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.
Curtain Making Training
July 20, 2010
Curtains in the making
Faridabad is the first large town as one travels south of Delhi. A busy industrial town within easy driving distance of Delhi it is growing fast with hundreds and hundreds of new homes built every year. Bharat Mata Kusht Ashram (BMKA) is a small community of people affected by leprosy that is located on a roadside on the edge of Faridabad. MESH has worked with the weavers there for many years and we stock their products in our shop in Uday Park, Delhi.
Govinda is the married son of members of the colony. His father is affected by leprosy and his mother had treatment as a young woman long ago. Govinda dropped out of school during eighth standard as he was quite simply not interested in school. He has learned to use a sewing machine.
MESH would like to sell BMKA cotton cloth by the meter and also to offer a curtain making service so we invited Govinda to a curtain making training in MESH Design Studio.
Govinda in MESH Design Studio learning to make curtains
He will be in training for at least one month, perhaps longer and will be exposed to the various kinds of finishes for curtains; linings, heading tapes etc. He will learn how to measure, cut and sew a broad variety of styles of curtains. MESH Design Studio team will then photograph the range of curtains he can make; teach him to cost for his services and produce a small flyer for distribution in all of those new homes in Faridabad and in MESH shop.
When asked what he would like to take away from this training he says:
“I would like to specialize in curtain making and use the training to employ one more person.”
Govinda has two younger brothers both at school. He tells us that he is making sure they do not drop out of school like he did.
As Govinda works Hrishi, MESH’s consultant designer is developing a range of curtain fabrics to be woven in BMKA and he is also designing a display unit for the Delhi shop so as to be able to offer those fabrics and subsequent ranges to customers in the shop. Watch this space for that launch!
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!
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
Almost Finished
A couple of days each week for several weeks I have been working with the tatters from Anand Crafts which is women’s group located in a leprosy colony in Delhi. They were taught tatting, crochet, embroidery and beading by Mrs. Eve Goldsmith an English woman who visited India every six months for 9 years.
Now we are working on Easter and Christmas cards and some personal accessories including necklaces. Coming up next is some new Indian style designs using this old Victorian craft and targeting both local and export markets.
A woman in Australia saw a blog about these tatters written by someone in U.K. and has sent a donation of cotton for their tatting. WoW!!! What a lovely present for the tatters they will be very happy when they get to hear about it and how amazing that news goes fully round the world and bounces right back.
Hard at work!
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