We will be honest with you. Year one was not elegant, and our biggest mistake still makes us wince. It began with a batch of forty terracotta figurines, photographed beautifully and packed in our old single-box style. Twenty-three of the forty arrived damaged.
There were chipped ears, a dancer missing an arm, and one folk boat that arrived in pieces. The customer emails were far more patient than we deserved.
What our biggest mistake taught us
We replaced every broken piece and absorbed the full cost. Then we spent two weeks redesigning our packaging from scratch. Today, each fragile item travels in layered, cushioned protection, because that painful batch changed how we ship forever.
The lesson was simple. Beautiful work means nothing if it shatters on the way to you.
The second lesson: quality variance
Our next hard lesson was about consistency. We had been working with several workshops at once, without a shared quality standard. So a repeat order of the same figurine could look noticeably different from the first.
One customer noticed exactly that, and they were right to. We had let quality drift.
How we fixed it
After that, we built a single, strict checklist for every workshop. Now each piece is judged against the same standard before it ships. As a result, a second order looks like a true match for the first.
Mistakes are part of any young brand. What matters is whether you fix them honestly.
Why we share this
We tell this story because trust is built on honesty, not a flawless record. Our biggest mistake made us a more careful brand.
See the result in our handcrafted collection, or read why we started Premloom. For more on India’s craft sector, see the Ministry of Culture.