and purple food from the first half of my sabbatical Kutch is a fascinating place where you see women everywhere contributing to beautiful textiles. The women squat down for a few hours at a time to sew or tie knots for bandini – they can do up to 8,000 a day if they are experienced. …
Monthly Archives: December 2019
Primes – mosaics, poetry, gemstone fruit trees and spiral mobiles.
I was settling into Gujarat. I moved westwards to experience the more distinct and wide ranging textiles of India in Kutch. It is a dessert region with a border with Pakistan and quite a bit of coastline (not that I went!). I started off in Bhuj where I could go out to local villages to …
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Gujarat – two important towns – Ahmadabad and Baroda.
And a hotchpotch of photos too! Having an unplanned long period of time off means you can change what you are doing and go off to somewhere new. So far I had only been in Rajasthan but I was persuaded to go to Gujarat to see some of India’s best textiles. I was also going …
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Rounding up and finishing in Rajasthan
It is funny as I expected to spend my entire time in Jaipur. I had been many times before and love this pink city with its Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) and Jantar Mantar (Royal Observatory). But the pollution was overwhelming and I realised that the place I stay in is probably more important …
Photography in Pushkar
So far I have spent the longest time in Pushkar. I really loved being there, not only for its feel but the people I met and the food I ate! I did some quite fun photography projects there (six) and I will dedicate this blog to all my Pushkar photos. Photography I think this has …
When not visiting camels I did this!
I stayed for a week at the Chamel Charishma Lodge https://www.camelcharisma.com/camel-experiences/. It is committed to supporting the welfare of camels as they are dwindling in numbers. They support local herders by buying the camel milk from them at a much higher rate than the government prices (three times). They only milk them once daily and …
Getting into the swing
So being in one place for a few weeks with the most inspiring room really helps things to get going. This was at the Dia Homestay in Pushkar where I stayed for three weeks in November 2019. I am going to write this blog through four completed projects! But before I start a really wonderful …
Hmmmm – really Spirographs? Is this where creativity should start? Well yes it did for me!
I think I have thought a lot about my design. And there are many conceptual possibilities and limitations. I don’t see this as failings on my part in how to carry them out but rather physical impossibilities such as the materials I don’t have or know how to use. And of course, there is a …