Our Story

The Story Behind The Birth of Kala Roopa & Sea Blue Silver

The meaning of Kala Roopa in Hindi is Sacred Art/Creation Blessed with Beauty

After studying at the university, Heather Sood, founder of Kala Roopa and Sea Blue Silver, discovered that her heart was to serve the nations and the poor. She feels it was something she was created for.  With years of volunteer work, both domestically and internationally, during her academic career, she found little to no interest in building anything that was solely self-serving.  Her goal was to understand the ways of a servant.  The real story is that, as a Christian who chose to walk with Christ, she thought, How is it that she could better learn about her savior than to try and serve as He did?  She wanted to understand the life of a servant so she committed herself to continuing volunteer work.  With this personal pursuit and pledge in her heart, the path was paved to begin volunteering in Native American Indian countries. Equipped with the mindset, you give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. She was driven to take her academic career and use it to bless as many people as she could. Trained in Washington, DC, in the Entrepreneur Corps. Division of Americrorps, she set off on economic development, tourism, and cultural preservation initiatives with the Natives. For the next four years, she was committed to establishing non-profits that would catalyze economic growth, pursued policy changes, and worked with regional county and area councils, chambers of commerce, the council of governments, and the Navajo Nation Economic Development Department, all of which catalyzed paving the path for the birth of Kala Roopa. Four years into living with our Native Americans and being steeped in this work, a new change was churning.

Being from New England and sensing the call to return home, she was implored to reflect upon what she had discovered and learned over the years.  Recognizing that poverty can come in several forms, she concluded that these different types of wealth and poverty structures were something she wanted to help alleviate.

What she saw during her 20’s was that the Natives were financially impoverished but often spiritually rich, while the New Englanders were often spiritually impoverished but financially wealthy.  The concept of establishing a Robin Hood-type foundation burned in her like never before.

The idea of Kala Roopa was to create a platform in which to sell Native American artisanal goods as well as Asian Indian goods, thus creating a means to support their livelihoods. The focus was to use those monies from sales from the more predominantly wealthy who could afford them and ultimately support the families directly incorporating Fair Trade principles to elevate the poor or the less affluent and grind away at poverty—one person, one artisan, one family, or one group at a time.

Kala Roopa was established in 2007 in Rockport, MA.

Thirteen years later, it has evolved from a little shop with a lot of meaning to a bigger store that hosts her work, hundreds of international artisans and a large majority of Native American artists their pottery and jewelry. To this very day, 60% of her total income (not just profit) is returned to our Native American Indian artisans through the purchase of their works.  Thanks to all her loyal customers and folks who understand and care to purchase from a store that sells goods that uphold these people and are made with unbelievable craftsmanship, Kala Roopa has succeeded in supporting its mission and the heart behind it for now 13 years! Please come to our store and see the array of inventory that simply cannot be hosted online. Having one-of-a kind pieces and capturing all of what is in our physical retail store to display online is near impossible! If you see lines or specific designs/color schemes you like and wish to see more, please inquire, and we will be happy to send photos out to you directly!