This week, mellow matters drifts south-west to the palm-lined streets of Panjim, Goa, where partners in life and craft Sonja & Sachin welcome us into their seafront apartment and slow-morning coffee ritual before the studio bell rings at ten.
Their venture, LaFabrica Craft, began with a single sheet of paper and an audacious question: could everyday packaging be re-imagined as origami-like objects engineered for home-based makers? From fold-flat gift boxes to sculptural paper bags, Sachin’s architecture-meets-origami thinking, and Sonja’s eye for enduring textiles, now fuel a tiny team designing products that local women and part-time workers can assemble by hand.
In our conversation we trace their winding paths:
Sachin’s Vipassana-sparked pivot from furniture prototyping to mindful material research.
Sonja’s journey from Canadian textile studios to a rainy-season epiphany in Goa and why “slow commerce” beats fast fashion.
The hard economics of biodegradable packaging in price-obsessed markets, and how a humble line of handcrafted stationery became La Fabrica’s sustainable bread-and-butter.
Dreams of a decentralized “paper factory” network that channels work—and dignity—into India’s vast self-help-group ecosystems.
Along the way, they reflect on architects, the meditative pleasure of precise folds, and what it takes to build a values-led company with just a handful of trusted hands.
Take a quiet pause with us to discover how paper—perhaps the simplest of materials—can open doors to community, creativity, and a gentler way of doing business.
Check out the links below for the key elements mentioned in the episode:
Vipassana meditation courses – dhamma.org
https://www.dhamma.org/ dhamma.org
La Fábrica – Ricardo Bofill’s converted cement-factory studio
https://www.bofill.com/la-fabrica/ Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Anganwadi centres (Integrated Child Development Services, India)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anganwadi Wikipedia
Kudumbashree – Kerala State Poverty-Eradication & Women’s Self-Help Mission
https://www.kudumbashree.org/ kudumbashree.org
Radha Pandey – handmade-paper artist & bookbinder
https://www.radhapandey.com/ radha-pandey
Shigeru Ban’s Vasarely Pavilion (paper-tube architecture, Provence, France)
https://shigerubanarchitects.com/works/exhibitions/vasarely-pavilion/ Shigeru Ban
Unspoken Monochrome – visual-poetry sketchbook by Sach Gangadharan (LAFA)
https://www.lafa.co.in/product-page/unspoken-monochrome-visual-poetry-sketch-book LAFA Design Lab
LaFabrica Craft – biodegradable packaging & paper-goods studio (Goa)
https://www.lafabricacraft.com/
To learn more about our work at all mellow co., visit us at:www.allmellow.co