Oh India!

You know sometimes you miss the weirdest things when you move home.
I have found a baker in Pushkar that makes fabulous wholemeal bread so have been having a toastfest this winter....and I realised I really missed the fire alarm I had to have installed in my Australian house....it was a great indicator of when the toast was ready!!
OK a little too ready...but here the kitchen is often full of smoke by the time I think to check.
This is the perfect Indian version of beans on toast for breakfast
left over Dal, real good wholemeal toast and a bit of home made sweet chilli sauce.
That jar of Green Chilli Pickles is all ready to go...I made a jar for one of Praveen's friends who was raving over the ones I make at the hotel...you know sometimes you are not sure if some one really likes something or if they are merely being encouraging....well when Mukesh visited recently he asked if he could get another jar to take home!!
I took that as a compliment because it means I got a vote of confidence from his wife and his mother as well.
I am going to start and load some receipes onto our hotel website as we run a cooking class and it will give people some ideas [and you know for some reason I can't cut and paste to blogger- so it takes too long to re-type recipes]
Something I love about India is the realisation that anything is possible!

All it takes is time and patience...an an attitude that laws and regualtions are merely suggestions...there is often a way around them.

The Stitching Project- Pukka Components

We are finally starting to build up some work....and they are so gorgeous I just want and sit and stack them like a kid with blocks, arrange them this way and that.

Just laying them together you can see there potential for beautiful throws...

and notice the back of them, as beautiful as the front!

Notice the little tags, each lady names her work...I think this is important as this work is being done by real people, working hard to support their family, real people just like you and me who happen to live in a small village in Rajasthan. Real nice ladies I am starting to feel friends with, even though our common language is limited...

I think I will launch some on etsy soon- to see how they go, each one will be US$ 1o.50, bulk orders will attract a wholesale rate....yet to assemble some and price them accordingly.

Think they will really take off as components, you buy them and assemble they as you think...I will offer some pattern ideas....

My own work is progressing as well, I have been following the climate change summit closely, it is well reported in the media here- what is it like where you are?

I am so appalled at the efforts of developed countries....so much of the cause yet not willing to forgo anything for the sake of all. What idiots it will affect them as well.

It is so unfair- we are peple the world over, same wants, same needs...and all deserve a fair bite at the apple.

If you have not lived somewhere like I do in India it is so hard to imagine what it is like for 60% of the world.

Stop and think- how would it be to live on 2 buckets of water a day for your whole family?

how would you navigate the world if you could not read? When you work all day from morning until night and can not earn enough money to feed your children -what do you do?

This is not a new car, or air-conditioning we are talking about, new shoes or a new CD, this is food, shelter and education- basic human rights!!

Lobby your government, if every one tells them to pull their finger out they will have to listen.

Conserve, consider, choose wisely in how you run your life...every little thing helps make a change in the bigger picture.

Pat Archibald and Maureen Lamb....

But wait...this week has had more excitments, than the previous long list indicated....
just as I was going off on the last tour Praveen and I were talking about our plans for Our Pukka Place especially THe Pukka Studio- ultimately we would like to build a guest house cum workshop studio...we were just comfirmimg these thoughts and starting to lay out the steps when we hear from a number of people wanting to see us....
First was Marion and the Elephant of Beautiful Silks and as I indicated we have many plots and plans now incubating...
our Stitching Project is up and running,...
working as a designer and then getting clothes made up for a friends project in Australia [it is going to be called Leafy Sea Dragons by the way...the name is a long story I will tell another day] is gaining momentum....
and then...
and then...
and then we get an email from friends of friends from the UK who are very interested in visiting us in Pushkar partly with the view to bringing a group of textile students here for workshops at a later date.
The timimg was amazing- goose bumps for Praveen and I...as all our thoughts were coming together on that front of the Pukka Studio...things like where and how we can stage them until we have our own place...lots of logistics and connections that are important
PLUS, PLUS, PLUS -most important to us....
we realized we could open up wokshops that foreigners take to some of our stitching ladies [ hire a translater for them] it would be a wonderful experience for the whole group; foreigners and locals alike to spend time together and would be a great educational opportunity for the local ladies....
Our latest visitors were Maureen Lamb of Quiltworks in Cumbria
and well known quilting teacher Pat Archibald
do excuse the concentrated look on the lady's faces- we were having a momnet sharing an addiction, I had the pleasure of sharing my favourite haberdashery store in Ajmer with them....yummy!!
Keep an eye on their websites for their plans...
Later in the day our intrepid textil-ohlics came camel riding with me for sunset...

lovely people and yet more plots and plans....

keep an eye on our website Our Pukka Place I am just about to update it with these developments- oh joy days on a computer when the studio is calling!!

Bring your group a textile people to us.

We have a studio space, I teach or bring your own tutors with you, we have great accomodation and food and can arrange excursions to many places close by for yet more things to do with textiles, we have wonderful block printer people, stitching ladies, just found a tie and dye guy as well.... all local for workshops in traditional techniques....fun, fun, fun.

We can look after you from go to gone...

exciting times

Yoga Mary

Another remarkable week, I have just spent the week doing yoga each morning with a woman who comes from just down the road from where I used to live in Australia and I get to know her in Pushkar!
Fabulous person, know aound as Yoga Mary, her nick name kind of reminds me of Typhoon Mary, and like that she is a bundle of energy- but all good fun not destrctive.
We did yoga each morning in the wonderful room she is privaledged to be able to use above the Shiva Tample at Chandra Ghat on Pushkar's Holy Lake.
Beautiful spot....here are a few of the impressions that filled my sesnse each morning, add to it a small candle glowing in the corner, a priest chanting downstairs and the voices of people quietly excited to be on pilgamidge to this Holy site and you begin to get a feel for the moment.

She is a very good teacher, very aware of guiding you safely through the poses, yet down to earth and relaxed to be with, not too serious.

At the moment the lake is empty [slowly refilling after the big clean up] so we took the opportunity to wander across the lake after our last class and past some of the beutiful Dharamshalas[Pilgims Rest Homes] and temples of Pushkar on our last day....I can't wait unitl she returns with her groups next year as I have an invite to participate in her classes.

Nameste for now, yet I know this is a dooropening to the future, not one closeing on a momnet past....

A day in Pushkar

This village used to produce 5 trucks of rose petals every few days in rose season....that was only 5 or 6 years ago...now they struggle to get 5 bundles of roses off the same gardens.
if only you could smell this, we were sitting just near by talking stitching with the most gorgeous aroma wafting around us....
out to visit the ladies of the Stitching Project- they are really rocking, all the ladies are really lovely, they cover their faces because strange men are here [ my husband with the camera and Panalal our friend and translater seated with me] but step away from them and veils are off and it is laughs and broken conversations and smart women- I know we are going to have fun developing ideas together.
I am planning for the Pukka Studio when we have workshops for foreigners to have a translter and be able to offer the education to some of the Stitching Ladies for free- it will really help them develp design skills and ideas.
sunflower seeds we bought in Syria have grown into these lovely huge flowers.
There is a man in the market who grinds seeds to produce oil for the farmers so we figure we can take them to him for our own oil...just wandering when to harvest- never done this before.

Zac has finally settled in enough he can start painting- first Indian work- he is excited and things starting to flow- good on him....

Delhi- Chandi Chowk and exploration...

A few extremely busy days in Delhi- meeting wonderful people [one lady Dr Skye Morrison has been a hero of mine for many years] and searching for 'things' for The Stitching Project, for clothes designs, paint for Zac, my son to get to work with on some new canvases....a visa to go to Ghana and an Art Gallery opening.
Gosh when I list just the big things I know why I was so tired when I got home.
Delhi is an old Tart- rather rough around the edges but full oflittle hidden jems if you take the time to know her- the building above, hidden behind wires was a wonderful terracotta, aged perfectly and up the top beautiful architectural features...
This always amuses me- a major road, the fly over over New Delhi Railaway station is always a washing line for this yearn company...

Chandi Chowk- the centre of old Delhi has a few wonderful dhabas- and my favourite Masala Dosa- crips rice pancake wrapped around spiced potato filling served with cocnut chutney and a spicy dal- delicious and a treat as I can't find it here near where I live. and 30 ruppes in this little local place- yum!!

The beginings of the Cloth Market- exploring I found the dyers wholesale market, than later edible oils and joined back up to the spice market ooohh and a few shops that selll silver and gold leaf for decorating your food.

The Spice Market

would you like a few red chillis?

Next day was Dilli Hart market- fabuolous for handmade and a chance to meet the makers....

first something to keep me going Pani Puri- little crisp shells you crack a whole in them, pop in a few bits a potat and cooked beans, a little chilli sauce and then fill them with the green mint and tamarind water and quickly pop them inot your mouth whole. They are a delightful explosion of crunchy, savoury water!!

nothing like it and utterly addictive.

This Lady produces these wonderful completely hand embroidered silk items. I am starting a small shop Pukka Finds- I love to support handwork but what can I do with it? If I buy it from people to on sell it will be great...so stay tuned some wonderful pieces will soon be available. Pieces I can be sure are from the maker and exquisite examples of workmanship...hmmm now that is shopping!

Dilli Hart

Back home and the first sheet set from Pukka Desireables is out the door, this is handblock print from a local family...soon have them ready for wholesale and etsy...whew!! that is just the start of it but I must really run out the door for yoga class- trying a bit of the old de-stress routines

BYE :)

The Stitching Project

You know sometimes you catch a glimpse of your self and think wow- is that me?


The last few days have been interesting...rushing along on a big high with our projects, excited and exhausted....


...Praveen had the TV on chanel surfing and I was finishing off dinner and brought it in - yep life is jsut as mundane here as anywhere else when it comes to domesticity some days.


There was this horrible movie on....some very young woman trapped by a bad man, being stalked, running through the maze on and empty underground parking lot, being moelsted....etc just horrible thriller stufff. It totally freaked me and and threw me back into the rape and pillage that was my childhood.


I shot out of the room like a bullet, did not know wether to vomit or cry, where to hide, what to do. Totally the child again and in the midst of the nightmares that haunted me for years. Praveen did not knot what had happened and after a few minutes came looking for me, put his arms around me and let me cry [I would guess confused and shocked to see me like that for no apparent reason]. Once I settled down I was OK again...just a passing shadow.


Still it is amazing how far you can move along in your life and yet you still carry those shadows with you, the light of your today, if you are letting it shine brings darkness into those corners....but they still lurk, they were a part of your existance. The good thing of the experience was that once I settled and came back to me [not the shock and jumping into the child] it was gone, I can see it and my childhood as just a passing experience now not a defining moment.


Here is my boy, coming into his adulthood working with his Mummy, ironing and preparing pieces for The Stitching Project.... it is very exciting and he is really growing into a man, trying very hard to find a niche he can contribute to our projects from, help us out, work on his art and ideas and make a life to suit his tastes. If hw wants more than a 9 to 5 existance and hopefully a few exotic locations thrown in he has to be creative in his approach to creating that life...I think he is starting to get that- yeh!

I often give public talks when I am travelling to textile groups etc...I always start and as I introduce myself- feel a little like I am at an AA meeting- I have an obsession....Like you, my audience I have this pre-occupation with textiles etc, etc, etc....well look at this, one of my favourote shops, one of many places to get the best quality, ethically sound fixes!

I suppose it is like the dope smoker who uses organic weed??
Should I be worried??


A beautiful moment...

Hmm, monkeys, sitting on the roof looking at my vegeatble garden....they have been in a few times lately and we have been hacing to shoo them away. Languers, although peaceful do not take kindly to being asked to leave and a male can be rather large when you are up close.

Ahh the obsession image...lurking around in backstreets trying to find a connection for second hand saris you do see some architectural treasures

...and in dim alley ways you get some of the best hits...

Back hope, replete and lots to do.

I am in Delhi for 2 days of running- further exploration of Sadar Bazaar- the maze of markets, uncovering further mysteries of the cloth market, meetings with some remarkable people, an art gallery opening, yellow fever vaccination and Ghana visa- how exciting!!

Big shifts....

The last few days have been pivital!!
I knew something was coming, kept saying to Praveen our place is just around the corner, please go and find it. [in India I can't go out and look, it is not the Indian way....another story]
So we have looked at a few properties in Pushkar, been talking a lot to clarify our plans, building a better picture of Our Pukka Place- Studio the guest house/ workshop/ taeching place/ studio we want to create, getting The Stitching Project moving along, many, many, many things all connected to our hope and dreams...and we had the added excitment of a few visitors for a few days...
It all started on 30 November, 2009 when we [Praveen had made inital contact the day before] went to a small village only 2 km from Pushkar to see some ladies who were possibily going to stitch for us- first the sample piece is on the right track, and she was keen in all the right ways,
second the village is it!! for us, the place to build our own home and workshop facility [Praveen is in a little shock about moving to a village- it is the type of place his family moved away from to go to Delhi]- it is poor, but not depressed, if that makes sense, pride is still there, our project will certainly make an impact bringing income into the village- it is very clean especially by Indian standards and charming.
Our first meeting, our friend Panalal is helping as he grew up in this village and can speak the local dialect....

We already had a lovely Dutch couple staying with us Peter and Yvonne, they had got married from our house here in Pushkar last year, and the The Elephant and Marion Gorr [famed for many things one of which is Beautiful Silks] arrived.
Marion I have known for many years, one of those things that has felt like a friendship even though we have only really only had the briefest of times together passing like ships in the night at various textile events.
Well a few days confirms all the things I knew- she is a fabulous and inspiring person, I truely wish some distances were smaller as bathing in the glow of her outlook on life is a treat...and we are making different plots and plans together so I know I will be so lucky again!! And we met her charming husband The Elephant...ah a lovely time....

first wandering up through the market in Pushkar and meeting some people I know
Ashok a local gentleman with a passion and welth of knowledge for textiles let us poke through his shop...
look at these photos...they are a few of a whole sequence- one of those moments being when you feel like a fly on the wall and watching a small scene unfold in front of your very eyes....Marion is photographing a small detail on the garment he is holding, she snaps, takes a step closer, snaps again...takes a step closer.. 2 or 3 times...I am just thinking oooh if she does this much more she is going to poking the camera into him!!, Can you see Ashok's face it is just dawning on him as a possibility as well....he is too polite to say push off lady yet I am sure is thinking eekkk!!! how do I warn her....
and then the smile as she steps back...
such a simple momnet but some how priceless to watch it unfold -just for my amusement and appreciattion....

Here is the Elephant wanding around in my village, we took Marion and the Elephant with us when we went to see how things were shaping up....and for us it was great to have experienced people like them to bouce ideas off: really to sit at their feet and learn....I know they will always be gurus for us. I feel so grateful :)

Marion soon had a troop interested

Overnight, many other family members have become involved, no lauguage in common just a needle and hands- this was the most stimulating conversation....Panalal was there to help but we did surprisingly well....They are onto it, can see what I am aiming at and perpred to take it on- Yippee!, can I say that loud enough and cheerfully enough to express my heart? I don't know...but I can feel things lining up, moving forward for all of us.....may this upsurge in energies be entering oyur lives as well...it is a great feeling....now I have to get going I need to get things sorted out for The Stitching Project to meet is first order.....a mere 40 kg od stitched bits and pieces....I am sure you will hear various details as the weeks unfold and we sort out all the things that need to be done along the journey.

This is Women Stitching New Trails, and I am sure will involve new Women's Stitching Tales as well

A lovely photo of lovely people, they seem to embody how I felt at that moment as well...replete after a good day, happy, relaxed but can you also see the wheels turning? ideas, hopes and possibilities-

Two very inspiring people we are lucky enough to call friends.