I just went a bit mad with projects these last few days. All this stuff has to be used up or left here. And luckily the ideas kept flowing!
When you go mad doing craft stuff all day you end up with lots of bits and pieces. And really I don’t want to return with a few beads, some almost empty glue jars and paint pots with a tiny amount of unusable paint. So I had a few extra ideas, finished them off and have had to post them all on this extra blog!
A 133 Leaf Mobile
In all of the places I have stayed for a while, I have made something specifically to leave behind. Andeshe was no exception. I wanted to make something out of green leaves that would harden and spiral up over time. I had made some wired flowers with beads into the end hanging “jewellery” section. I collected a load of leaves and soaked them. This time I would use my new fluffy white and lilac yarn recently purchased from Samrat that was made in China.
As usual there would 19 strings hanging of seven leaves per string. In between I put in a double length of the fluffy lilac yarn. In the middle I found some purple weeds on the roadside and bound them up in one of my yarns form the handweavers studio I had brought with. It is pretty blowy here and so it should twizzle around nicely. Again, it is very Indian! An apt combination of nature and something bright, loud and acrylic!
Slime
Yes, this was cheap and purple and I had no idea what on earth I was going to do with it. I had never played with slime before. And it was too slimy to fashion into anything that would take up an independent shape. But eventually it came to me. Helped by “an-end-of-sabbatical” deadline!
The dragon could have some as food, bathe in it and later on he could be under the run off like being in the shower. I had the mosquito coils out anyway for the rubbing and rangoli projects, so I wanted to see how the slime would work if I plopped (three ‘p’s in this word!) it in the middle of the coil. It meant I kept having to jump up and twizzle around the paper so that the slime would work its way to the edge. It was a fun and simple and yes silly project.
A Little Posy of Flowers
I loved these little flowers. I have used them in lots of projects and there were only two bunches left so I made them into a small bouquet and tied them with a piece of variegated chenille yarn. I have left them in Andeshe too as I used their small bottle as the vase and really – I don’t need anything else to take home!
I have always like hand tied bunches of flowers. One of my 133 projects was to do some flower arranging. I am not sure this counts and there was an ikebana project earlier too! Yes. I think if you do two very small projects it can count.
Pressed Flowers
Yes, so this was on the list and not as yet ticked off. I wandered around Andeshe and the surrounding roads and collected a few purple flowers. I wrapped them in a fabric napkin and placed them between the books of the Ramayana that was in the dining room.
They came out really well and I have sewn (and glued) them into some card to display them. I ran around a lot of my time in India getting photographs of any purple flower I could find. I hardly knew any of the names and one of the flowers I have pressed is clearly a weed only found on the paths. I have also recently managed to take an eye level photograph of a purple banana flower.
Really, they are very beautiful in a sort of old style Soviet artistic style! When I was in Hampi I went to Madhuvana Restaurant by bicycle. They did a wonderful banana flower curry! Another purple dish to add to my list here…..
Wired Flower S Shaped Montages
On my visit to the Samrat Mega Craft Store in Pune old city I first passed a woman I thought was selling cotton rovings for spinning but they are for religious ceremonies as candle wicks. I was right, however, about the cotton.
Then I passed a man selling wired paper flowers. I bought two for 100 rupees. And then put them away for a bit. When I had all my paints out, I took them out to make them purple. One was white and the other pink. I used the dropper that came with some fragrances I had bought to make perfume – this is on the list and maybe I will do it tomorrow on my final day of making things!
The dropper meant I could more carefully and accurately dye the inside of these flowers. I used my full range of six shades of purple – this reminds me of the “Three shades of grey”. I never read these books or seen any films actually! But there is a lot of hype around them. Back to these wired flowers. I decided I would leave them in their new painted colours and go wild with sewn on brocade frames. To ensure the wired flowers don’t move or escape they are both glued and sewn on!
Mosquito Coil Rubbings
This was supposed to be like brass rubbings. I had done this as a child I seem to remember. Maybe in some churches. Anyway, for a non-artist this is fun. I woke up one morning with a revelation that I could do mosquito coil rubbings instead of brass ones and they are spirals. I hopped off to Dorabjee’s in Pune and bought a set of black interlacing pairs of five with a holder to burn them. I will leave them here as mosquitos are quite a problem here. This packet cost 34 rupees so didn’t break the bank for a last-minute mop-up project. I asked for some paper when I checked out of the Shantai Hotel (http://www.shantaihotel.com/) where I stayed over the weekend. They couldn’t have been nicer or kinder. They stored my beetroot halva and some cheese in the fridge and some salmon in the freezer for me too! They had an Italian restaurant where the music was oh so loud but they turned it down for me!
Back to these rubbings…..
I have used the only crayon I have kept here. The purple one! And I used one of the tools I had brought with that you can use for embossing. I had some spare purple paper so I could make a collection of five of these rubbings. I sewed them like a book onto an A3 piece of card.
These are super quick and fun to do. It does feel a bit like ticking off a box on a list. But as I will be returning to the NHS and UCL soon I will need to prepare myself for endless tick boxing!
Chakra Entry
The problem with sneaking in another blog post is I feel I now have to tackle what I might be doing several more years into the future! From aged 63 to 70 corresponds to the solar plexus chakra second time round! I have many friends of this age and they are happy for the most part. For sure they know who they are but are willing to be curious and have a zest for life. I hope this would be me at this age too. Not sure if I want to have grandchildren by then but it would be nice. I can knit for them. I can sew for them. And show everyone their primitive reflexes. Of course, I hope my good health continues but whatever life throws at me, I will just have to deal with it!
As this actually is my penultimate blog, I will finish off my projects tomorrow, pack up to return to Pune to send out my final shipment to the UK.
Promise next blog is really the last one!
