The hands behind the find
Before there is a product, there is a person. A block printer in Bagru who has spent thirty years perfecting a resist technique passed down through four generations. A blue pottery maker in Jaipur whose family has been shaping this distinctive turquoise glaze since the Mughal era. A madhubani painter in Bihar whose work tells stories that predate the printing press. A kalamkari artisan in Andhra Pradesh whose hand-drawn narratives take weeks to complete.
These are not suppliers. They are the reason Little India Treasures exists.
When we go hunting, we are not looking for the cheapest version of something beautiful. We are looking for the real thing — made by someone who knows it deeply, who has invested years in understanding it, and whose livelihood depends on the world continuing to value what they do. Every piece in our collection begins with that person. Everything else follows from them.
No middlemen. No mystery.
We work directly with the artisans and makers who create our products. There is no importer in between, no agent interpreting what we want, no layer of distance between the person designing the brief and the person executing it with their hands.
This is a deliberate choice. Direct relationships mean we know who we are working with. We can see the workshop, understand the process, ask the questions that matter and hear honest answers. We know what a fair price looks like because we understand what the work actually costs — in time, skill, materials and the years of training that precede every finished piece.
It also means the artisan knows us. They know what we value, what we will and will not ask of them, and that we are not going to disappear after one order. We are building something long-term — and long-term relationships are the only kind worth having when craft and livelihoods are involved.
The Treasure Hunter's code has always included a clear principle: if you find something extraordinary, you do not take advantage of the person who made it possible.
We pay fairly. Not just market rate — fairly. We pay on time, without delay, because artisan communities and small workshops cannot absorb late payment the way a large corporation can. We price our products to reflect the true cost of what goes into them, which means we do not race to the bottom and we do not ask our makers to either.
We are transparent about what we are doing and why. When we ask for something — a new design, a different colourway, a change to a technique — we explain the reasoning. We listen when the answer is no. We do not treat the people who make our products as a means to an end. They are partners in the hunt, and they deserve to be treated as such.
These are not heritage crafts. They are living ones.
Certain words get used a lot — in trend reports, in marketing copy, in the descriptions of products that bear no real connection to the traditions they name. We want to be clear about what they mean to us, and why the distinction matters.
These are living craft traditions. They are practised today, by real people, in specific places, using skills that took years to acquire and that exist nowhere else in quite the same form. They are also fragile. When demand disappears, the craft does not immediately vanish — but the youngest generation stops learning it. The knowledge becomes thinner with each passing year until, eventually, it is gone.
We believe that buying well is one of the most direct ways to keep these traditions alive. When a handcrafted piece finds its way into a home in Britain, it creates the economic justification for a young artisan to keep learning their craft rather than leave for the city. That is not a small thing. It is, in fact, the whole point.
What we actually do
here is the detail if you want it
We do not design products from a distance and send a specification to be fulfilled — we go, we look, we understand what the craft can do and what it cannot, and we design with that knowledge rather than against it.
Block printing has its own geometry. Blue pottery has its own palette. Madhubani has its own language of motifs. We do not try to override these things in pursuit of a trend. We work with them, which means our products are shaped by the traditions they come from, not merely decorated with them.
How is this dye made? Where does this clay come from? How long does this process take? How many people are involved? We believe that understanding the full journey of a product — from raw material to finished piece — is not optional for a brand that asks customers to value what they are buying.
A journey, not a destination
Share something about your business
We are a young business. We have not been doing this for forty years. There are things we have not yet figured out, commitments we are working towards, and questions we are still asking ourselves. We think honesty about that is more valuable than a polished list of achievements we cannot yet fully claim.
What we can say with confidence is this: every decision we make about sourcing, pricing, design and partnerships is made with the people behind the products in mind. That does not mean we always get it right. But it means we are always trying to, and we will keep improving as we grow.
If you have questions about how we work, how a particular product was made, or who made it — ask us. We will tell you what we know. And if we do not know something, we will say so and go and find out.
Your life is part of the story
When a piece from Little India Treasures comes to live in your home, it brings something with it — not just the object itself, but the tradition it comes from, the hands that made it and the place where it began. That is not something we say to make a sale. It is the actual reason we go looking for these things.
The treasure hunt only makes sense if what is found is truly valued. And the people who have been making extraordinary things for centuries deserve to know that the world still cares about what they do.
We are glad you are here.
Related pages
To understand our environmental commitments and what we are working towards, please visit
