3 idiots

Just crafted yesterday, these are my new knitting learning explorations. Initially I made one of them and was thinking a name for it!! Chiggi Wiggi!!!?? Is'nt it very chiggi-wiggi kinds!!?!!
Then I knitted two more with some leftover yarn and thought of '3 idiots' as a name for the group. It was fun!!

Acknowledgements: Julie Williams, Kappu maushi and the movie '3 idiots'

Photo Feature

The Times Shipping Journal, a monthly journal focusing on the shipping business featured an article on the not so focused side of Mumbai's port- the ship breaking yard at Reay road called Darukana; in the issue of October 2009.

The article features photographs captured by me. For reference you can have a look at my earlier post on ship breaking here and of course the contents of the article can be grasped in the images below...

Images: Digital pages of the Times Shipping Journal, October 2009

PS: Many thanks to Ayyappan Vazhayil, Editor, Times Shipping Journal.

The advent of Christmas

Half of November is already past, fall is almost to an end with the beginning of winter and Christmas... and everyone is busy working on and posting Christmas stuff on blogs... decoration ideas, gift ideas, card ideas… etc! So I thought I should also post some Christmas pattern ideas!! Anyone out there wants to buy some Christmas patterns for cards/fabrics/stationery/tableware or any exploratory purpose??

>Swirly Snowflakes

Will be posting more on Christmas soon…

More posts on snowflakes here and here.

A Walk on Shadows

Crafting Threads : Crafting Lives

Mumbai won’t be Mumbai if not for the street shopping!!

There is something new once every two months (roughly) on the streets here. It goes like…some magnetic marble kind of things that make an electrifying sound which is creepy at the same time when played with, the bubble kind of balloons that stick to each other, and then the spider man who climbs down any wall, then the tickly head massager etc… most of it is “Made in China”. And you will find people selling the same stuff all across the city. The prices are high when it is new and then shrinks gradually. Somehow I find these things very mechanical and rigid, so let me talk about some sensitive and “handmade” things “Made in India”.

“Handmade on the streets??!!” What first comes to mind is the street besides the Jehangir art gallery and you explore the hand done on the spot portraits, miniature paintings on leaves, name on rice, creative wire craft etc. Also, some hand embroidered wall hangings and hand carved wooden blocks from Gujarat. Passing over these crafty arts or the arty crafts…is the CSMVS (Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay formerly known as Prince of Wales Museum) where good handicraft exhibitions are on displayed once in a while. A month back, I explored the exhibition of Paramparik Karigar at the Museum. The exhibition was nice. I purchased a hand woven silk stole from Kotpad, Orissa. (About the stole in the next post)

This is more than enough as a backgrounder…

On my way back, something on the street caught my senses and that was a young man crafting something with lots of colored threads. ‘Threads’ I see and do not explore… is something not possible!

So, this young man was crafting out names using colorful nylon-polyester threads to use as wrist bands or just to tie on to bags. Choose your colors and write him your name, he will make a band within 10 minutes for just Rs 20. After grasping a bit of things I realized that I had seen many people on the streets all over crafting their lives through these threads. Sameer Pathan, this young man tells me that some of his friends from Delhi who practiced this craft came over to Mumbai and enthusiasts like him learnt the same and now are practicing it here. I wonder how such chains of creative learning and living begin?? I’m sure this has passed on to other cities too.

Sammer Pathan (20) is a native of Hubli, Karnataka and he is in Mumbai to study and earn a living and he enjoys doing it in a creative way. He attends college, studies and then in his leisure time he is onto his creative skills. He says, “It is easy and if one has interest one will enjoy it more.” He buys the material from local market; his kit is completed with a set of scissors, a book and a pen to note down correct spellings. He is smart and does a well finished job. If you have difficulty in choosing colors, he will suggest his options! Cheers to his commitment and dedication!!

I await for the next interesting thing on the streets...

Kashmiri Hastakari- Bags

Sling Bag

Hand Bag

Today, I got these bags as gifts! From Srinagar!! I have a pouch of Kashmiri wool aari embroidery on a white base. Such embroidery on white cotton base is very common. Here, the embroidery is done on dyed and patched leather. It has an awesome texture. And to add, the colors are very typically fall colors of this season: aubergine, mauve and true red with brown, black and olive greens and accent of mellow rose. I love these bags!

Happy Halloween!

Bag from Kachchh

The obsession of bags continues...

Hand embroidered bag from Kachchh, Gujarat

Solapur Bags

Pishvi in marathi, kothada in guajarati, chila in kannada and sanchi in teulgu, thaili in hindi or a chick tote bag… call it whatever but it remains a simple and useful basic bag of its kinds. Everyone uses such a bag at least once in life and many have their lives revolving around this.

I pass through many street shops selling such basic bags everywhere, but there is something different about such shops in Solapur. They also sell bags unique to Solapur and those are the bags stitched from chaddars. These bags are referred to as ‘Chadarichya pishvya’ in Marathi.

Bag seller @ Lakshmi market, Solapur

Variety of Bags at the above shop

These bags are made from the jacquard woven chaddar fabrics which either are excess pieces from the loom or are initial weave trials or either have some weave defects. These are purchased from the weaving units and are locally stitched on a small scale for local market sales. You might find this a very mundane thing but NO! It is an ingenious sustainable product. Made from excess/waste, this bag also adds to employment to some extent and is also very useful.
I got the above bag from my grandfather and he tells me that it is about 25 years old. And that means it is older than me! He had bought this bag for Rs. 3/-. Now you just have to add a zero to this which makes it Rs. 30/-. Striking motifs unambiguously woven into colorful stripes are simply superb. These bags are my current subject of interest for exploration. Wait for it... it is going to be legendary!!

Vegetable Wheel

Preparation for today's dinner... veg pulav!!