The Craft

The Craft is right on the Main Bazar in Shahdara. If you’ve ever been to the bazar, you know how tight the lanes are and how many people are walking around at any given time. Our shop is tucked in there among the fabric sellers and the spice stalls. It’s a small space, and we have things hanging from the ceiling to save some room on the floor. There’s always a faint smell of wood and glue in the air. We spend our days making things by hand. The front door stays open most of the time, so the noise of the market is our constant background music. You hear the rickshaw drivers shouting and the bells from the temple nearby. It’s a bit chaotic, but we like being in the heart of Shahdara. We don’t have a website or anything like that; we just open the shutters in the morning and see who walks in. The floorboards creak in the back corner where we keep the raw materials. We use old tools that have been passed down for a while, and they work better than the new stuff anyway. Sometimes we sit out on the steps for a break when the shop is quiet and the sun isn't too hot. It’s a simple way of living. We aren’t trying to be anything other than a local shop in a very busy market.