Meet Our Team (under construction)
Meli Alness, founder & CEO
Meli’s favorite responsibilities include casting vision, mentoring, garment design & construction, knitwear design, upcycling, product photography & editing, drawing stamp designs, collaborating with artisans, and meeting customers.
“Every day with Freedom Fibers is a gift and a privilege.”
Radha, head sewist & sewing instructor
As a child, Radha dreamed of learning to sew clothing, but it was many years before she had that opportunity. Now, less than 5 years after her first stitches on a treadle machine, she is the head sewist & sewing instructor of our growing team. Radha is smart, artistic, resilient, and courageous.
“I am living my dream.”
Rani, sewist
We met Rani on our first trip to Delhi in 2025 and immediately felt welcomed by her warm smile and easy laugh. She sews our cotton canvas tote bags, Rani Totes from our kantha collection, and creates our quilt squares and ribbon yarn from fabric remnants.
“Please order more bags!”
Sudha, block printing artisan
Sudha is a block printing artisan and instructor. In fact, she taught Meli the traditional techniques of Indian block printing. She currently works for Freedom Fibers just a wee bit, stamping our clothing labels and brand ephemera, along with stamping the lining for our bucket bags made in collaboration with Khushbu Brand.
Pappu, block carving artisan
Pappu is a free lance block carving artisan, and Freedom Fibers is his best customer! He spends one to two days hand-carving each of the larger stamps; his precision is remarkable! When you see our low prices, don’t worry, we do pay him a living wage (FF doesn’t make a profit from his stamps)!
“Thank you!”
Asha, sewist
Asha is Radha’s first sewing student and we’re so pleased with her progress and desire to improve. She currently stitches our Meli Shrugs and Tasha Tanks. Asha enjoys gardening and she adores lotus flowers.
“I want to keep improving and learning new techniques!”
Meena, sewist
The newest member of our team, Meena is a natural sewist! She has quickly graduated from basic stitching to more advanced sewing techniques. She has learned how to construct six of our kantha pieces. When asked about hobbies, Meena says that she loves to read and learn new things.
Violet Pitcher, virtual assistant & tech consultant
Violet is a free lance assistant and technology consultant. If we don’t know how to do something, we call Violet because she’s the quickest at finding accurate answers & always so kind about our CEO’s lack of tech skills! She’s also highly creative and an accomplished violinist.
