Off-the-beaten-path journeys focused on textile heritage & artisan-led workshops.

After 30 years of sourcing and designing in India, I now take small groups into artisans’ workshops, houses, cities and villages that have shaped my working life.

India is layered in a way few places are. A 12th-century stepwell can sit quietly at the edge of a modern city. A temple wall, worn by centuries of touch, stands beside the noise and speed of the present day. The past is not preserved behind glass. It is lived alongside the present.

Many of the artisans we meet practise skills handed down through generations. A handloom, a carved wooden block dipped in indigo, a chisel, a potter’s wheel and wooden frames. These become extensions of the hand, used daily and with remarkable control. Materials are natural and local: clay from nearby earth, hand-spun cotton, natural dyes drawn from flowers, vegetables, roots and trees.

The palaces and temples are not separate from this craft tradition. The same motifs carved into stone centuries ago reappear in block-printed cloth and embroidered borders. Proportion, pattern and story pass from architecture into textile and back again. When you begin to see that continuity, India shifts. It becomes coherent.

We do not only observe. We sit with artisans in their workshops and learn directly from them. You can print your own cloth, try the rhythm of a loom, stitch under guidance.

India can feel overwhelming if approached quickly. When you move more slowly, you encounter depth, skill, generosity and hospitality. After three decades working in India, I am opening that world carefully.