It all started with some stools.
These exact stools, in fact. They were collecting dust in a market stall in a town in the far north of Burma in early 2016. The stall-holder told us he'd pivoted to selling mangos as nobody bought his stools anymore so he's stopped making them.
We bought them all.
Back in our flat in Yangon our friends ooohed and aaahed over them. Where had we found them? Could we get some more?
This had happened before. Things that we'd found in other corners of the country were on the wishlists of visiting friends from the UK. Could we fly some trays home next time we come? How easy would it be to pack a chair? Any chance I could get them a bedspread?
Kalinko was coming together in my mind. It could stop products disappearing, help preserve skills, support livelihoods and get hungry customers the things they love.
I called a friend in Kalay, who went back to the market and persuaded the guy to make more for us. I ordered 40 - 20 small, 20 large.
But I couldn't just sell stools. I needed to fill a container to make it viable. I got back on the road with my friend Su Nge.
We travelled north, south, east and west by plane, boat and motorbike. We ate some bizarre things, went round in circles chasing red herrings, spent time with some extraordinarily skilled people, and bought endless samples.
We found rattan weavers, fabric weavers and woodworkers. We found a seamstress and made hundreds of cushions.
My friend Amelia and I shot the products and website pictures ourselves. I spent a lot of time googling "how to build a website", "what is an INCOTERM?", "how to remove background from image", etc.
Then we packed the container, waved it off and booked a last-minute stand at the Spirit of Christmas fair. No going back now.
Family and friends came to my rescue to help build the and man the stand. We launched the website as the show opened, on November 1st 2016.
I will never forget the first sale - a set of white placemats to a lovely lady called Anne - up there with the births of my children / wedding day etc.
The rest, as they say, is history. A winding, leaping and limping, wonky old history. A history which we will tell this year as we approach our tenth birthday.
If you've been here from the start I'd love to hear from you. Even better, if you bought something early doors which you still use and love, I would ADORE to hear about it. You can get me at hello@kalinko.com.
