Starter Kit. Idea 59 of 500. Cluster 3
Key rings, magnets and small items: done well, not imported
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Design one magnet of your town's best-known sight, in wood, clay or brass, and have 50 made by a local maker. Place them in two shops beside the cheaper imported ones and compare sales over a fortnight. If yours sell at the higher price, you have the proof and a reason to make the next design.
- Who pays first
- Souvenir shops, and visitors who want a small, cheap gift that actually comes from the place they visited.
- What leaves today
- Small souvenirs sell in large numbers and are often imported; made locally, even the smallest purchase stays on the island.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which makers could produce small items in quantity from local materials.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask whether small metal or resin items need to meet any safety standard.
Check before you spend
That materials and finishes are safe, that the designs are your own, and that you can supply shops steadily enough to replace imports.
Find out these three numbers
- What do shops pay now for imported key rings and magnets?
- What does a local version cost to make in quantity?
- How many shopkeepers near one site would switch?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"designer, no supplier, no quality standard, no story to attach."
Shopkeepers sell imports because nobody supplies them anything better; be that supplier.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.