Idea 49 of 500. Cluster 3: Souvenirs that are actually from here
Coconut shell and husk craft: bowls, spoons, lamps, jewellery, buttons
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
Every idea in cluster 3 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Buy a dozen coconut shell bowls and spoons from a village maker, sand and oil them properly, and photograph them well. Offer them to a café or homeware shop in Colombo and, by message with photographs, to a Sri Lankan shop in London at a stated wholesale price. A trial order from either proves the finish sells.
- Who pays first
- Homeware shops in Colombo and abroad, and cafés that want natural serving ware with a story behind it.
- What leaves today
- Coconut shells are burned or thrown away as waste; a finished bowl turns the same shell into a product priced as design.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FiveThe Most Photographed Rock in the World
The Matterhorn water bottle and the souvenir that is from there
Idea 49 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.