Charming Handicrafts

Charming Handicrafts is situated at 1436, Shukrawar Peth, right on Bhau Maharaj Lane in the Bari Wada area. It’s one of those parts of town where the lanes are narrow and full of history. We work out of a space that feels like it’s been part of the neighborhood forever. The walls are thick and the rooms are a bit small, but it’s where all our handicraft work happens. You can usually find us surrounded by bits of wood, cloth, or whatever material we are working with that week. It’s a messy process, and we don't try to hide that. Bari Wada has a very specific feel to it, and we like being part of the local crowd. We often have people sticking their heads in just to see what we are making. There’s no big showroom here, just a front room where we keep some of the finished pieces. The noise from the lane—scooters, vendors, people talking—is the soundtrack to our day. We don't have a big team, just a few of us who know how to handle the tools. Sometimes we stay late when a project is nearly finished, and the lane gets quiet and dark. We don't use a lot of fancy words to describe what we do. We just make things by hand and hope people like them enough to take them home. It’s a slow way of working, but it’s the only way we know.