Idea 50 of 500. Cluster 3: Souvenirs that are actually from here
Handmade paper and stationery
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
Make or buy a small batch of handmade paper and bind 20 notebooks with local cloth covers. Leave them on consignment with two bookshops and one hotel gift shop for a month. At the end, ask each shop what sold and what customers asked for. A reorder, or a price customers paid without complaint, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors and residents who buy notebooks as gifts, and hotel shops that want something light and local to stock.
- What leaves today
- A notebook sold to a visitor could be made anywhere; handmade local paper keeps the whole product on the island, fibre to cover.
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
More from cluster 3
- 46Carved stone miniatures of heritage sites
- 47Salt and pepper sets in the shape of the rock
- 48Fresco print reproductions, properly licensed
- 49Coconut shell and husk craft: bowls, spoons, lamps, jewellery, buttons
- 51Limited-edition scarves using site artwork
- 52Custom wood carvings of the Lion Paw and other motifs
Idea 50 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.