Text and Biryani

Writing, text, various scripts all facinate me, more so if its embroidered and I'm not the only one. Read more in this post at the Ragged Cloth Cafe Serving Art and Textiles and take the time to read the comments. There are some wonderful insights on the use of text in different peoples work. I have to say I agree with most of the views and opinions expressed there.

The fibre book I've begun for the documentation of biryani is as much about our love for biryani as it is about the exploration and use of materials to express with text our ongoing quest and discovery of biryani lore, recipes, facts, and the best places to eat biryani.

Its our set of wheels which get us to the next plate of biryani so its an apt name for us - hungry hot rods. That's page one of the fibre tome.

I'm using found and recycled materials as far as possible in this project. The silvery shiny material is the foil packet that the museli comes in, the red fabric is a small piece of block printed cotton from my stash and the embroidery threads too come from my stash.
The embroidery on page two is inspired by this and Jude's work. Have you noticed? I'm putting my TAST embroidery stitches to good use.

I'm back

It's good to be back home, sleeping in your own bed and settling back into a familiar routine.

The Great Driving Challenge which took over our lives for the past month has drawn to a close for R and me. I'd like to thank all of you who supported us, can't tell you how much it meant to us to make it to the semi finals. We got to meet and interact with a number of interesting people and came away with an all expenses paid holiday at Fort Aguada, Goa even though we didn't make it to the top three. The travel bug has bitten us. We got off the plane from Mumbai and got home long enough to repack our bags and set off by car for a long weekend in theNilgiris with family and there's Goa to look forward to in September. When it rains it pours.

One week away and I've discovered significant changes around me. Some like my google reader which was close to exploding with 250 unread posts was quite over whelming. My blog now has 56 followers, which is a pleasant surprise and my plants are multiplying and growing so I must be doing something right. All very gratifying.

I've begun a fibre book inspired by our love for biryani. Come back and visit, I don't foresee disappearing and leaving my blogs unattended for a while to come.

The Great Driving Challenge

As of Wednesday I've gotten myself involved in The Great Driving Challenge and in the process got R involved as well because its for couples.

Organised by Mitsubishi, three lucky couples will enjoy an all expenses paid 12 day driving challenge in the new Mitsubishi Cedia Sports, and one couple wins 10lakh rupees (even half that would be a tidy sum to indulge ones fibre & bead cravings). Anyway the exciting bit for us is the 12 day drive which if we get to do will be fantastic.

We plan to drive from Bangalore to Leh and sample Biryani along the way and you'll get to witness it all right here. Our personal motto for the trip is "We Sverve, Reroute & Detour for Biryani". What's exciting, is the variety of biryani we're likely to encounter. The cultural landscape is going to change pretty dramatically which will have a direct impact on the biryani - the ingredients, method of cooking and flavours all waiting to tantalise the taste buds.

Which brings me to the part where your participation is going to make all the difference. We need your votes and we need names and addresses of places to sample all those fabulous biryanis between Bangalore and Leh.

To vote please follow this 3-step process. 1. Click on the link below 2. Once on the page, click 'Vote' and provide your email id 3.The actual vote is effective only once you've acknowledged it from a confirmation email which you will receive,Check your inbox and click on the confirmation link. Click here to vote.

Let me thank you in advance for taking the trouble to vote for us, can't tell you how much R & I appreciate it.