Why Fennel?

In June 2007, I moved to Denmark, leaving behind a design practice and consultancy in India. Moving was not easy. I have in the time since tried to sit down, and spend some time in thinking where I wanted all the energy to now go.

There were many issues that struck me as I jostled through projects in India. Craft technologies, their redundancy in may cases, they impending future, identity and posterity were issues that plagued me as I worked in the craft sector. Working conditions, humanitarian factory culture, the widening gap between the owners and the tailors and staff and the value of time for a labourer living in a country like India affected me. But work and a string of projects barely gave me the time to reflect.

Copenhagen was the change I needed. Calm, and some time.

In the winter of 2007, my husband and I decided that much of our thoughts about how such production systems work and should work would be deemed idealistic, if we didnt try them out for real. We decided to go back to set up a pilot run workshop in India. My familiar territory in textiles only provided a ready ground.

And so the initiative and all the people who joined it received a name. Fennel.

Fennel is a design brand. But working for it is not a n anonymous group of craftsmen. Every person who makes an article for Fennel is part of an open expressive process that makes each one create unique pieces. Thus as part of the production process here, every artisan gets due credit for the piece he or she makes. For the consumer, it is a great opportunity to know not just what went into the process of making the product but also know who made it.

We want to be able to create a streamlined process for delivering payments to every single person involved in the production process. This means that much of the unpaid labour in the hand weaving industry will now to be accounted for.

We want to establish the day wage norms as set by the Government of India.

We want to not just pay them, but be able to deliver the payment in forms that will be help create the financial infrastructure for our artisans.

It has taken a dozen months to merely establish the right supply chain and identify all the stake holders. But it is now that the fun will begin!

Watch this space for new products and see how you can be a part of this change!