Bangalore

We have had a lovely weekend in Bangalore but have been a little hampered in the sourcing materials mission as it has been both the end of Ramadan & the Hindu Ganesha festival so everybody has been on holiday and almost all of the shops have been closed.   

It has felt a bit like Christmas as there are twinkle lights everywhere, people making & selling exquisite garlands of flowers threaded on cotton on every street corner, and truly hideous gigantic statues of Ganesha in fluorescent colours (a rival to the blow up Father Christmas’ at home!).   On Saturday night everybody gathers at the lakeside with their statues, big - on the back of vans & small - in their hands, to throw them into the lake.

So back to the materials & we have a few links to wholesale silver in Bangalore but the city has about the same population of London & so it feels a bit like finding a needle in a haystack!

We are visiting another crafts project here in Bangalore with a view to maybe developing some jewellery here too, & to perhaps getting some cards & packaging for the jewellery printed. 

Lottie & I are heading to Mysore tomorrow and onwards for a couple of weeks travelling before heading back to Bangalore & the project again at the beginning of October.  We will be in touch when we return.

Love love x

Photographs from Week One

Geeta

Selvi

                                                      

Rubiya

  

Suguna

Vanita

  

Geeta

Rubiya

Mani & Suguna

Geeta & Rubiya

Priya, Vanita & Selvi

       

The Kitten of Death

Sunset over Eastern Ghats

Day Five

We are coming to the end of our first week of training with the beautiful ladies here, and we leave for Bangalore on the bus tomorrow afternoon.  Leaving them with the tools and some materials to practising their new-found skills.

Day Three was spent making a pair of dangly cluster earrings. The ladies made the entire earring including the earring hooks, and then chose beads to attach.  They are not a fan of the silver coloured wire that they are working with - they think it only suits white skin! All their jewellery is gold (or gold coloured)…except their toe rings.  The Hindu women wear rings on both feet, and a long gold chain (or gold coloured thread) with thalis on the end - both symbolise that they are married.  It is really interesting working with women from a culture that attaches such importance – both symbolic & aesthetic – to jewellery.

Day Four, yesterday, was lots of preparation for when we leave, with instructions on what they are to make whilst we are away…these have been left in the form of some translation through Prior (one of the ladies here that speaks pretty good English) & badly drawn diagrams with number codes attached to all the tools!

It’s was very hot here yesterday despite the fans in the production unit.  The ladies seem unaffected (unlike us!) and everyone has been working hard and enthusiastically.

There is a lot of work to be done sourcing raw materials, building links & putting the structure of how production will work when we are back in the UK into place whilst we are here in India.   We are hoping to source more materials in Bangalore this weekend, & find a link to buying silver at trade prices – proving pretty difficult as people don’t want to divulge where they are getting their materials from, understandably I suppose but fingers crossed we will get a break through.  In any case we are really looking forward to exploring the colourful markets again…and eager to do a little shopping!

We have been taking rather a lot of photographs so we will try to make a slide show of them this evening from the week so you can see more of the ladies & the beautiful things they have been making.

Thinking of you all, with love,

xxx

Greetings from Dharma Puri

Hello. Vanacome.

We have arrived in beautiful India! After a few days in Bangalore sourcing beads and jewels in the tangled markets, eating delicious dosa & taking night-time auto rides, we left for the countryside.

MAT is set amongst the paddy fields with a backdrop of the Eastern Ghats, and is such a beautiful place – green & lushious despite there being little rain.

Yesterday morning we met the ladies that work at the production unit for VIA - they are elegant & resplendent in their beautiful coloured saris & matching smiles.  They are warm & welcoming despite us knowing next to no Tamil & them speaking little English (although they understand a remarkable amount).  

In this first week of training we will concentrate on learning basic jewellery making skills, to then develop designs & work with in the following weeks in our next visits.

Day One yesterday was spent learning how to make jump rings and linking them together to make a chain. The ladies are fast to learn and very enthusiastic.

Day Two today and they have learnt how to add beads to the chains using wire made into loops, they were very happy to have made themselves a lovely little bracelet. 

We are brought spiced or lemon tea for breaks and have wonderful food cooked for us made almost entirely from the food they grow on the farm here – including guava, rice, tomatoes, green beans & peanuts.

The internet connection here is limited so we have just picked a couple of photos to upload this week. 

Much love to all xx

Selvi