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Enhance Artisans/Crafts Makers’ Business Skills in Samegrelo Region

The project aims to enhance crafts makers’ business skills in the Samegrelo region. The project includes the preliminary survey of the existing recourses, the selection of potential beneficiaries, and the provision of product development training, workshops, and individual consultations to develop new lines of market-oriented crafts products.

The aim of the particular study was to explore the existing craft resources and elaborate the recommendations for further development of the artisan business in the Samegrelo Region. The first stage of the study involved desk studies, literature searches, and data compilation. All possible baseline data was assembled and integrated into one database with a total number of 105 individuals. Each municipality has been contacted in advance to identify and select crafts producers in the given areas. In order to determine the existing problems across the value chain and put forward recommendations on how to tackle these problems 70 individual producers were surveyed in different municipalities. The survey has been accomplished both through face-to-face and telephone interviews.

Based on the preliminary studies in the Samegrelo region the beneficiaries were selected for the capacity-building activities. The first part of the activities included general training in business skills (financial issues) and crafts product development.

Two pieces of training in crafts product development and business skills were held in Tech park Zugdidi.

Description of the training:

Training Title: Crafts Product Development and Marketing

Training covered the following issues:

International and Local Craft Market Demands (Introducing internationally accepted standards in handmade products);
Craft market trends worldwide
Production diversification: new functional groups, innovative designs, Collections (local traditions, museum objects, and techniques as a source for inspiration)
Creating a successful display- Production Branding and presentation: Logos, Packaging Informational tags and their importance
Quality and standards - international size, color, material standards
Crafts Display making contemporary exhibiting methods. Sharing successful international and local cases of craft display

Training Title: Business Skills Development Training

The training covered the following issues:

The legal status of Craft business (pros and cons);
Fundraising possibilities for startups;
Marketing channels and communication with clients;
Product Pricing;
Social Media Management;
Crafts products and Intellectual Property Rights;
Tourist service development of crafts workshop" conducted by the Association's board member, founder of Georgian Ecotourism Association, and tourism specialist Natalia Bakhtadze Engländer.

After the series of training and workshops, the participants have been provided with the detailed designs and necessary materials (wool, leather, threads, metal accessories, clay, etc.) to produce new collections.

Individual Consultations

The workshops, which have been the platform for the generation of ideas have been followed by individual consultations to help the crafts makers refine the prototypes during the production process. The individual consultations involved both face-to-face and online communication.

Production of Prototypes

In order to develop the prototypes new ideas for possible new functions have been introduced in combination with Georgian Ornaments and patterns. In particular the Cultural Heritage Monuments of the Samegrelo region (Martvili Church of the Virgin, Oda-type houses, etc.) and have been used as origins for new motives in designs. 15 beneficiaries designed new prototypes in the framework of the project.

Support in Marketing and product distribution

In order to support the marketing of the products of crafts makers in the selected regions, the products, produced by the beneficiaries during this period have been distributed to the shops and several festivals and fairs. Namely:

The shops “Ethno Design” in Tbilisi (23 g. Akhvlediani str.) and in Vardzia Museum-Reserve.
20-26 April, Easter Fair at Axis Palace Shopping Mall. The products of 15 participants from the Zrda region have been sold at this Fair.
Leto Boutique Hotel in Zugdidi. A special display case has been installed in the particular hotel to test the products on the local market and promote the handmade products locally.
Pirosmani House Museum in Tbilisi (Owned by the National Agency of Cultural Heritage Preservation), with the specific theme of Niko Pirosmani’s works, being the popular theme for several artisans participating in the project.

The Akhaltsikhe International Festival of Crafts Workshops, held in Rabati Castle was a wide-scope event organized by the Georgian Heritage Crafts Association in collaboration with the Georgian State Museum of Folk and Applied Arts. The Festival brought together 150 craft makers from Georgia and abroad to show the diversity of crafts fields and enhance the integration of artisan workshops in tourist routes.

Project beneficiaries from Zrda Regoions (35 participants) had the possibility to present and sell their works to the wider public and at the same time get acquainted with the works of other crafts makers, which in turn will help them to analyze the competition on the crafts market, both locally and internationally.

Design and Publishing of Guidebooks of Samegrelo Crafts Workshops have been designed to promote artisanal workshops as tourist destinations. The bilingual guidebooks provide the reader with information on the services each workshop can offer the visitor and other useful information like the visiting hours, GPS coordinates, etc. The particular guidebook was distributed among the tourism information centers, especially in the target region.