Ohrna is inspired by Sharmila Sen, an artist. She trained tribal women in eastern India, running a home-based, intricately embroidered-jute enterprise, that then sold products made by them, locally. The impact was evident when many women came back with recounts of how the income helped educate their children or solved some of their basic monetary problems.
Sharmila’s designs have been embroidery-intensive, using wool and in keeping with embroidery traditions and skills of the region where she worked.
In trying to keep at least one of her designs in Ohrna, we took it to artisans in Hubli, for the design of our intricately-embroidered Meditation Mats. Cross-stitch is one of the kasuti stitches, a traditional craft form of neighboring Karnataka state in southern India.
Ohrna proudly takes forward her legacy and introduces embroidered jute to wider markets.
Ohrna believes in responsible design. Our focus is fourfold: use of sustainable materials, employment of rural and home-bound women, preservation of rich craft traditions and packaging in up cycled materials. We train for free and often employ women with minimum skills. We design to customers' needs and also constantly adapt our designs for ease of making, for our makers.