Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Big Block Day

For a week we have been trying to get up to Bagru and see Mohamed Salim the gentleman who carves our printing blocks- on a bit of a mission as we have a few projects held up by the alck of them...so after a week of pump problems and waiting for the fix it man to arrive [apparently because it was so hot he could not be bothered picking up the part from over the mountain.] and then waiting for the insurance man to arrive to pay car tax [it has been out for a while but you only worry about it if you are in a rush to get somewhere- seems to be his way]
any way, finally we set off.

 There is no way you can do justice to India traffic- it is such an experience!! Much of the new highway is now complete and we shaved 30 mins off the trip....so it took just 2 hours to travel 90 km- pretty good for India
 Bagru is a satelite village of Jaipur, long know for its wonderful block print, the speciall;ty of Bagru is mud resist and indigo, natural iron black dyes....you see it everywhere

 We visited OM-ji shop for breakfast, he would serve the best and tastiest katori [deep fried pastries filled with spicey lentils] I have ever had [and I will admit I have done some research on this subject]...if you were a poet you word write an ode to the flakiness of his pastry alone,,,,then the filling, then to kudi [curry suace] to go with it all.
Heavenly.
 It just worked out that Nandu had to go up to Bagru as well [perhaps that is what really held us up...waiting for the right day] having Nandu along made it a special outing for all of us...no kids for her to look after and us to fuss over her, for us the pleasure of her smiles and jokes. A good deal all around.
 Salim and his son across the way- they make a great team
 One od Salim's designs
 Nandu had to get a few blocks fixed, and 2 that we use a lot copied because they were wearing out, we had orders and inquiries to make, and then nandu asked to see the folder of Salim's sketches and ideas....ooohh is this man good.
Before I knew it I had ordered one or 2 of his designs for us to add into to our printing and Nadu had another one or 2 as well.
Ladies shopping! you could see Praveen stepped back and let us get on with it.
 Around the area...I try to not be a tourist when we are out, just sling the camera over my shoulder and click, hence the funny angles sometimes.
Fabulous day out....more pictures on FB

and hot on the heels of organizing new blocks came this lovely bunch of flowers from Gillian Travis, an English woman I met earlier in the year, we hatched this project to make kits of some of her creations.
Flowers similar to this won 1st prize at the FOQ for 3 D quilting and it has been a popular class for her...wanting to connect with some of our local people she commissioned us to work with Nandu to print fabrics for her and assemble kits- wait until the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham this year or check out her website it will all be there soon.

most went quite well, the only worry was this maroon...we had been hoping fro a more pink colour but the dye man went a bit wild, now Gillian has added stitch I find it really attractive- it is all in mixing and matching and she has a real eye for that.
I thinkif you scan back through her blog you will find some rather inspiring pictures from her travels as well as more flowers.

Love block print!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am usually just an observer when it comes to blogs, but this really made me desire to leave a comment. Fantastic work!

Kim Thittichai said...

Have just discovered you from WOW. What an amazing life you have, it must be wonderful, frustrating and joyous all at once - I shall enjoy following you all. I will put a link on my blog.
with all best wishes, Kim x