Nila Moti and learning curves

We have been blessed with more visitors in the last few days, Isabelle from Switzerland and Ratna from Indionesia. Isabelle heads an organization based in Indonesia to help build business skills for impoverished women and Ratna is her righthand woman there.

A firend of Isabelles....power gone will finish story later....It has been the week of no power in the mornings and then a scant few hours in the afternoon and hopefully on by dark...very difficult!!

Usha [green sari] is a co-ordinator at Nila Moti Trust and showedus around, the ambience of the place is magical, peaceful and productive...it appears women work on items from start to finish not part of a production line- I like that I think oyu would feel more involved in your work.

a weaving room

gorgeous silk scaves...very desirable

Ratna, this picture sums her up, a gorgeous ray of sunshine and in amongst the work, she has a good eye for detail and finish of products.

so many innovative designs, superbly executed...ohh so much to aspire to

Isabelle and I; our minds were boggling! so much to learn...we kept having small oh wow! pow-wows and noting observations, next minute Praveen and I were doing the same whilst she and Ratna were noting things that related to their venture.

Great atmosphere for the women to work in and it shows in the work they produce.

Our gang at the Khimsar Fort.

looking over the grounds this is a very new 5star renovation of an old fort....just wonderful.....of course Praveen and I started juggling wondering if it and the Trust can become part of future itineraries for Creative Arts Safaris but there always seems to be something else we would like to share we could keep people busy in Rajasthan alone for months!

Very staisfying day....Praveen woke up the next day dreaming of something much more simple but with the same peaceful and productive atmosphere over in our new village.

They really need work there and already women from further out are starting to approach us....we have had to say NO to more new ladies at the moment, we have a whole heap of items just coming on line and need to find sales of said items to fuel more work.....

Scary I love being the designer and Praveen and I are a good team working with the women but sales seems totally scary!!!

Oh well new learning curve. Any advice on pricing for retail would be good- we want to wholesale mostly but need to list our products on the web so others can find them. we can calculate our wholesale price but what is the usual markup for retail?

if we have things in our shop we don't want to be undercutting what potential reatilers will be charging....do you see my dilema?