The artist and the artisan...they are a vanishing breed in today's increasingly urban world.

And that is true of the minakari jeweller [in the picture below] or the bastar brass artisan or the bandhej tie & dye worker or the kalamkari painter, in India.

Commerce needs to add to their efforts. Because, there is nothing more motivating for a creative artist than an admiring, well-paying customer. And, it is here that Artikrti hopes to lend a hand. In its small way, Artikrti hopes to add value by taking their work to the global stage & reach out to India-lovers the world over and present their artistic creations.

Every piece of work that you find on Artikrti is an authentic original from the source of that art or craft- be it a tie & dye fabric for a skirt or an embroidered patchwork wall hanging or a colorful tote bag. By creating this online marketplace for their works of art, Artikrti hopes to bring fair value to their labor of love. And it is you, as the discerning customer, who finally makes it happen.

Apart from bringing a fair value for their work and creating a market, as a measure of giving back, Artikrti also supports key women's work groups in South India to help nurture and spread the talent. Our focus will be educating women, because a woman is a family's fulcrum. Empower her and you empower her family and her next generation. My mom, my grandmother, though each was from a different era, was just that. As Artikrti blossoms, we will identify other non-profit Indian organizations we ought to support and you will hear more when we have made a constructive contribution and set-up partnerships to give back more. This will be a start.

Artikrti's vision is to create an academy which will train talent, foster creativity, empower the creator and sustain the art. That academy will be in memory of my late mother, who was a talented artist and painter herself. One day...