, usually from scratch. This might mean a potter taking a lump of clay and spinning it into a beautiful urn; it might mean an artisan sculptor taking a block of wood and whittling it into a beautiful model of an elephant; it might even mean a swordsmith forging a modern Excalibur from a crude lump of iron.

But in what respect are such goods better than their mass-produced equivalents? Let’s take a moment to examine the benefits of hand-crafting – and the reasons that you might wish to introduce some wonderful hand-crafted goods into your home.

It should go without saying that disposability and sustainability are not comfortable bedfellows. Advances in recycling technology have yet to compensate for the sheer volume of unwanted products that we humans dispose of every day.

From an environmentalist point of view, it is therefore preferable to place a stronger emphasis on high-quality goods which can be used again and again. This means smaller volumes, which means a more level playing field, upon which hand-crafted goods can better compete with their production-line counterparts.

Mass production, almost by definition, results in a great deal of waste. Since hand-crafted items are produced on a smaller scale, they can be made according to the demand. They are often built to last a much longer period of time, and therefore place far less of a burden on the environment.

Just as the initial switch from handmade products to mass-produced ones was driven by technological advances, so too has the resurgence of handcrafted products. The only difference is that the newer advances – those whose main beneficiary has been handcrafted goods and their designers – have been less to do with the means of production and more to do with the means of distribution.

Thanks to the unstoppable spread of the internet, artisan crafters are in a better position than ever to find buyers for their wares. While once the maker of a high-quality, niche product might once have been unable to

why handmade

matters to us

handmade goods are betterfor the environment

Handmade goods can now be

bought more easily

market its products, doing so today is easy. If you want proof of this, simply spend a few moments browsing Google in search of such products.

This has knock-on benefits for the makers of such items. Since there is a much improved market in which to sell unusual, handcrafted items, manufacturers of such items can afford to take creative and artistic risks. This development has allowed thousands of people to give up their jobs in administration, and to make a living selling their creations through the internet – an idea which would have been unthinkable not so long ago.

The end result is a vibrant, prosperous market where creative people can develop their ideas, safe in the knowledge that they will be able to come into contact with people who might be interested in their work. Makers of replica medieval broadswords, pop-culture apparel, and breathtakingly weird brass musical instruments have each benefited from the explosion in customers the internet has brought to their doors.

One of the problems that mass production was purported to solve when it was first introduced is that of individuality. Every item off a production line is virtually identical – they are all created in precisely the same way, using precisely the same process. The result is a uniform line of homogenous goods: if you buy a mass-produced saucer from say, Ikea, then you can be sure that there are hundreds of thousands of kitchens throughout the world which contain near-exact replicas of that very same saucer. This ethos is not just limited to the world of homeware – one of the guiding principles of fast food chains like McDonalds is that their items are more or less identical. Each Big Mac is broadly the same, whether it’s been bought in or Texas or Taipei.

More than ever before, consumers are introducing into their homes items which were crafted by hand – not in spite of their imperfections, but because of them. The philosophy behind the resurgence of handmade items maintains that difference are not flaws to be eliminated, but benefits to be celebrated.

Each handcrafted item is completely unique, and therefore precious.

By storing handmade items in your home, you are helping to preserve the legacy of the artist who created it. In this way, all of our homes can be transformed into museums, full of treasures for our guests to marvel at.

Moreover, buying handmade items helps to preserve skills that have been handed down between generations for hundreds, and sometimes thousands of years. This helps artists throughout the world to maintain a deep spiritual connection with their ancestors – and to do so without consigning themselves to a life of poverty.

Much of the value of handmade items has been forgotten. Yet, if you hold a high-quality handmade item in your hand, you can immediately discern that it is something precious. It’s the product of the imagination, toil and skill of a brilliant worker. And that is something to be cherished rather than mechanized into obsolescence.

That’s why we think that, even in today’s modern, globalised world, where goods are manufactured in unprecedented volumes, using machines and methods of unprecedented scale and sophistication, there still exists a place for high-quality, hand-crafted goods.

handmade items

are unique

Handmade items continue

a legacy

who we do

business with These are the people that make it all happen and why it is an absolute pleasure and privilege doing what we do each day!

“Would you believe I wake at exactly 5am every morning, I have a normal small breakfast, I have 2-3 cups of tea or coffee, one pancake or one egg or small bread.

My house and my office are 30 seconds apart, so I don’t have far to go! My job is in customer relations, solve the problems, talking with material vendor etc normally I send around 100 emails, I have to meet at least 10 people and have 2-3 meetings every day.

My favourite part of the day is when I get a good feedback from our customer, that moment is the best moment for me, after that my day will be really great and happy. I get home earliest 6.30pm otherwise 7.30pm.

If I go out in the evening normally I go to meet friends, go to restaurants with my kids and wife. I also spend time with my father and mother.

There are lots of things that inspire me, I really enjoy work, the biggest thing which I was inspired is when I see all the women working in my office, I feel really proud that I give so much job opportunity.

My favourite product we make- all the Christmas goods, specially penguin, he is one of my favourite animals.

The key to a good life is working hard, enjoy the work and talking.”

Supplier Product: XM243

a day in the life of

maheswor, nepal

supplier of felt items

A day in the life of

oscar, chile

“I try to get up really early, 5AM, sometimes I fail and don’t get up till 8AM, it’s really magic waking up super early. I am a vegetarian, so for breakfast I usually prepare some big juice, with apple, orange, banana, celery, kiwi, lemon and carrots, whatever I can find to make a good match. My breakfast is also my lunch so I have 3-4 eggs (now are going to get some chickens) with rice, pasta etc or some lentils and beans.

On a normal day I check the sales and attend to my wholesale customers, I look for alliances with pubs, bars and hotels, who throw out a lot of glass, so I can take them. I also take care of design and packaging, as well as collecting the bottles. I think I love everything around my job, I enjoy a lot when I see customers using our glasses at a fancy restaurant. When people support our idea, it makes us work harder for making each glass of the world a Green Glass.

I also like going to the recycling centre that gets bottles from the streets from the trash collectors. I’m inspired by the trash collectors because of their humbleness and the work they do. They are cleaning our world. We are working for improving their trading conditions and we look for supplying them with better collecting carts.

In the evenings I KEEP WORKING...ok that’s a joke. I visit my girlfriend or I go out with friends, we go drinking craft beer. I love beer. I also buy beer to drink at home with Dad, it makes him

happy and me too. It’s a ritual we now share.

What inspires me is the fact we are taking trash, producing work and at the same time making the MOST AWESOME GLASSES IN THE WORLD. I really want to give this message. In today’s world full of garbage we need to redesign everything. I want GREEN GLASS to be an example of how to do things. We believe this is the way to go. That’s our way of saving the world bottle by bottle.”

Supplier Product: BN565

supplier of recycledglass items

a day in the life of

vineet, delhi

“I get up at 6AM and for breakfast I have different stuff- alfalfa sprouts, eggs bread, oats etc. I drive to work, on a normal day I play games and sleep – just kidding!! Catch up with emails is first thing, sending information to my factory, working on any sampling requests, then taking production statuses from various regions and factories, and then interdepartmental meetings with my 2 brothers, are some of the major activities.

My favourite part of the day is at night when I am at home, having eaten dinner and my legs plonked on the sofa watching T.V. I usually get home at around 7.30 – 8pm. Again I have a mix of things for supper – lentils, chicken, breads, vegetables, yoghurt and rice.

If we go out in the evening, a visit to the movie theatre is the favourite right now, the kids are small, so we don’t venture out too much.

Inspiration in my work comes from the Hansa legacy- my grandfather started the business in 1960, I would like to carry it forward to 2060 and then let my kids carry it beyond that! It has fed us for the last 55 years and God willing it will do so for many more.

Favourite products are the ones with the ceramic finish- they are colourful, excellent quality and innovative. We came up with this finish and I love to show it off!

Key to a good life- not to take oneself to seriously and to always think the person in front is smarter than you.”

Supplier Product: LT200

supplier of lanterns

supplier of hand-block

printed textiles

a day in the life ofgopal, jaipur

I wake around 4am in morning. After that I fill fresh tap water in buckets for drinking, meanwhile I switch on my television and listen to holy songs by which I get relaxed and get lots of good energy. Around 6am I start reading newspaper and till 7 I read almost 2 news paper. Well I’m now 62 so it take more long time to read and get updated.

At 8 we drink Indian tea and than we get ready for work. Just after bath we first go temple to pray with god for blessing our customer and poor artisan involved with us.

Now its time for breakfast. Usually I eat 2 chapatti’s with Dal. Very simple Indian breakfast. I drive my car to factory and start working around 10 am to 8 pm. First we clean factory and start working with our workers. I control factory by checking all production, assorting goods and pack them in boxes. I love working all day as it make me fit. For me working is like doing physical as well as mental exercise. I get inspired from my father for hard working and never think about what people will think of me while working like a labour class. For me to do any work is same and one should know everything about the type of work you are doing and not a single department. I can control factory, take orders from buyer, taking care of printing units, dying units, stitching units located separately from each other, making custom documents. I try to manage everything and follow up till my customer feedback... I started business in 1976 of textiles, garments, handicrafts. With a very less amount of capital and took a shop in Chameliwala market located in M.I.Road in jaipur which was main tourist market for stones and silver Jewellery.

Now my main business is block printing and made-ups as many artisan and poor family are involved in our whole process. Its done all by hand and is not polluting the environment. Almost 300 people are working with us directly or indirectly. We try to help each one by giving them some sort of work and responsibility. I am very happy with my business and people working with us. The best product that we make is Cotton Quilts. I love them to sell. Quilts take a lot of time to get finish as it goes in lots of hand. Its very famous product in jaipur and I am lucky that we are contributing to our city for something.

At 8 pm we close factory and shop and go home. Then we take dinner and watch daily soaps with family. After that we take rest and go to sleep around 10 pm and prepare for next day. This is how we spend a normal day. But we go out on Sundays or weekend for temples, malls etc with family and do some social activities in our society like festivals, get together etc. The key to a good life according to me is honesty with hard working and to be patience and learn always something new, live for others happiness and God will make you happy.One day we will be left with nothing but respect, love, reputation which is most important in our life...

Supplier Product: BS238

supplier of furniture &

textile items

a day in the life ofbabulal, jaipur

I get up at 6AM and for breakfast I have juice, fruit, beaten rice (Poha), bean sprouts, sandwich etc. I get to work in my car – Audi A6.

On a normal day I give replies to the emails, dealing with buyers if any, controlling the business activities etc.

Morning time is the best time as I get up, go for walking, do yoga, then before going to office generally I visit temple which gives me inner happiness and makes me happy all day.

I get home normally by 7pm, for supper I have chapatti, dal, green vegetables, rice etc.

In the evening I like to spend time with my family, relatives and friends, either I go to their house or they come to my home.

The creativity in this field inspires me (furniture and textiles) and the dedication of our staff towards their work inspires me.

A favourite product – for me each product is special as we invest a lot of time to create different products but Pakistani pillow ( cc602) is one of my favourite as it is made of very old fabric and I like to collect old fabric because in future it won’t exist, the beauty old antique has ,other products can not have.

Key to a good life- I simple living, speak truth, help human being, no tension.

Supplier Product: FT255

A day in the life of

Pallavi, moradabadsupplier of cushions &hand-painted metal items

A day in my life is beautiful, challenging and happy. Though I am a lazy bum, I still get up at 7AM on weekdays and go to sleep at 10PM. My kids go to school so I get up early to make their breakfast, but in 4 years I think that job will be over. My morning tea and cookies are my breakfast and sometimes I have an apple and a glass of milk, I get ready by 9AM and leave for work.

I go straight to my office, pray to God, and then start my day with a big hello to my co-workers.

Then the lust to create something new, drags me to the sampling department, where all the colourful fabrics and my smiling embroidery guys wait for me. I love to start my day creating a new design of cushion.

The favourite part of my day is when I am with my daughters, they get back from school, and then I have lunch with them. Their smiling faces and exciting eyes always inspire me.

In the evening I love to gaze out of my balcony in the sky and watch birds flying back to their nests. The beauty of nature and people around me always inspire me at work. I am inspired by different cultures, tribes and traditions. It is not fair to ask, which is my favourite design , as I love all of them, but I am attracted to floral motifs and patterns.

A satisfied mind and a happy heart is the key to a good life, making people smile around you, doing what you love and have a passion for.

Supplier Product: CC809

a day in the life of

frank, bangalore

supplier of incense

The Usual time of my waking up is around 5.30 in the morning, after that it is meditation for about 30 minutes and followed by Yoga for about 45 minutes. For breakfast its usually first a cup of warm water with honey, followed by bread toasts or parathas with Orange juice and herbal tea. I get to work by car I have a BMW - X5 & a Mercedes “C” Class.

On a normal day the first thing is prayer on arrival, after that it is going through the meeting schedules for the day, then a visit to the factory

premises and then attend vendors issues and then back to meetings for the full day. My favourite part of the day is after lunch, cause we get to chat informal with everyone around us and I get to have my 20 wink power nap! I get home between 6.30p.m to 10.00 p.m depending on the activity for the day.

Supper is usually around 9 to 9.30p.m & if i go out in the evening its either movies with friends, a good restaurant for dinner or my to rotary club meeting. In my work I am inspired by the commitments and demands of our patrons and the enthusiasm and energy of our teams which keeps me on my toes always. My all time favourite product is Nagchampa, but get obsessed with Lavender for good sleep.

My key to a good life is live simple and live in the NOW.

Supplier Product: II010

supplier of rag rugs

a day in the life ofdinesh, delhi

I get up at 6AM and for breakfast I have milk and apple (only veg). My home is near to my workplace, so I arrive by walking.

On a normal day at work, first I pray to God and worship in a small temple in our workplace with all

staff. And we all say OM shanti om etc (it means – in all the world – PEACE). We then distribute the bananas or other fruits for everyone as a PRASAD (God food), gift of God.

Then I check the emails, and reply first important emails, then I check the status of production process and check quality randomly, and in the between, attend some meetings.

My favourite part of the day is God prayer.

I get home at 8pm and for supper we have chapati , vegetables and rice, (only veg).

If I go out in the evening, I am fond to see movies with my family.

I love too much with my work really, this is my passion, specially when I pay to others as vendors, then I feel really good, as I think that first pay and clear to others dues, then only enjoy your own life with money.

My favourite product we send you are the cotton rag rugs – multi colours. (RG001, 2, 5,6.), because there is no colour limitation, assorted colours, bright beautiful colours and easy to make this item.

The key to a good life, think for today, what we have to do today, do not worry about tomorrow.

Supplier Product: RG106B

Ian snow ltd

www.iansnow.com

Thank you!