Felt Bags
We sell a fantastic range of felt bags and purses designed
by Josephine Karen. These felt bags are great quality and
come in bright funky colours and designs. Josephine has been
designing felt bags and felt products for many years.
The felt items are made in Nepal. Jospehine creates her designs
and then takes them over to Nepal. There she employs a co-operative
of women to make her felt bags and other items. It is all
done on a fairtrade basis. The women work from around 9.30-10
am until 4.30pm, their hours are very flexible. They get free
tea and coffee (Nepali tea/coffee which is made from 100%
milk which is quite an expense). They collect their pay weekly
and have the option of working over time on a regular basis.
Children can come to work with their mothers and have separate
space to
play. All the women are over the age of 16 years, and surprisingly
most are
educated. The felt bags and other items are of a high quality
and very durable compared to other felt products. The women
take a lot of pride in their work. A good felter can earn
very good money by Nepali standards.
It is interesting that women are almost desperate to work
for the two
groups Josephine works with because of the good conditions
and pay and a lot
of the women wanting/working there have come from the fair
trade groups
operating in Nepal because the pay and conditions are better.
One woman told Josephine she liked working there because of
the conditions
and pay but most of all because she loved Josephine's felt
bag designs which gave her
a challenge in her work and made her think.
The felt bags has proved particularly popular because of
the great colours and designs. The felt bags are very durable,
they can even be machine washed with care. Many people who
buy a felt bag often come back to us and buy different designs
and colours.
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