Stepping Outside the Map

Before the summer of 2018, traveling to India had never been at the top of my list. I'm more of a Western Europe/National Parks kind of girl. But all my favorite books are travel memoirs (my favorites are listed at the bottom of this post) and I believe the secret to life and art is pushing beyond your comfort zone.

So when Missy, my business partner at June Clever, suggested we travel to India to visit her manufacturer and see our new designs in person, I saw it as an exciting opportunity. I knew that I'd need this kind of nudge to actually visit a country that was so unknown to me.

From Sketch to Fabric

When I first walked into their screen-printing workshop, I was hit by a wave of euphoria. Here were the designs I drew on my couch back home, beautifully screen printed and ready to hold in my own two hands. Textiles are my MOST FAVORITE medium, and I've never gotten to experience the process on such a large scale before. 

Grateful for the Journey

Missy and I had a blast, I learned a ton, and we met some incredible people. There's something to be said for traveling with someone braver and more extroverted than yourself. Missy makes everything--even Delhi belly--more fun. There were lots of laughs involving the "Indian toilet" situation, let's just leave it at that.

After that trip, I found myself reading everything I could about India and its culture. It's an enormous and complex country with ancient history. It seems impenetrable to a westerner like myself. But I'm forever curious and I’m hugely grateful I was able to experience a small bit of it.

The Spark That Started It All

Now that I had been to India, a whole new world had opened up to me for products I could create. I now knew what I needed to launch Handker (which was originally named Hemlock Goods) in March 2019. 

Every experience teaches you something you need to know to move down the road–I can safely say Handker wouldn’t exist without Missy encouraging me to make that journey.