Sonu is Leaving….His Art

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

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.

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.

Chillis and Pyjamas

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