Judy Frater knows something most of us don’t — who made each item of clothing in her wardrobe.

When she first began visiting India more than three decades ago, she noticed something about the country’s artisans that didn’t sit right with her.

“They were turned into workers for designers,” Frater said. “And it was their designs the designers were using.”

To right what she saw as a wrong became her life’s work. She began by founding a museum in Kutch, India, using her experience as a curator at a textile museum in Washington, D.C. And after a huge earthquake hit Kutch in 2001, someone asked her what she hoped would come out of it. A design school for artisans was her reply.

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Frater received a fellowship and opened what is now called Somaiya Kala Vidya, with the mission to preserve and protect traditional arts through a deep understanding of culture and arts and a focus on the artisan. She is now on the advisory board and no longer serves as director.

“Craft is cultural heritage,” Frater said. “It embodies more than just techniques, it embodies history, relationships, aesthetics. It’s a means to connect us to other worlds.”

Four years ago she moved back to the U.S. and finished a book, “Artisans by Design: An Odyssey of Education for Textile Artisans in India.” Released last month, the book chronicles the story of Frater’s design school through vignettes of 19 of the artists who attended.

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Frater and two of those graduates who are also featured in the book, Adil Khatri, a bandhani artist, and Pachan Siju, a weaver, have traveled the country since the end of October, reflecting on their experiences as traditional artisans learning design, their understanding of traditions, and the role of markets and innovations. They’ll give a talk and hold a trunk show and sale featuring scarves, shawls and kaftans in cotton, silk and wool Thursday at Manitou Art Center in Manitou Springs. Khatri and Siju also will give workshops on traditional Kutch bandhani (tie dye) and traditional Kutch weaving Friday and Saturday. Spots are limited.

Both artisans live in India, while Frater now lives in Santa Fe, N.M.

“This is an opportunity to hear from artisans what their world is like and what’s important to them,” Frater said. “And to see their work and see the connection between what the person makes and the person, and to see it as more than a product.”

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Handcrafted textiles can help create a more sustainable world and help provide livelihoods to artisans. We produce and throw too much away, Frater says, but something handmade is environmentally sustainable because there’s little waste produced and little fossil fuel used to make it.

“Also, if you buy it from an artisan it’s a memory, an experience and something to value that you hopefully won’t throw away,” she said. “You can have fewer but more valuable items in your wardrobe and waste less. Fashion by nature isn’t sustainable. It wants you to consume and throw away and reconsume. The alternative to that is style. If you can choose things to reflect who you are, they don’t need to change every season.”