Sand dunes and water waves

Did this when I did not know what is it that I am doing!!!
Now don't know what to do with this?!!! :|

Raja Rani Vazir

Sawantwadi is known for its hand crafted wooden toys. The now-queen of Sawantwadi Rani Satvasheela devi, herself is an artist and artlover, and enjoys patronizing some wonderful arts and crafts. These crafts include the art of making and playing Ganjifa (cards) and crafting the board game of chess.
Conceptualized by the Queen herself, the two sides of black and white are turned into colorful red and green made of wood and hand painted with decorative designs. I love this colorful chess! So tiny and skilfully crafted! Raja (king), rani (queen), vazir (viceroy), mavla (soldier), hatti (elephant), ghoda (horse) and unta (camel) all are present in the force. These are specially made only in the Rajwada under the guidance of Rani Satvasheela devi and is also available in their shop for Rs 3000/- per set.
(Couldn't get much better and more pictures)

Did not buy these :P but got some nice wooden toys from the local market.
Posts on Ganjifa and Sawantwadi toys coming soon..
:)

Plant kindness, harvest love

and be happy! :)

PS: Its a Farmville effect!! ;)

Love leaf

When in doubt, Love!

Quick Sketches

Some quick sketches done on my small hand-made paper sketch book at Dona Paula, Goa (first 2) and the rice farms @ Sawantwadi (last 2)

Medallion

Working on some medallions recently...

On the way...

to Sawantwadi.

Smallest Snail

AB is back, all refreshed and rejuvenated from a monsoon trip to Konakan with lot of inspirations and explorations with nature!!

After a lot of rice-farming fun in the fields, I was getting a little cleaned up and what I discover is a real tiny baby snail wandering on my palm. Yeaa!! Indeed it is the season of snails, but not all snails are as beautiful and as enjoyable as this one was! All soft and transparent, slow and steady, sticky yet fun!!
After a lot of photographing and playing around with it on my hand I dropped it on a leaf for more of its adventurous explorations with nature...

One of my snail pattern is here..

twit twit twitter

Have logged-in-to twitter since a year now... I'm still trying to figure out how to use and whats the use!!
My twitter page was boring brown until yesterday I changed it to colorful polkas :)

Happy Weekend!

mIxEd EmOtIcOnS

While I dreamt paisleys & pantones...

This happens to me sometimes... dream about and then work on it the next day!!
Believe me, it works ;)

PNP for Panipat

I like this :)
Solapur!!

Panipat

Panipat, what I read in history books was a place where great wars took place. Located up north jaha se Dilli door nahi is what I knew! Later after the phase history books, what I knew was that Panipat is a textile place, lots of fabrics, carpets and rugs and things of my interest. Now what I know is that Panipat is a place for carpets, rugs and bath mats all for export and also a lot of other fabrics and made-ups.

During my visit to Panipat, I explored the second side of its exports and that is export rejects and excess!! Local market place in town called as Kabadi market which sells sells loads and loads of bath mats and rugs, very bright and colorful. But one needs to be patient and smart to choose. I couldn’t find any tufted carpets though which I wanted to see, but other things were in heaps and piles. A lot of excess cotton and polyester yarn in various colors is also available. These are also sold on kilo basis. I’m quite sure that the bathmats we get in other local markets all over India come from Panipat which are export rejects for sure! Yea, but no issues they are nice and cheap!

Bathmats, bathmats and more bathmats

Similarly, like once when I was roaming around in the Crawford market, Mumbai, I suddenly realized that the placemats and runners sold there are also export rejects or things that come back to India as excess after the seasons turn over. As, in India we do not normally use runners and placemats. But now we do use placemats!! And I always wonder if luck by chance I find a placemat designed by me being sold in the Crawford market which of course was designed for the export market! :D Well this luck I do not know will be a good or bad one!!! :D :D :D

Anyways… but it is so much fun to think all this!!

Coming back to Panipat… here as some more pictures taken while passing by the market.

A man at his shop selling cotton yarn

Women sorting the yarn

Floor coverings or chaddars loaded on a cycle rickshaw. These are similar to the ones made in Solapur. All made for domestic market.

On the way, I also saw some textile fabrics/products which resemble to those developed in Solapur. These are for the domestic market with very gaudy color schemes. And yes, similar fabrics which are woven in Solapur are also woven in Panipat as it is jacquard after all and it is 2/20’s x 2/20’s.