Why it’s important to find a good sourcing and custom product development consultant

Hiring a good sourcing and custom product development consultant for your next project will save you lots of time as well as a few headaches. He/she will save you months of hunting down appropriate vendors, base product samples for ideas and other  research, and prevent some potentially messy missteps. What’s more, the consultant can do everything from simply acting as a sounding board for your ideas to undertaking more involved work, like product design and specification, sampling and arranging for production plus shipping and delivery while supervising the entire project from start to finish.

Approved by Green America’s prestigious Green Seal of Approval, Barkha’s Custom Sourcing is dedicated to providing its customers with sustainable fabrics, including handloom textiles that have been created from organic fibers that are woven using traditional methods by artisans in India and Nepal. By partnering with Indian and Nepalese artisans Barkha’s Custom Sourcing seeks to stimulate growth amongst small businesses and start-up companies in developing nations; and to promote fair trade using sustainable products.

In addition to supporting the global community, Barkha’s Custom Sourcing also supports such local organizations as the Atlanta Humane Society and the Refugee Resettlement & Immigration Services of Atlanta (RISSA). The company has also been an avid supporter of the Atlanta Breast Cancer Walk.

Factory Pictures from India

Workers at FAIR TRADE Factory, India

Seamstress at FAIR TRADE Factory, India

Making Organic cotton Stuffed Toys at FAIR TRADE Factory,India

I spent a lot of time at the FAIR TRADE factory in India where a lot of my organic cotton production work is carried out. These are some of the pictures taken there……..

I am in India!

I guess it is about time I started writing …I mean actually writing here. It is not that the thought does not cross my mind almost everyday,but it is the actual task of writing something worthwhile (that someone out there really might read) that stops me in my tracks!

But, here goes and like the rest of you out there that blog……I am going to begin writing and sharing some of what I do as part of my business and why I do it.

What better time to begin than now..I am in India searching for fabric and working on product development and sampling for new clients.

Stay tuned for all I have to share……..

Barkha

Happy Earth Day from Barkha Textiles!

April is Earth Month, and as we’re sure you may have heard, Earth Day is right around the corner on April 22! Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970 and is meant to raise awareness and appreciation for environmentalism. In recent years, Earth Day has been expanded into Earth Month with several companies and organizations launching programs and initiatives to involve consumers in recycling programs and environmental pursuits.

Here are some fun things you and your family can do to celebrate:

Disney’s Oceans, the follow-up to last year’s Earth, comes out on Earth Day! Follow 4 different sea animal families throughout their yearly journeys. Click here to order tickets!

Pick 5 is an initiative by the EPA that challenges Americans to pick 5 simple recycling habits. Click here to get involved!

The “It’s My Environment” video project, also put on by the EPA, is a nation contest where you send in a video of you and your loved one’s saying the words, “it’s my environment.” All the winners will be selected for a nation ad later this year! Send yours in now!

Go here to find out what other cool Earth Day events are happening in your area!

Here at Barkha Textiles, we celebrate our Earth year round by encouraging new clients to embrace organic fabrics in lieu of conventional cottons, using a “green” web hosting company, recycling all of our fabric scraps and paper, forgoing fancy packaging on orders with our suppliers, and we consolidate orders as much as possible to cut down on packaging and our company’s carbon footprint. When we do have to ship, we make sure to reuse as much packing material as possible! We have also recently started using recycled natural gas to power our home and business and have begun working with co-ops made up of local women to help us produce our products.

Do you have any suggestions of what Barkha Textiles could do to improve our eco-friendliness? The first 10 commenters will receive a free organic cotton shopping bag or a scarf and then the rest will entered into a random drawing on earth day to win a beautiful silky soft off-white bamboo (rayon) satin scarf worth $100. We want to hear from you!

Have a great Earth Day!

Hello, Everyone. As we close the first month of the new year, we’ve found ourselves in the midst of several cool projects here at Barkha’s Textiles.

We’ve recently worked with the game, Tri-Cross, to green up their product! These are the before and after pictures. We took the over-packaged, non eco-friendly materials and replaced them with GOTS certified organic cotton canvas and low-impact dyes. All of the new “green games” are made at a fair labor plant in India and help to support the local economy.

We’ve also just installed a new display over at Eco Emporium. If you should find yourself in the Atlanta area, head over to 1000 Marietta Street and visit Eco Emporium, Atlanta’s premier shop for earth-friendly housewares and gifts! Visiting the store is an experience, and we’re so proud to now be a part of it. Drop by to inquire about our range of earth-friendly fabrics for sale by the yard.

Barkha’s Textiles is now also a member of the Eco Fashion Network. The EFF is a network of individuals, businesses & organizations focusing upon social & environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.

Those in the fashion industry who are interested in learning more please join us at:
http://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/main/invitation/new?xg_source=msg_wel_network

RRISA

On Friday, December 4^th, The Westminster School in Atlanta held its 3^rd annual alternative gift fair. Over 30 non-profit and other organizations participated in the show. Barkha’s Textiles has been a participant since the first show 3 years ago. We support a different cause each year with part of the sale proceeds going to the chosen charity. Last year we supported the Atlanta Humane Society.

This year we shared a table with the wonderful creations of the Karen women weavers of ‘Threads of Promise’, a refugee resettlement business enterprise started by RRISA( Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta). Barkha supports the group by volunteering as a TOP committee member and helps in new product design/development and yarn sourcing. Besides RRISA’s own stand-alone booth at the fair, 10% of our profits for the night went to the RRISA foundation as well.

The afore-mentioned weaving group, Threads of Promise, is the small-scale business enterprise supported by RRISA. TOP works with Burmese and Bhutanese refugee women in the production of beautiful hand-loom products, including scarves, bags, runners and placemats. This is a really worthy project on many levels, not just for the economic opportunity it offers for these Karen women, but for the knowledge and confidence they gain from participating in the project. We have started noticing a newfound sense of pride and empowerment showing in their demeanor since they began working with us.

Click here to read more about RRISA!

Welcome!

Hello and Thank You for visiting the Barkha textiles blog! Barkha Textiles is a custom textile development and sourcing business run by Atlanta resident Barkha Malik. All fabrics we work with are eco-friendly and guaranteed fair labor. We started this blog to discuss and dissect current textile related eco-issues and give our customers a closer look on the types of fabrics we source and how we find them.

Barkha began working in the textile industry in 1991, shortly after relocating to the U.S. with her husband from Delhi, India. A lover and collector of all handmade textiles, she has been working with artisans and weavers in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh for many years to develop custom textiles for use in domestic markets. Her main focus these days is to expand and market her collection of sustainable textiles. One of her key goals is to promote and preserve some of the dying traditional art forms in these developing countries by giving these co-ops and villages a marketing path into the vast American market!

Barkha has made personal visits to most of the manufacturers she sources from, to personally guarantee that everything we stock adheres to both eco-friendly and fair labor guidelines. The others are inspected by liaison offices in the respective countries. The manufacturing processes used are as green as possible to have a low impact on their surrounding ecosystems. Barkha only sources from organizations that are sweat-shop free and treat their workers fairly. The sales of these fabrics directly benefit the workers themselves and not exploitive mega corporations.

Family co-op in Nepal