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

Amazing couple of weeks here in MESH Design Studio.  The artisans from Leh in Ladakh could not return home because of a really heavy snow storm so they stayed in the studio an extra week refining their skills and making some very smart little products with tailors’ waste.  They were so glad to reach home and we were amazed that they managed to take home blankets and new suitcases and even a television set…all on the plane!

So for a few days we had three Ladakh artisans and two women weavers from Bethany Leprosy colony and on one day the tatters from from Anand Crafts also.  Great use of the resources to have three workshops going on at the same time with Syamala in charge.

Meanwhile Hrishi was in Little Flower Leprosy Colony, Bihar preparing natural dyed wool for a new soft woollen scarf range.

The Bethany weavers are in the studio for one month working on summer, fall and holiday ranges for Ten Thousand Villages, USA. There are wonderful colours and patterns emerging with every passing day.

Sandhya, Bethany Leprosy Colony weaver learning pick-up

The tatters from Anand Crafts are finishing an Indian range of cards with decorated elephants and doorways…lively bright colours and traditional styles using an old Victorian craft!

Then Sunday afternoon saw us testing eight hired computers ready for Openentry free website training that started on Monday. Richa from OpenEntry support office in Nepal trained nine participants from eight groups and one MESH trainee in how to use Openentry templates and Google spreadsheets to create websites for their organisations. We were blessed with good electricity and good Skype connections to Nepal… only one small power cut.The wifi for eight computers stretched to 13 and everyone left with websites up and running,and the skills to make the additions themselves.  Lunch times were interesting as the website makers mingled with the weavers and tatters and MESH team.

Mohammad Nasir from SMK (centre) especially hard at work creating his website whilst Sajad Ali (Care Kashmir) and Balasumbramanian (Kshema Rehab and Training Centre) smile for my picture

Made from tailors' waste

I noticed a faint but sweet smell of wood smoke in the car when the three design workshop participants from Leh travelled with me from the youth hostel to the studio on Monday morning.  Tsering Gurmet, Tsering Chondol and Sonam are all members of an organisation called People’s Action Group for Inclusion and Rights.  Sonam is quite deaf but well able to lip-read Ladakhi and the other two have some orthopaedic disability.

 They are in Delhi for a week to upgrade the quality of their present product range and plan for a longer design intervention with Syam in Leh in the summer.  They use waste paper and tailors off-cuts to make a whole range of interesting products.  Having sorted out the simple problems like using matching thread instead of what happens to be available and making sure that all the sides of a straight bag are indeed straight (!) they have been beavering away at some new products…

Such pretty waste too!

 

Endless possibilities when the waste fabric is this stunning

And something for the table too

"Now let me show you what I mean about matching sewing thread with your fabric..."

Fantastic news since they arrived in Delhi is that their organisation president Mr. Md. Iqbal has been selected by CNN IBN to receive the Real Heroes of India award this year. Every year about 25 Indians are honoured with this award (and remember the population here is huge!) He was in the studio on the first day and we caught him discussing ideas with Syam.

Mr. Md. Iqbal Real hero of India and Syam deep in discussion in MESH Design Studio