Kathmandu, May 15 -- In 2003, when Shyam Badan Shrestha bought a basket from a woman for Rs600, she learned it had taken the woman 10 days to weave it. "How can you earn a profit if it takes you 10 days and the price is Rs600?" Shrestha had asked.

The woman stared back at her, stunned. "We can earn?"

As the founder of Nepal Knotcraft Centre and a longtime artisan herself, Shrestha had already begun exploring the economic potential of handicraft work. But the woman who made the basket, though highly skilled, had never considered her craft a source of income.

"She had to hide her products," Shrestha says. "Her family members didn't allow her to weave." Still, the woman continued to make baskets quietly for household and cultural use. Shr...