Like Victoria Terminus
July 1, 2011
L to R Syamala, Abrar and Vimal hard at work in MESH Design Studio
A pretty pink and green tablecloth
A zanny single bedspread and all to learn about placements. 
Vimal has really taken to the work asking to come in on Saturday and learn something new. He has the most horrible leg injury from a truck accident and is awaiting his thrid operation so he is trying to learn as much as possibe before he has to go back into hospital. Their GMR volunteer is busy making a poster of the methods of screen printing and either of the interns at any time joins him in his stenciling.
Then Sonam Palkit from PAGIR, Leh is still busy finishing of the new products developed with Ashok using tailor’s waste. Today her focus is hair bands…
Sonam fully focussed
In action on a new idea
The techniques are new and layering of silk promises some very interesting results.
Silk layers and metalic thread
Screen Printing Training Has Started
June 15, 2011
Vimal, Reena and the GMR volunteer Deepak from the GMR project arrived in MESH Design Studio today for their first screen printing lesson and they have already printed something! They are learning about stencil and enamel printing before settling into the really serious business of photographic screen printing.
Syamala showing Reena and Vimal and Deepak how to make a stencil
Both Vimal and Reena have orthopedic disabilities and they are from low income backgrounds. We hope very much that they will learn the skill, enjoy the work and set up their own printing unit in the resettlement community where they now live having been moved from a temporary slum when the new airport was built. Hopefully they can earn their living from this activity by taking local orders and selling through MESH.
Trying it out
Watch the progress.
Sonam at work in MESH Design Studio
Sonam from Leh is also working on some new products with Ashok using tailor’s waste. Sonam is hearing impaired, following an injury from falling off the roof of her home when she was about six years old. She works with two other women in the Secmol office of PAGIR in Leh in the Himalayas…and this is their usual view from the workshop window!
View from SECMOL Office in Leh where Sonum usually works
Sonu is Leaving….His Art
June 14, 2011
Sonu and the beginnings of the rickshaw idea
Sonu is going back toVaranasi today and then onto Bihar for some time with his family. It has been a delight having him here with us. During his stay he received his tenth class exams results; he was disappointed with his science mark but for drawing he scored 96%! We celebrated with chocolate cake!
Sonu, designers, interns and staff celebrating Sonu's 96%
He leaves behind some lovely art work which we shall use for screen printing. Rickshaws as you have never seen them before, trucks and The Charminar will be appearing in our ranges in the months ahead.
The screen printing set-up is ready. Two of the GMR trainees cried off at the last minute so we are a little held up with that but I am expecting some very nice products in the coming months judging by the sketches and drawings prepared by our in-house designer, Syamala, and, intern Jaspreet.
Syamala and Jaspreet are NOT making the cake!
Akanksha and Tushar, the design interns from NIFT are bringing together an eclectic range of home furnishings for the festival season that will be embroidered by the women from Champa. Thinks animal prints, lovely textures and wonderful jewel-coloured kosa silk.
Akanksha and Tushar, interns - from small sketches lovely products may come!
Today Sonum and Kunzang have arrived from PAGIR in Leh. Sonam will be working with Ashok on additional products using tailors waste and Kunzang has come to learn about costing and pricing, managing quality control and other aspects of the business side of PAGIR’s production unit.
Sonum at work in the winter sun in Leh
The Inspiration Tour
June 6, 2011
Sonu sketching at Humayan's, Tomb Delhi
Sonu, the young would-be artist from Kiran Varanasi joined Ashok and I in a grand inspirational tour in hot, hot Delhi on Saturday. Driven by Sushil (in the picture above watching Sonu) we started off in the very early morning in Humayan’s Tomb. Sonu sat quietly sketching the Affiser Tomb in the lovely gardens whilst I watched the birds and enjoyed the many varieties of trees.
"Affisar Tomb" is what Sonu was sketching then
Meanhwile Ashok, our design intern from Bethany, practiced using the macro lens on the camera…a first time for him.
Whilst Sonu sketches Ashok clicks with the macro lens
Then we moved on to AkshadamTemple, a new temple in Delhi that is an absolute marvel of stone carving. We were not permitted to take pictures but I am certain that Sonu would have been inspired by the beauty of the place and the quality of the work. Ashok and I were certainly taken by a beautiful carved image of a young woman asleep under a light sheet dreaming of elephants, all carved in stone.
Then we finished our tour in the welcome cool of The Museum of Modern Art which was three floors of inspiration. Sonu was particularly taken by a few pictures and whilst again we could not photograph anything there was a sense that he had the ideas in his head ready to try out.
It was a lovely time and for me a great pleasure to accompany two very enthusiastic young people.
Today Sonu is sketching/painting again and I am hopeful that he will let us use his images for screen printing onto some cotton bags for sale in our Delhi shop.
This is what Sonu is sketching today
There are things happening in MESH Design Studio.
June 3, 2011
Akanksha and Tushar NIFT interns in MESH Design Studio
Akanksha and Tushar, two interns from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bhopal are bringing together ranges for the embroiderers in Champa (see an interview with one of the Champa ladies on page 7 of MESH Newspaper) http://www.mesh.org.in/articles_181919.html. Expect new things from MESH including clothing in lovely beautiful Little Flower silks.
Sonu inspired and creating in MESH Design Studio
Sonu is in his final year at school with a desire to do fine arts after school. He has come to us from Kiran Centre inVaranasi (www.kiranvillage.org) for two weeks exposure to Delhi and life in a design studio. He usually lives with his friends in Kiran and is still struggling to find his level all alone here inDelhi. It doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting his art work though. We are off at the crack of dawn on Saturday to Humayan’s tomb for a bit of sketching before it gets too hot. Maybe we shall get something that we can screen print onto bags…a great souvenir of Delhi.
Syamala is working with Jaspreet, another intern, on the preparation for a screen printing workshop for a group of young men with disabilities from a project run by GMR (the company that runs most of India’s airports). We are hoping this will be the beginning of a very good relationship and lots of screen printing experimenting.
Syamala and Jaspreet preparing screens
Watch this space for more. It is so good to see the place buzzing.
Snazzy New Bedspreads
May 25, 2011
We have been very quiet in the studio for a while but now there is plenty going on. Naazneen is newly appointed in MESH as Operations and Marketing Manager with special focus on domestic markets. Her first task has been to work with our design intern Ashok on a range of double bed covers using a variety of the lovely fabrics already in MESH’s storeroom.
We expect two NIFT interns from the beginning of June for a couple of months and Naazneen is to work with them on a range of embroidered products with festivals in mind so watch this space.
Bags and blinds and weaving and costing and warping and teaching and no camera at hand!!
March 11, 2011
Fantastic sights and sounds in MESH Design Studio yesterday. Narayan was click clacking away on the broad loom; Syamala and Ashok had meters of thread across the whole huge room as they made up a lovely orange coloured warp; two weavers from The Physically Handicapped Rehabilitation and Training Centre, Maharashtra were sitting on the floor working on new product ideas on their small looms; Govinda, our curtain and window-blind-maker-in-training was measuring cloth and rollers his first set of made to measure blinds for a customer; Hrishi was teaching Sonu how to cost her handmade greeting cards and I was just enjoying it all and cursing that there wasn’t a camera available just at that minute.
Then we moved on to look at the bags that Ashok developed in Bethany Leprosy Colony. Some great new designs again and pretty use of colour. I love this part, when the waiting is over and we have wonderful new things to touch and model and peer inside. Here is a sneak preview; think chesnuts and fern and the sound of early autumn rain on shiny leaves
Lovely new colours and .....
and more and ........
… much more to follow.
