Talking to Harry about recently we agreed that you always feel ready to come home at the end of a holiday. In many ways this has been like an extended Indian craft holiday and I am excited to be coming back although not for the weather or actually having anywhere permanent to live! But that will rectify soon – the home NOT the weather I suspect!
Spiral Cut Out Paper Mobile
Over one lunch I mentioned to Meenaxi that I had a list of 133 different ideas I could undertake whilst here but had only done 77. We looked at the list together and she empowered me to do some more myself – like this cut out one and others she would help me with – like baking and origami.
So, I took some thin purple A4 paper and drew my interwoven “mosquito coils” onto the paper and cut it out using my shockingly bad 70 rupee knife.
But it did work and I ended up with 6 long coils. I thought I could hang them from some copper wire I still had. I covered this in the lilac, purple and white chenille and then hung the six spirals from the central knob. It now hangs with the two other purple mobiles and the weaving hanging.
A simple project which will be easy to pack and gets me up past 77 completed ideas! That now ticks off paper cut outs!
Lilac Pair of Candle Wick Dyed Montages
In Ahmadabad I bought a bag of cotton to take home for my colleague Giles Armstrong to spin. This is very much Gandhi’s city so I wasn’t surprised to find this bag of cotton. More recently in Pune I found small bags of what I thought were pre-spun cotton that you take home and don’t need to card but just spin. I have used my acrylic dyes to enliven them. When at Andeshe I asked Meenaxi to translate the product information for me and she told me that they are candle wicks used for religious rites! I should have possibly worked it out as they are in lengths that are a bit short as cotton rovings for spinners!
I have used these dyed candle wicks in a variety of projects such as the purple car escape route project and the encased fabric project. Earlier on I tried to use it as a yarn to crochet into Sam’s hot water bottle covers but unsurprisingly it kept breaking as it really is meant for oil lamps. This meant I felt justified in buying more novelty yarn! Whoohooo!!
My selection of sticky tapes is really coming to an end and I have promised myself and you the blog reader – NO MORE. There. I have put it in SHOUTY CAPITALS which as you know you read at half the speed of lower-case writing. When I teach presentation skills, I do this by giving handouts to the students this short poem about one of my favourite characters.
Slinky Malinky
Is blacker than black
A wistful and wily
Adventurous cat
He had bright yellow eyes
And a warbling wail
And a kink at the end of
His very long tail.
The students then have to answer the following comprehension questions!
What colour is Slinky Malinky?
What is Slinky Malinky?
What colour are his eyes?
How is his wail described?
What is at the end of his very long tail?
Half the class has this poem in UPPER-CASE and half in lower-case. It is clear how much faster you not only read lower-case and absorb it as you scan the text and use the fact that some letters are “above” the line as in b d f h k l t, some “below” the line as g j p q y and some have dots too (i and j).
Point made (emphatically) and rant over!
Hot Water Bottle Covers
This was a commission – well I am not being paid for it but when you are avoiding doing something a commission is a welcome distraction (avoiding knitting a spiral dress which I have kyboshed as a project but continue to feel guilty about it!)
I have made them for my friend and colleague from UCL, Sam. Last summer I stayed in her beautiful house in Tuscany near Lucca with Betsy. We did very little there – a trip to a warehouse to buy second hand clothes in Lucca, a trip to the seaside and another one to a lovely river. Oh, and we danced in the rain. I was nude and Betsy (of course not being such an exhibitionist) wasn’t.
Sam has three hot water bottles and can you believe it? NO COVERS. A great knitting and other crafting project. So, I made all three using materials I had made or bought out here. She gave me the dimensions and I presumed they were metric and not imperial. Phew they were. One is made from this trusty sheet that has come all the way with me from Pushkar (Nov 2019) and has been painted over and over and over again! I could use the sewing machine here and used my dip dyed twine for the ties. The other two are knitted. One has a different front and back because the yarn I got in the market at Panjim, Goa was used in other projects (the Heading west to Pune post on the spiral seed mobile that remains at Olaulim – 11th Feb 2020). They have been fun and quick and hopefully (for Sam at least) useful projects.
Spirals all over again!
My last spiral piece was pretty long and complex having met the lovely Lawton family in Olaulim. It is funny but lots of people on my journey here have pointed out spirals to me.
This is a collection of three sets of spirals I have photographed. I did recently mention mosquito coils that I used to inspire and understand how to do spiral paper marquetry (Post Valentine’s…… 18th Feb 2020).
The second are a spiral I created in my bedroom at the Hotel Sagar in Pune which then turned into a pompom project (see blog Trying so hard…… 20th Feb 2020). And finally some savoury snacks I have had quite a few times in India.
I wonder how I will manage back at home to let go of this prime/purple/spiral obsession. Maybe I will just carry on and think back fondly to my time here. What a wonderful experience. The kindness of Indians and other travellers has been boundless and I am so grateful. It could have been a very lonely experience coming here at the end of a very long marriage but it has been empowering and I feel hopeful for the next forty years! I have good genes (23andme confirmed this) and all my grandparents died in their 80s and 90s so I plan to do the same.
Thanks to everyone who has helped both here in India and at home. I am eternally grateful. And to my children who all made the arduous journey here having to get visas and no direct flights. I hope I was worth it!
Andeshe in Photographs
I read about Andeshe whilst I was staying near Hampi in their sister place – Uramma Cottages. I knew it was pretty remote and didn’t have any WiFi but I didn’t believe them!
But it was true – no Wifi but as I have this blog and loads of large image files to upload I bought a dongle for my PC. And I went into Pune town each weekend so I could spend Shabbat there, be in a busy city and speak to my kids, my mother and a few others!
But the rest of the week from Sunday to morning to Friday was spent in this wonderfully remote place. Bishnu and Ganga cooked and looked after me as did Meenaxi was the wonderfully sprightly 80-year-old mother of Shama the owner.
I milked the cow on my first morning and helped with cooking and certainly had a big part in choosing what I ate. I could sit upstairs in the huge shaded veranda over looking the mountain or remain downstairs on a very comfy sofa listening to loads of podcasts also looking at the said same mountain.
I felt the tranquillity of the place, being looked after but left to my own devices with no pressure to visit this or do that left it open for me to finish up and also start and complete a large number of projects. I thought I would be lonely here but it was just perfect. I think one of the things l liked best was the best ever stocked linen cupboard with a soft linen kurta for me to wear every evening!
Whilst I was staying Meenaxi took delivery of a machine that is used for preparing brown rice. After it was installed I was part of the Puja ceremony which was attended by staff and neighbours and they set it up to start work.
Another Tassel Mobile
Whilst in the sprawling covered bangle and jewellery market in Camp, Pune I was drawn to yet another series of purple tassels. Really this must END. Like now… but they were cheap and so cheery. I had a message from someone at my college who liked my other tassel mobile so this inspired me and gave credence to this latest purchase.
But the rings of the tassels this time were small and I was stuck in Pune for a few hours before getting to all my tools and supplies. But I had bought a box of wonderful dried fruit squares from near where I was staying as a gift for the people who had invited Meenaxi and me over for lunch. I knew this was a gift they would like as they had had some at Andeshe one evening for dessert! It came with a bag with rather nicely made 12-inch handles. And now that bag has none! Shhhhhh. I shall cut up the bag and wrap the box with the sweets in them and put some flowers on top and no one will be any the wiser. And this rope/paper handle was just perfect for this latest tassel mobile. Whoo hoo.
The flowers in the middle to keep the tassels from moving up and down the rope handle I have used previously as the stamens for my felted flowers. But this time, I went a bit mad a bought several hundred for a cheap price and need to use them up…..
Chakra Entry
The seven chakras have finished but I shall go around them again with who I was in that second round and who I want to be!
Back to the root chakra. This would now correspond to the ages between 49 and 56. Just where I am right now. In fact I am at the end of this. So what has been going on? Gosh lots and lots and lots. I became a professor and I got divorced. My kids all turned the age of majority and all are currently at University. So some is good and other bits could be better. And my oh my. Lots of time to think about that when you are here alone. And all those hours spent making things does mean it can go round and round in your head. But I do like being this age. I know who I am and I hope, going forward, I will be the best version of who I can be.
Back in the wonderful Andeshe after the weekend in Pune with all its buzz and zest for life. Here it is a slower pace apart from my rather short run with Johnny. I think of all the Johnnies I know. None of them is quite as skittish as he is! Probably a good thing…..and for the record. Back very soon
See you soon xx