Sonali Dharmawardena

We Are Legacy has collaborated with Sonali Dharmawardena to bring visibility to a practice where community, craft, and livelihood are deeply interconnected. Working alongside the canal banks community of Kumbikelle in Colombo 6, the studio creates pathways to dignified, flexible employment for women with limited access to formal work. Through We Are Legacy Digital Identity Tags, the Dumpling Clutch connects its makers, processes, and material journey to the purse itself, ensuring the value of both craft and community is recognised and preserved.

The Call of the Moon's Dumpling Clutch reimagines the bag as both a functional object and a sculptural expression. Soft, tactile, and deliberately unique, each piece carries its own identity through colour, pattern, and form. Inspired by Sri Lanka’s full moon traditions, the collection reflects the shifting phases of the moon, honouring Vesak, Poson, and Esala. Developed collaboratively within the studio, each bag becomes a narrative object, something to carry, and equally, something to display.

Each piece begins as raw canvas cotton, developed through a layered wax resist process. Wax is applied by hand to create patterns, then the cloth is dyed in stages, allowing colour to build where the wax releases. This process is repeated to achieve depth and variation, ensuring no two textiles are the same.

Once complete, the fabric is cut and shaped into the dumpling form, requiring careful handling to balance softness and structure. The final assembly is stitched and finished by hand, embedding the decisions and skill of each maker into the piece.

Sonali Dharmawardena is a Sri Lankan designer whose practice sits at the intersection of craft, community, and contemporary design. Her studio is based in Colombo and works closely with the surrounding Kumbikelle community, creating opportunities for women to access flexible and meaningful work.

The studio functions as both a production space and a support system, with facilities such as childcare and training embedded into its model. Through this approach, Sonali has built a practice that extends beyond design, placing equal value on people, process, and outcome.

Batik in Sri Lanka holds a rich cultural history, used to express identity, ritual, and storytelling through pattern. Sonali’s work reinterprets this tradition through a contemporary lens while maintaining respect for its origins.

The studio follows strict environmental practices, including responsible dye use and water management, addressing a critical gap often overlooked in batik production. By combining low-impact processes with community-based employment, the work supports both environmental care and social resilience.

We Are Legacy, founded in Stockholm in 2024, is a digital platform that is redefining how handmade products are understood- using verified digital tags that connect products to makers, materials, and stories. Through a simple tap or scan, each product reveals key information about its origin, production context, and the people behind it.

This is not about digitising craft.

It is about ensuring its legacy - by restoring value to the people whose hands create it.