Makara Studio began in the backyard of the Mysore Mandala Mysore, Karnataka where Jonathan Borin and Hannah Harpole met over Chai. Seven months later they connected over tea at Van Leeuwen in Brooklyn. Jonathan took out a lease on the space and Hannah started calling all her crafty friends she had accumulated after living in the neighborhood for eight years. The floor was ripped out, the vision kept expanding.

Makara Studio is dedicated to nourishing our community. We do this by keeping our classes affordable and offering classes by donation, in our schedule. Makara recognizes that we are lucky to be here. We share this gratitude through supporting companies that are creating positive models of doing business like Jade, for the mats used in the studio. The mats we chose support Ovarian cancer research, are the most ecological mat on the market, and a tree is planted for every mat sold.

All the products we sell in our mini boutique are made by local artists and one dollar of each product sold goes to The Odanadi Garden Project. Odanadi is an orphanage that co-founder Hannah Harpole helped to create a permaculture garden at in 2011. The Odanadi Garden Project is dedicated to the expansion that garden to cut food costs and eventually produce enough so that residents can sell at the Mysore Farmers Market.

 Our Partnership with yogaanywhere.org subsidized the transformation of the space in a way where we had control of the material being chosen for the space. Most of the materials are reclaimed, our floor is treated with linseed oil, and we will be the first space on Montrose to sell cookies baked by a local baker (we know, we have looked for cookies many an afternoon between painting shifts).