About Us

Welcome to the RHC Webstore

Rural Handicrafts Company(RHC), based in Tampa, FL, works with artists in rural communities in India to create handicrafts that are of the highest quality. Our vision is to bring sustainable growth and development to the communities we work in through the medium of art. These ethnic Indian handicrafts are handmade with eco-friendly products and will add beauty and warmth to your lives and your homes. RHC handicrafts are given individualized attention by the artists such that no two Tea light Candle holders, Handbags, Hobo bags, Bamboo or Jute products or for that matter, any of our products, are alike. These environment friendly crafts would also make perfect Indian gifts and souvenirs. RHC handicrafts are made in a clean and safe environment in the villages of rural India where the artists are able to create these genuine pieces of art using the highest standards of quality. Our artists are paid a fair wage for their work and we believe very strongly in and support the cause of artists being compensated fairly for their work. Please come in and discover for yourselves how you can touch the lives of rural artists in India and around the world as you allow them to impact your lives.

Our Vision:

Rural Handicrafts Company exists to bring revival and sustainable growth to art forms and traditional crafts around the world by making them relevant and commercially viable.

Check out our RHC Holiday Catalog 2009

Check out the latest pictures, videos and updates on our Facebook page: Click here

Our History:

Our vision is to bring sustainable growth to areas of the world that are stuck in poverty. We are interested in the "double bottom line" or in other words profits that bring about social development and growth. With this in mind, we at RHC work with artists and skilled workers in rural India to increase the commercial value of their products. We redesign their products to make them commercially viable and we provide them with a steady income for their crafts.

Child Survival Project:

Here is a link to their homepage. We are working with the project based in Jharkhand, India. We are spreading the joy this Christmas by donating a portion of each sale on our website to this project to lighten up the faces of tribal children.

About Our Products:

Tea Light Candle holders:

Rural Handicrafts Company works with the Kumars (traditional potters) in rural villages in India to design and create kiln fired clay candle holders that can be used to adorn the homes of people around the world. The Kumars used to work on a lot of creative pieces of pottery till about a few decades ago. Around the 1980s the rise of the Chinese manufacturing industry brought about a decline in the need for the clay products and today the Kumars are struggling to make ends meet. This gave Rural Innovations Company a chance to study their community and come up with a solution that could be relevant to their lives and yet provide them with a steady income that could help raise their standard of living. After some research and planning, Rural Innovations Company, through its subsidiary, Rural Handicrafts Company, started working with the potters to recreate their products to make them commercially viable and marketable. The Tea Light Candle holders are the result of this venture. These tea light holders are made of terracotta and are hand spun on a wooden potters wheel, baked in a makeshift kiln for about 8 hours and then hand painted on by a skilled artist. The artists who paint these Tea Light Candle holders are also local people who have not been able to get employed as artists and hence have been working odd jobs. The finished product is then sent through a stringent quality check before it is approved for shipping.

Bamboo:

The Mohalis are tribal people who are skilled artisans in the craft of making products primarily from Bamboo. They have used their skills for centuries to earn a living for themselves. However, the times have changed and today they face competition from the automated machines that make the same products, but a cheaper cost. And their products have are not of much use in the modern home or are not in demand in the marketplace. At Rural Innovations, we have used innovation to bring about a solution to this crisis. We have gone back to the drawing board and have looked to design products that would appeal to consumers. We have worked closely with the Mohalis to help them realign themselves so that they can be relevant to market demand and yet be able to practice the only trade they have known since ancient days, the art of using bamboo to make products and earn a living.

Jute:

Jute is an eco-friendly, biodegradable annually replenish able cash crop. It is grown mainly in Eastern India & Bangladesh. Four million farmers in India are involved in jute cultivation. Jute passes through various processes of assorting, softening & drawing for preparing it for spinning into yarn. It is spun into various thicknesses at very high speed in modern spinning frames. Spun yarn is converted into spools & cops and starched before weaving into fabrics on most modern looms. Various weaving designs and patterns can be developed as required. Woven fabrics pass through various operations like calendaring, chemical processes for bleaching and dyeing by using jiggers and dryers & eco-friendly chemicals & zero shrinkage treatment to get consistency. Jute fabrics are of simple construction and are woven on a variety of looms. Woven fabrics are inspected, damped and calendered to produce the desired smoothness of finish. Information obtained from all about jute bag website which talks about jute history.

Madhubani Paintings:

The origins of Madhubani painting or Mithila Painting are shrouded in antiquity. Tradition states that this style of painting originated at the time of the Ramayana, when King Janak commissioned artists to do paintings at the time of marriage of his daughter, Sita, to Lord Ram.

Madhubani painting has been done traditionally by the women of villages around the present town of Madhubani (the literal meaning of which is forests of honey) and other areas of Mithila. The painting was traditionally done on freshly plastered mud wall of huts, but now it is also done on cloth, hand-made paper and canvas.

Store Location in the US:

RHC, 10530 Waterview court, Tampa, Florida, USA - 33615

Phone Number: +1.727.743.6756

Open 24 Hours

Store Location in India:

RHC, Lalgarh, Madhupur, Jharkhand, India - 815353

Phone Number: +919801466262

Open 24 Hours