Scoop Up These Handmade Table Linens for All Your Summer Gatherings
The Gladwyne-based owner of Neem Crafts travels to India regularly to meet with artisans and dream up her next offerings.
Linens from Neem Crafts / Photograph by Jillian Guyette
Come summer, we often find ourselves welcoming friends and family into our home for gatherings — everything from Sunday brunch in the garden (if it’s not too hot) to dinner parties around our dining table. And that means we need some fresh linens fitting of the season. Enter Neem Crafts, which offers a delightful selection of artisanal placemats, napkins, cushions, and more that we think are perfect for whatever you’re hosting — or gifting — from now through August (and beyond). Learn more about the brand below.
In our age of automation and AI, handmade items are a luxury. Take the cushions, table linens, and rugs from Ashwini Reddi’s year-and-a-half-old line, Neem Crafts. Each piece is made by skilled artisans in India using traditional methods like block printing, weaving, and embroidery.
“We bring a very modern aesthetic to very ancient craft,” says Reddi, who was born and raised in India before moving to Philly 30 years ago. (She lives in Gladwyne today.) “If someone doesn’t do something about it, I think in five or 10 years, none of these skills are going to exist.”
But no machine is able to replicate the love and artistry that go into Neem’s products, most of which Reddi develops in Neem’s studio in Hyderabad. She travels to India every three months, meeting with makers all across the country to dream up her next offerings. In the works? Wooden tiebacks for curtains, plus fabrics and trimmings.
Published as “Back to Basics” in the June 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
