Post Valentine’s Day Post

So there is a little bit of hype here in Pune for Valentine’s Day but really nothing of substance which, to be honest, is a relief. I have run away from the fantastic organic farm about an hour outside Pune to stay in the city for the weekend. Going to the synagogue was a wonderful experience and I said next week I would bring homemade beetroot halva (purple food!) and give a talk about something……

Also I bought a load of food so that I could do my own cooking in Andeshe (https://urammaheritagehomes.com/properties-pune/andeshe-homestay/) in preparation for my return. I also really craved some sourdough bread and pasta. Here are some strawberries I bought too. Look at their size. The smell and taste were just fandabulous.

This blog is a smorgasbord of random projects starting in Pushkar and finishing up with some I have done here. I shall start with a bit of a hotchpotch one!

Obscure Jewellery

As I am coming to the end of my sabbatical there are a number of projects which don’t really fit in anywhere else. This is a small one that I have called “obscure jewellery”. Mostly because I like the word obscure. I have done a number of other entries on “regular jewellery” including cuffs from felt and cowries and rolled brightly coloured felt spiral earring for instance.

This includes two projects. One was a bracelet I bought from Manish at his Traveller’s Boutique coffee shop where he told me I should name a price for this bracelet! I gave him 200 rupees in the end. When I was yarn bombing (well bandaging to be honest!) the vines in the Dia Homestay in Pushkar I would put one piece of yarn onto this bracelet as a memory of each yarn.

The second is a broach made using amethyst chips I had brought with me and used a broach template with black velvet as a base you can see peeping through.

Finally, I photographed this bluey purple necklace I bought at the Anjuna flea market with Betsy way back in Goa, subsequently dropped and broke it. All the beads have been used in multiple projects most of which I have already uploaded on my blog!

Paper Marquetry

I have always liked the cleverness of wooden marquetry. I know my father feels the same and with a life time in the furniture and design business I know he has made a few pieces. However, my temperament is not suited to the painstaking art of wood marquetry with various veneers!

This reminds me of Shadbolt’s. This is a veneer company that we used to pass on the North Circular Road on our way and return to seeing Adrian’s father Norman and step-mother Jean. They always had a veneer of the week. It was such fun as it was changed regularly and often. That building was eventually knocked down but the joy of the internet. Here is a YouTube video of Shadbolt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-bOdWEixdg) and one picture of Quilted Maple!

For those not in the know veneer is like a shaving of wood which varies depending on the tree and other factors. As a child I remember playing with large selections of these on a beaded aluminium chain.

Back to my ideas. I wanted to make something out of the paper I had brought in India. It was handmade from cotton pulp. I wanted to use a spiral design with two contrasting pieces of paper that would slot in together. I then realised that the smoke mosquito coils were made in such a way that you could pop the two apart. I tried my design first with purple paper and tracing paper but it didn’t work.

I studied the mosquito coils more carefully and hey presto I was able to make some quite large paper marquetry designs.

I learnt as I went along so that there was no slippage and the two spirals would fit together. I did a smaller A3 one on paper with random stitches to hold it in place and one free style that I don’t think worked well.

Then I went bigger and made two A2 sized coils. The first on tracing paper which I stitched by hand using a kantha (running) stitch. The second was made using four A3 stiff white paper that I sewed together with a small gap so I could fold them to package them more conveniently. I sewed this one using a very stiff foot singer sewing machine in Anegundi village. It was in Ragu’s house who was my guide for one morning and also had the kitten Rosie. It was a fun project to plan and execute and three out of four satisfactory projects is ok for me!

Weaving

I wasn’t sure how likely it would be to weave in India. I knew that there are lots of home looms large and small but usually they would be mid-way through a project. In the end I had an idea that I wanted to do a small spiral weaving project using the string I had brought and the other string I had dip dyed in several purple related colours for my spiral weft. I used cardboard that came with one of the packets of A4 paper as the loom! I had to use the knife I had bought for 70 rupees that isn’t really strong enough but it did the job in the end. It was a pretty quick project and not one bit like the rest of the photos of weaving.

The following photographs were taken inside weaver’s homes in villages outside Bhuj, Gujarat. The one I spent most time in was Bhujodi, where there were shawl and carpet weavers who make to order and also make up their own designs.

Bandini

Technically bandini is not weaving. It is really teeny weeny tie dye knots but I love this video and so it will have to go with this weaving section.

My most memorable weaving was a pair of braces I made out of red and black on a large handloom whilst I was learning my obstetrics at Newham hospital in the late 1980s. I managed to work out how to put in letters into the weave and they said “Adrian’s Braces” for the left hand one and “by Fertleperson” on the right hand one! I wonder where they are now and anyway no one really wears braces much anymore. From that same loom I wove a strip of black and white checks which I still use to display all my earrings. I even brought it with me here to India and hang it up as I am mostly in a place for four days or more!

Lilac Bangle Montages

I had bought a dozen bangles in Anegundi without any idea of what I would do with them. From this same shop I bought a meter each of five decorative purple textile brocades. The boy working there after school spoke really good English and was super helpful. I brought them with me from Hampi to Pune and decided they could be shown off well in the middle of a bangle.

These ones were made from glass and nearly all of them had a crack so the brocade could ameliorate this by being sewn over the crack which I had also glued. I used the lovely rubber stamps I bought for virtually nothing (as compared to the ones I commissioned in Pushkar which were expensive and didn’t work!) with the rubber stamp ink which stains absolutely everything around the edge. A simple but effective project I feel!

I photographed them on the mini trampoline. This reminds me of the big one we had in our garden in Highgate which was sunk and used a lot by kids and Bryn (tricolour collie) when someone was playing on it. This is a mini one like I used in Hiit Girl in Highgate. This stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I became obsessed with it and went all the time from January to June 2019 until they closed down! On this particular trampoline which is on the large veranda outside my room I do 131 (7 x 19) every day!

5^th Chakra – throat

Let your whole body relax. Take some cleaning breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth. And start to let go of all expectations, any thoughts you may have and be here, be present in the moment.

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

The throat chakra is located at the centre of your neck. It is responsible for our communication and expression. When in balance you will be able to express yourself clearly and honestly. With each outbreath let go of all that does not support your truth.

Let these affirmations be your affirmations.

I communicate with myself and others confidently and with ease

I vocalise my feelings

I have an important voice in this world

I communicate clearly and truthfully

My truth is love

Go forward into this day with love and truth.

This fifth chakra responds to the age from 28 to 35. In Sebastian Faulk’s book “On Green Dolphin Street” the main character Frank alludes to the fact he is still not quite there yet as a person. The book states ‘The city made him feel he could be many people, that in his middle thirties he was nowhere near the finished version of himself, and that even if he ever got there, that too might turn out to be provisional – not a stable compound of temperament and experience, but a bundle of momentary inclinations’

For me this was my period of becoming a fully fledged paediatrician and having lots of fertility treatment and it working for me to have our three wonderful children Harry, Toby and Betsy.

So, a totally (in the end!) great time for me because being a mother was always the pinnacle of what I wanted. It was more important to me than any other role I played, was playing or would play. I next enter this chakra when I am 84. This is cool!

I will be home in less than a fortnight and I need to make sure I have done as much as I can with all the products I have with me. And to stop getting drawn into stationary shops just in case! But I have decided on a final shipment from Pune before I head to Delhi for my flight back so there is some wiggle room for more things to make and ship!