Behind every piece is a family that has spent generations learning their craft.
Aarna was founded on a simple conviction: the most honest thing a store can do is introduce you to the person who made what you are about to buy. We have never wavered from that.
The Suleman family — five generations at the loom.
Hamida Suleman learned to weave at seven, sitting beside her grandmother on a wooden pit loom in a courtyard that has not changed in fifty years. Her Chanderi silks take four days each to complete — every gold zari border drawn by hand, thread by thread.
When we first visited in 2020, she was selling to traders who paid her ₹600 for a saree sold in Delhi for ₹5,000. Today she receives ₹1,680 direct — three times more — and knows by name the people wearing her work.
"For the first time I signed my own name on the label inside the saree. My daughter photographed it."
The Prajapati co-operative — thirty potters, one kiln.
After the 2001 earthquake, seventeen families in the Anjar block lost everything. The Prajapati potters rebuilt around a shared wood-fired kiln. Their terracotta — sgraffito-etched, salt-glazed, fired at 900 degrees — carries the mineral texture of Rann soil in every piece.
We work with thirty households now. Each tea set, each planter, each diya that ships from our warehouse was packed by the same hands that shaped it. We do not warehouse in bulk — pieces ship fresh from the kiln within ten days of being fired.
Brass casting: the city that has never stopped.
Moradabad has been casting brass since the Mughal era. The Ansari workshop — a father, three sons, and two cousins — works from wax models they sculpt themselves. Every diya, every serving bowl, every candle stand is sand-cast, hand-filed, and polished with tamarind paste and chalk.
There are no power tools in this workshop. There is no need. The finish that takes a machine three passes to approximate takes Riyaz Ansari one pass — and it lasts longer. We visit twice a year, sit with the family for lunch, and bring back whatever they have been proud of that season.
Shop brass & brasswareWhen someone in another city uses my hands every morning — to hold their chai, to serve their food — that is the longest distance any weaving shuttle has ever travelled.
How we work
We visit
Every maker we list, we have sat with in person. We do not add artisans from catalogues or wholesalers.
We agree on price first
The maker names a fair price. We add our margin transparently. The customer sees both numbers on every product page.
We ship direct
Orders route to the nearest artisan, not a central warehouse. Shorter travel, fresher product, faster cash to the maker.
We return the difference
If we negotiate a better freight rate or printing cost, the saving goes back to the artisan — not to our margin.
The collection, this season.
New pieces from Chanderi, Kutch, Moradabad — and fourteen other regions — added every month.
Shop the full collection