Mar 1, 2001

The World is Not Enough

Are you looking for Dilruba? Don’t be aghast, we aren’t being suggestive. On the contrary, we are suggesting that you go to Novica.com and that’s where you’ll find Dilruba, and 8 inch x 37.5 inch wood instrument designed by an Indian artist Prakash. You could also find a Garuda mask from Indonesia or Giraffe candles from Zimbabwe, and lots more. But what’s Novica.com? It’s a virtual market – in association with National Geographic – that gives artists across the world an opportunity to express their artistic talents and sell their items and also give consumers access to ‘unique, hard-to-find’ items.

The site was founded by a Peruvian American student at Stanford, his Brazilian wife, and her mother, in 1998. Novica offers more than 8,500 handmade crafts from artisans in seven countries. The prices ranged from $25-$4,000. Novica has offices in seven countries – which means that art goes straight from the artisan to the buyer.

The site also has a ‘Geatured Artists’ section, which mentions some of Novica’s favorite outstanding artists – which, incidentally, includes an Indian artist from a small town Khurja, near Aligarh – featuring their pictures and details of the items exhibited.

Also interesting are the ‘gift certificates’ – these certificates can be mailed from the Novica office in California to you or directly to the recipient along with a personalized message of your choice.

However, the cost of items and shipping costs shouldn’t exceed the amount of the certificate. The delivery mode: postal mail (in which case it will be gift-wrapped), or email.