World Peace Day

World Peace Day was last Monday the 21st of September and I wanted to commemorate it in some way.

I'd been folding origami cranes for the Senbazuru project which I started in February and I was making good progress. 

So the plan was to have 500 origami cranes folded and strung into 20 streamers of cranes.

 So it was done and ready and I spent the afternoon of the 21st hanging the 20 steamers in the verandah of the guesthouse.

 500 cranes sway in the breeze wafting peace and happiness to all and for the well being of a loved one for whom I'm making the Senbazuru.

The next goal is to have the remaining 500 swaying in the breeze by the 18th of November.

How are you challening yourself? Any interesting challenges in blogland? Do let me know, I'd like to get involved in something fiber or paper related in 2016.

A Cross Stitch Alphabet Sampler

 I started this sampler when we moved to Coonoor in May and its finally done.
The pattern I painstakingly copied onto graph paper probably ten years back. I found it while packing my stash.
It was then that I decided it would have to be embroidered as a commemorative piece of the new environment we were going to be living in.
Will now have to wait for the next trip to Bangalore to get it framed.
Have a good week.

TAST 2015 - Feather Stitch

A week without the internet, it's been quite difficult coming to terms with no contact with the outside world. Got started on projects which don't require the internet. 

No internet meant I could focus on trying to catch up with TAST. Here's what I did with Feather Stitch. The wild jungle like quality of feather stitch was what appealed to me.Perfect to stitch all over a bill from a small hotel which tries and gives it's a patrons a flavour of jungle living.  The reverse of the page with stitching in the picture above.   

 Still in catch up mode with TAST 2015.
A WIP has been given priority and I've set myself a deadline to complete the project by September 21st World Peace day. There's a need for peace and better understanding more than ever before.
Hope your weekend was restful.  

TAST 2015 - Fly Stitch

Fly stitch creates a mandala around a moth which I found on our verandah. The mandala and moth are on a page of my brown paper bag journal. 

After the rains many moths big and small can be seen on the verandah and the french doors. 

I have  a small selection of my hand embroidered scarves for sale on a fashion accessory portal Pookaari. They ship all across India and the USA. Multiple payment options and cash on delivery available only in India. With the festive season around the corner here in India, do pop over to Pookaari and check out the curated jewellery and accessories on offer.

Happy Onam to each one of you celebrating Onam today, may you have your fill of payasam and other Onam goodies. That mandala of fly stitch is something like the flower carpets which get made during Onam. Have a good weekend.

Folded Book Art - Hearts Galore

I spent sometime last week making my first folded book. A newbie but I'm hooked, my first attempt was in March this year when my mum, recovering from eye surgery and I had some fun folding pages of Reader's Digest into interesting sculptural forms.  

The pattern I followed is a free one found here.

I'd like to attempt a word next.
How has the week been for you? I've been getting an education in bee keeping!
Have a great weekend.

TAST 2015 - Blanket Stitch

I've decided to participate in Take a Stitch Tuesday 2015 which Sharon is conducting and will run for 52 weeks - a new stitch to try and explore each week.

It was in 2008 that I first took up the challenge of TAST and the result was two fiber books which have been exhibited and become teaching aides and are very precious to me.  

Since the book form interests me immensely and I've moved to a new place to set up home I've decided to use TAST to explore the use of embroidery stitches on paper and make a journal of sorts.

The paper for the pages will be the brown paper bags and bills on which I intend to do the embroidery stitches.It will be a collage of sorts. Embroidery, writing, ephemera.

So without much ado here's Blanket Stitch done on a brown paper bag from New Indian Bakery.  

 The inside. A recipe and the bill from Dragon restaurant. Panikoorka is Indian Borage and I have a cutting which will be planted in my herb garden and in time Panikoorka pakoras will be made..
I have some catching up to do with TAST.

Making the Monsoon fiber book.

I'd promised to make a tutorial to explain how I went about making the Monsoon inspired fiber book.

As promised here it is after delays of not being able to transfer pictures from my camera etc.   

So I began by choosing a size for my pages. I chose 4 inches x 6inches for each page. I also chose the fabric for the pages some were silks others were dyed with rust and tea. 

 I cut fabric fusing into pieces measuring 8 inches x 12 inches and ironed them onto the back. Ironing fusing onto the back of the fabric one is going to do embroidery or applique on, stops the base fabric from puckering.Especially if you are embroidering text. 

Then I embellished the pages with embroidery and applique. There was fabric and paper which I appliqued onto some pages.  

Once the embroidery and applique was done I put the pages together, just to see I had the sequence right. 

Next each double spread was turned over and the excess fabric was folded over and tacked down.

 Next two double spreads were placed with backs together and the edges were stitched together with an overcast stitch. Once all four sides had been sewn up the tacking was removed.

  Then I put the pages together and since there are just three or four pages, I took some sturdy thread and stitched through the center of the pages to secure them and hold them together.

 So this is the little fiber book.

Somewhere along the way I felt a small shibori frill attached to the edge of the cover would complete the whole thing, and that's just what I did.

 The Monsoon fiber book.
I hope the method I used is sufficiently clear for you to try and make a little fiber book of your own. It isn't rocket science so I'm sure you'll improvise any steps you couldn't understand and create something quite special.
Do let me know I'd love to see what you create.

Cocoon

   The handiwork of a little spider. building a little cocoon for this handmade ceramic vase.

Our home is build with exposed brick and the brickwork has little niches just the right size to hold and display  ten small handmade vases collected years ago.
Each one of the vases are different in shape, pattern and glaze, unique and precious. Perhaps, understood by the little spider who decided to weave a protective web around them.

I'm going to be busy next week with family weaving happy memories. Have a good weekend making happy memories, a long one for those in the United States.

A Flower Strewn Path

 Yesterday afternoon was spent working with the masons creating a flower strewn path. It began with trying to create impressions with beautiful ferns.

When that didn't work we used found objects to create flowers.  

 The flower centres were made with bits of plastic pipe and an empty paint container, seen in the background.

A path strewn with sunflowers. I hope our guests enjoy walking down this path.

Wishing you a weekend which takes you down flower strewn pathways.

I have news about the Solace project here.

Redwork Sampler

I'm taken with cross-stitch red work and I thought I'd share one I made and got framed.    

 The framed sampler adorns our new home. It's a wedding, alphabet and Quaker motifs all rolled into one sampler.

 Detail of some of the motifs in the sampler.

I'm sorry if the pictures are hazy and bit distorted because it's behind glass and I had to try and avoid reflections besides I had only the use of my cellphone camera. The cord to transfer photographs from my camera to my laptop seems to have developed a problem so I'm unable to share any of the pictures on my camera. What a bummer. I have all the pictures for a tutorial on how I made the Monsoon fiber book but it's going to have to wait. Oh well, it's not the end of the world.

Hope you're having a wonderful creative week.

Where the Wild Things are

At my new home in the hills I've been snapping pictures of the little wild things I discover most mornings on the french doors and on the verandah.   

From being an apartment dweller in a metropolis  for the past ten years, I'm enjoying discovering forms, patterns and textures from the natural world which present themselves. Unexpected surprises.

The Key

Found poetry, an ongoing project.

 Here is the key,

forward thinking. Adopt and adapt it for your own means,

Prepare in advance, ready to go.

it will keep you at the forefront of an upcoming revolution.

If you missed the found poetry created prior to this piece here are the links.....
Dabbling in Distractions
It will make you happy
Spontaneous Combustion
Layers of Flavours

Hope your weekend is gorgeous. I start planning future projects.

Monsoon - A Fiber Book

The fiber book - Monsoon 

It's taken longer than expected what with moving house and settling down but I finally got to photograph the little book on my deck this morning. The book is about things I associate with the monsoon season.

The plaintive call of the Koel or the cuckoo. It's a call one welcomes in India because one knows there will relief from the relentless summer heat. I read somewhere that the Koel a migratory bird flies to the Indian peninsula from Africa on the monsoon winds.  

Monsoon landscape dominated by dark  moisture laden nimbus clouds.

The rain brings an exuberance to the land. The parched land turns green and one of the most beautiful sights is a peacock dancing with its magnificent tail spread out. I have memories of this wondrous sight on the lawns of my alma mater The National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.    

I choose to eat other meats during the monsoons, it's me doing my bit to give fish stocks a chance to be replenished.    

Hot tea or cutting chai as it's known in India is what every Indian loves to sip when it's pouring and I'm no different. That's the recipe for the masala tea I make and if there are no bhajjiyas I settle for marie biscuits which I dunk in the tea and eat. One of my favourite rituals. 

The back cover of the book.

The prediction for the monsoon this year is that it will be early, probably the last week of May. Usually the Monsoon hits the West coast of India in the first week of June.
I must stock up on Marie biscuits and get tea leaves and spices in place to welcome the Monsoon.

If you shop on line I would appreciate it if you would click on the Amazon link here or the Flipkart link here to browse and make your purchases.

 As an affiliate, Flipkart and Amazon will pay me a small percentage of the total amount you spend.You will not be paying anything extra. Thank you.  

Have a great weekend.

Settling down

I thought I should say hello when I have access to wifi.

The move has been made from the plains to the hills and across state lines and we're in the process of settling down in the Nilgiris.

 One evening last week we spotted a bison (gaur) wandering through the tea bushes on the hill opposite our home. From the concrete jungle to the jungle itself.

 The discovery of strange insects on the spider plant. There's going to be much to discover in this new environment which will have an impact on my work.
Monsoon the fiber book is complete but I beg you to be patient just a little longer. In another week or two when things are out of cartons and everything has a place and hopefully the access to wifi is uninterrupted I'll post pictures of the little book.

Have a wonderful week.

Solace

In September 2014 India Flint formulated the Solace project and invited people to make contributions of natural fiber pennants with stitched words of peace or a line, sonnet or word which evokes a sense of solace. 

This is my contribution. I've since attached ties to the top of the pennant like India requested and the little flag is ready to mail to The Observatory, Andamooka, Southern Australia.
The pennant is made from a piece of cutting waste, it's a slubby cotton.

I was looking for a quote for peace and this one resonated with me.
I believe there's time for you to get involved  should you want to make a contribution.Read about an update here.
Click here to be inspired and to see the contributions some others have created.

Here is what India plans to do:
' During June next year I will be in residence at The Observatory. 

I shall spend time connecting each of the flags in the sequence of their arrival, recording the words on them as one complete circular poem.

Following this I shall prepare an organic indigo vat and on the day of the southern midwinter solstice in 2015 will overdye the flags in the blue of the heavens before installing them as a circle. if there are hundreds, then a series of concentric circles :-))

The flags will be documented photographically over time and the images and text will be available online as well as in a limited edition book. It may even be possible to make a short film. While I do not have the financial resources to distribute free books to participants, each person who makes and sends a flag will receive a limited edition postcard image of the installation, personally addressed to them and posted from the Andamooka post office. ' 

If you shop on line I would appreciate it if you would click on the Amazon link here or the Flipkart link here to browse and make your purchases.

 As an affiliate, Flipkart and Amazon will pay me a small percentage of the total amount you spend.You will not be paying anything extra. Thank you.  

Friendships

Finished stitching this while the painters and cleaners worked on transforming the apartment.
Don't you agree with the saying? I think it rings true.
Been given for framing.

Have a great weekend.

If you shop on line I would appreciate it if you would click on the Amazon link here or the Flipkart link here to browse and make your purchases.

 As an affiliate, Flipkart and Amazon will pay me a small percentage of the total amount you spend.You will not be paying anything extra. Thank you.