Bespoke Orders
Commission a piece in your size, your colour, your note — directly with the maker, brief to delivery. From your desk to a Patan workshop, photographs every step.
Roughly one in three pieces we sell is made to a specific brief — a rug for an unusual hallway in Berlin, a pashmina in a colour the dye-master has not run in a decade, a singing bowl tuned to the heart note a sound therapist in Portland asked for. Everything in our catalogue can be commissioned, and many things outside it.
End to end
- Brief. WhatsApp or email us a reference image, a rough dimension, a colour. We reply within four hours, Kathmandu time.
- Quote and sample. Within a week we send a written quote, a sketch or colour swatch where useful, and a realistic lead time. For textiles we can air-mail a small yarn or dye sample to your address for around €15.
- Deposit. 50% via Wise, SWIFT, Stripe, or PayPal secures your place in the maker's queue. You receive a written commission agreement.
- Photographs throughout. The maker sends pictures at each milestone — yarn on the loom, the first hammered shape, the colour after the first dye bath. We forward them on. You watch your piece come into being from your phone.
- Final approval. Before the piece leaves Kathmandu we send detailed photographs and dimensions. You confirm; we ship within 48 hours.
- Balance. The remaining 50% plus shipping is due before dispatch.
Typical lead times
- Hand-knotted rug · 8–16 weeks (rugs above 6×9 ft take longer)
- Pashmina shawl in a custom colour · 4–6 weeks (most of which is dye-master scheduling)
- Singing bowl tuned to a specific note · 3–4 weeks; tone matching is exact
- Carved wooden piece · 6–10 weeks; longer for relief panels or doors
- Embroidered silk · 8–12 weeks; thangka-grade work runs longer
- Himalayan produce · one harvest a year — saffron in November, cliff honey in May
Add 7–14 days for DHL international transit. We can dispatch directly to a hotel, a project site, or an interior designer's studio — write the delivery address into the brief.
Payment
50% deposit on order, 50% balance plus shipping before dispatch. Wise and SWIFT are easiest at our end; Stripe links and PayPal also work. Currency is your call — we invoice in EUR by default, USD or GBP on request. International transfer fees are split: yours at your bank, ours at ours.
Customs duties on a bespoke piece
Bespoke orders are imports into your country like any other shipment from Nepal and attract the same duties and VAT — see Shipping & Customs for the per-country breakdown. The Nepal Form A Certificate of Origin ships with every commission, and your customs broker can use it to claim preferential GSP rates in the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia.
What we will not do
We will not copy another studio's specific design — but we will happily reinterpret a tradition (the eight auspicious symbols, a Newari window, a specific raga's resonant note). And we will not rush a piece past the maker's own pace. If a rug needs sixteen weeks, sixteen weeks is what it gets. We will tell you upfront if your deadline is unrealistic.
Cancellation
You may cancel within 7 days of paying the deposit for a full refund. After that, cancellation refunds are pro-rated against work the maker has already completed — typically 30% recoverable in week 2, 0% from week 3 onward (the maker has already cut yarn, mixed dye, or hammered the first profile).