Heading west to Pune. New and exciting.

Not to that Osho place though!

Having had an eight day stint in Hampi and seen what I wanted to see and made what I wanted to make – well apart from my dreadful attempts at rangoli (temporary pavement art with ground up white or coloured rock) – I thought it was time to move on. It feels like staying anywhere between four and eight nights in each place works well for me. After that the food seems quite samey as I am mostly off the beaten track with street food (yum and cheap but not always particularly nutritious) and the food at the homestay/hotel.

So I took another overnight bus. But getting there was pretty hair-raising. We had left with plenty of time in a tuk tuk. Which broke down and had to be swapped. And then joy of joys there was a festival and lots of dancing and people and traffic policemen with whistles not really getting the traffic moving. I arrived a the taxi point with 15 minutes to spare – enough to rush up the street and get six pani puri – wheat hollow puffs filled with a spicy potato and doused in an even spicier sauce. You have to eat each one in a single large gulp or you get the liquid spilling down your top!

This blog has five projects and pretty much completes what I have done in Goa or beforehand. There are some Hampi projects too!

Another spiral seed pod mobile

I had learnt my lesson. Nothing made from nature comes home with me. The last one I made in the Camel Lodge went mouldy and was binned. I made one on a similar vein but left it where I had sourced the seed pods (Olaulim Backyards).

I had gathered a really interesting piece of tree in Dudhsagar which I partly covered with lilac yarn. I have called it yarn bombing but really it is bandaging to be honest! This provided a perfect nest to keep the batteries and switch for the blue set of tiny neon lights that I was going to put on this mobile.

This nest was hung centrally and contained the batteries and switch of the fairy lights

I again used an embroidery hoop, 19 strands of waxed thread each with seven seed pods per strand. To make it easier to pierce with a needle, I soaked the seed pods so they opened out but curled up again once dry.

At the bottom I used some beads held together with a silver wire twist used for sandwich bags. In between each of the 19 strands, I put a double length of a very bright mauve acrylic chenille yarn. This mobile really spoke to me. It had a blue light I had originally wound round a tree in Pushkar but Marie preferred the white one. So, this blue light was finding a new home. I liked the very Indian juxtaposition of the bright rather over-the-top acrylic yarn with the seed pods from nature. I made it at the end of my time at Olaulim Backyards and I am not sure where they hung it up!

I hung up the completed strands so as they remained untangled.

Outside my room before adding the chenille yarn.

The completed mobile set against the spiral infinity pool

Goan Sewn Postcards

There was a supermarket near where Betsy and I were staying in Mandrem, North Goa. We bought a few bits and bobs there and really liked some large postcards. They were modern painted versions of Hindu gods and other Indian icons – cows and tuk tuks. She kept some but I don’t think she ever sent them. They are nice just to pin up on the wall.

I cut most of mine up and sewed them onto nice thick white card. I sat in a comfy sofa looking over the river where we could kayak in Olaulim Backyards taking a break from fighting with the manual sewing machine that I was using to make my three fabric books. I liked the idea of sewing on the cards using some interesting yarns like Tencel from my stash I had stocked up from the Finsbury Park iconic Handweavers Studio. I also enjoy cutting things out and I could edge the five of these montages with tapes going in different directions and not just square as in all the others I had made. I realised that to sew them on effectively I would need to first make a series of pin holes around each image so there weren’t untoward pin pricks coming up from the back missing where they were supposed to go! I have used this technique going forward with a great number of later projects here – see the Hampi Montages Large series in the next blog.

The whole series taken over looking the backyards. I am not sure what Athena is watching?

Purple car

One day in Mandrem, Betsy and I decided to rent out a scooter. I let her practice all morning solo and we went off together in the afternoon where I was riding pillion. Besides scooting to lunch, I had a load of flowers to photograph as I had taken a long morning walk alone. I had also found a shop that sold a purple toy car so that was another must.

if you were a car wouldn’t you be trying to dive into the sweets? Not escape from them?

I have photographed the car and already put many of these on my blog but it is quite a photogenic car and it is now all sewn up and so immobile.

I am the king of the castle – or rather an inverted ball coconut cup and ball of purple string!

Rory with the car. He of Casa Susegad fame

The pathway is a very long uninterrupted spiral which is kept in position by couching stitches. The string was originally beige twine and I dip dyed it before sewing it down here. The car is now forever locked in and cannot feature in any other photographs as an embellishment. But all good things come to an end. All this sewing took ages. Enough time to binge out and enjoy the podcast by Sky News – What happened to Annie? Brilliant.

The imprisoned car with a very long spirally way out on rangoli done by some experts in Uramma Cottages in Anegundi, Hampi

Purple Key-Ring Mobile

One morning I was up early. Ok let’s be totally honest. Every morning I was up early. Nah. Every morning, always and forever, I am up early. But this time I was up so early I had read my book, done my yoga and still had enough time to leave to go the monkey temple. It was a cycle ride of four kilometres to the base where you start the climb. It was very early and still dark so I attached my torch to the front of my bike. As I was nearing the base, I was completely rained on by insects. It was like cycling through a shield of flying bugs but I was glad as I know that insects have been significantly reduced in number worldwide.

I parked up and started my assent. There were quite a lot of large colourful posters of Hanuman the monkey god on the way up (see next blog for these photos). I was going as fast as I could and was rather disappointed when I reached the step that said 476. I thought I had only done 100 as I knew the total was 576 steps. But joy of joys I only had 100 to go. At the top there were three groups. Loads of Israelis, quite a few Russians and a few odds and sods like me! The monkeys there were very adept at taking biscuits you offered but also stole water bottle, unscrewed them and drank the water. After sunrise I made my way down and was so excited to find a stall selling all sorts of trinkets. In particular I found seven purple key-rings. I have sorted out their hairstyles with some rubber from balloons I have with me (for a future project) and threaded them on some sticks so they look a bit like a hanging mobile for a child’s bedroom. Using a simple stitch, I made a spiral macramé tape to hang this mobile up.

She is my favourite. I hope I have made her a bit kookie with her hair in high bunches

All of them together on a knitting stick before the mobile was completed. This dolly had a serious alopecia issue helped by this stylish hairband

My macrame tape using the basic stitch continuing in the same direction throughout

The final mobile taken outside my room in Uramma Cottages (urammaheritagehomes.com)

Random Set of Montages

These were made in Olaulim using a variety of central pieces. Part of the joy was having bought thick 400 gm card so that glue doesn’t cause the card to warp. As always, I was beset by very unsticky sticky tape and worrying about whether seed pods would work in the long term and not go mouldy.

Three sets of three seed pods which look and feel very similar to fabric covered buttons

I had spare textile pieces from my fabric books.

Using a flower from a very large piece of fabric bought at the Anjuna flea market

I think the one I like the most is the skull. This was an iron on badge I had brought from the UK. A few years ago skulls were very trendy and so I bought loads. But Betsy refused to have her school/uni bag decorated any further and so I was left with this lonesome skull. I had carried it around with me for months and so now was the time to seal its fate. As it happens, I found a spare piece of purple felt for a petal that was no longer needed so I gouged out some eyes and put on a piece of mirror for a nose.

You can just about make out where the eyes are?

You can see my finger holding up the cover to reveal the full skull!

There were in total seven in this series but I didn’t get around to photographing all of them together and they are now in Highgate as they went in the end of January Goa shipment.

This was made from seven petals arranged as a flower. Most of all I love the early morning light over the kayaks on the river

A spiral seed pod with some flowers inside. Taken at the same time you can see the mist on the river

Aside on shipping stuff home….

Now that was an experience and an expense! In Pushkar they charged 250 rupees per kg. In Ahmadabad 400. But my first quote in Panjim, Goa was 1,600 per kg! Oh my gosh. So, I went to the post office which was much more reasonable. But it needed to be put into boxes and wrapped in a white sheet, the address put on with a marker and sewn up by hand. The man was pretty elderly and watching him threading the needle was like extracting teeth but we got there in the end and so far one has arrived! These two boxes with a total weight of 16 kg cost 8,000 rupees so not so cheap!

3^rd Chakra – solar plexus

3^rd Chakra – the solar plexus chakra – yellow

Take a few cleansing breaths. Taking in all the good and all the new and exhaling all that does not serve your highest good. Breathe into areas that feel tight and release that tension with every exhale. Find complete relaxation in your mind and body.

Breathe in light, breathe out tension, breathe in love, breathe out fear.

The 3^rd chakra is located in the solar plexus just above the navel. It is the seat of our ego and where we draw seeds motivation for our dreams and desires. When in balance we are able to appreciate people and all things around us.

Let these affirmations be your affirmations.

I am a powerful person.

I am in control of my life.

I am happy and peaceful.

I choose not to let fear hold me back.

And remember as you go on with your day, in all situations choose love over fear.

The chakra corresponds to the third seven years from 14 to 21 when you really are being released into the big wide world. You often think of yourself as being an adult but this isn’t really the case and there is still another four to five years until you will be your adult self but society releases you out there whether you like it or not. I do wonder if I was fully formed then? I certainly thought I was but I am now having second opinions about this when I look back on this time. Certainly, peer relationships were of utmost importance. But they are still now at 54!

So this is it for my first Pune post. There is no wifi (really none at all!) where I am staying so I have had to hop into town in search of a dongle. No mean feat when I am really staying 25 km from the town with the worst roads imaginable! But success…..