I grew up in the communist block where people could not travel freely for so long. I had some favourite movies and I used to dream to become a nomad, a traveller, an adventurer, a missionary, an explorer, a merchant, and all those silly things from the past centuries.

Artist? Never wanted to be!

A dream came true when I was 19 years old and I ended up in India in a missionary hospital for six months.
From there I knew – anything is possible! And here I am, all those I wanted to be!
I spent fifteen years on ‘changing the world’ as a social worker when I realized, my world needs to be changed too if I do not want to burn out. So, I needed a hobby where I shall not connect with anyone only to myself. When I used to work with Gypsy youth, I learned felt making, so I bought some wool and spent time with it. It was fantastic, mixing all those gorgeous coloured fibers and seeing that it turns out to be something beautiful. My hobby became my passion and that time fortunately I discovered Etsy.

I started Etsy in 2008, first as a hobby, and I decided to quit my day job in 2009. I became a crafter and artist, what I never wanted to be. However, in this way I could be a full time traveller, adventurer, missionary, explorer, merchant, and all those silly things from the past centuries. :)

In The Steps of Marco Polo

In 2010 I was able to fund a three months volunteer placement and went back to India with my husband. I felt being inspired by the Silk Road what tells many stories of ancient times, reminds us for the exchange of cultures and I always envied Marco Polo for his travels and adventures. So besides doing our work we also wanted to purchase my silk fabrics from real merchants, not from the shops in the main streets and we started to explore places in India connected to silk weaving.
In 2011 we made one more step forward. We opened our supply shop and stocked it up in an unusual way. We visited places all over in India where silk was produced, hand dyed and hand-woven and we met many people and got know a few more lives.
I strongly believe that this should be real trade about: connecting people. Without first-hand interaction there won’t be a fair trade, there won’t be a fair world. Probably it would have been much cheaper to sit at my computer and buying my silk by clicking a few times but I think there would be no purpose in it.

But is art not also to connect people and discover the world? Is that not great to find out how my supply gets to me? Is that not exciting to learn a new language to reach out people and talk about life? And, at the end, is that not fantastic to unload your huge backpacks what you carried before like a camel through thousands of miles on foot, by trains, rickshaws, buses, metros, planes? All my supplies have a story. All my fabrics and supplies have a face.

The Workshop of a Traveller

I have lot of boxes as we moved around a lot but it does not mean that I haven’t got a home. In fact, we have a flat, but I would not call it our home. It is static, you can not take it anywhere, you are bonded to that. When I quit my day job, I wanted to live my dreams. With my husband we decided to buy a motorhome, and we moved in it. From that time we could spend every summer with drifting from town to town in France, Italy and the UK and stayed in amazing places. I only needed to have a big purpose made surface to cover the 4 seats furniture in the motorhome, had water and soap anywhere, and during our European travels I made so many scarves, pictures and stoles, all inspired by Venice, Tuscany, Provence, Dartmoor Forest, the lavender fields and the beaches.
Is it not fun to move around places like that in your own workshop? :)

On The Road Again

We hit the road last summer and travelled in France and Southwest England.
We run our business as usual and each sale helps us to keep ourselves in motion.
Thanks for shopping by us!