Around Kutch

A few more pictures from daily life in Kutch, including a trip to a weaver's village, bells made from recycled car parts, traditional mirror-work on the walls of a hut, block printing, and some Kutch architecture:

Applique Practice

After all the amazing applique we've seen over the last month, I decided that the only way to appreciate it was to try it myself.

Applique we saw in Kutch was used on all sorts of textiles, from hangings to camel covers to quilts. The quilts are handmade by the women of the house and decorated with applique and embroidery. The same techniques are used today and we saw lots of women in the villages working on pieces for personal use, but people are now using synthetic fabrics and chemical dyes rather than the natural dyes and cottons we saw in old pieces.

Here's a look at some of the applique we saw while documenting the textile collection:

I decided to try a few of the techniques myself. A lot of the designs are made by cutting fabric like a snowflake, folding in quarters and snipping it in different patterns. I started with some simpler shapes: squares, triangles, and a cut border. It was slow going, even for something so simple, and made me appreciate how many thousands of hours were put into each quilt we saw. This was just a test piece, but I'm planning on starting a mini quilt with applique this summer.

Kittens Love Textiles

Apparently mice are a big problem for textile collectors, so they like to keep cats around. This is good news for me. And, the collection we spent the last three weeks with:

The White Rann

The White Rann, around 80 km north of Bhuj (feel free to translate to miles) is the world's largest salt flat; every few months the tide comes in 60-70 km, covering the desert with salt and turning the ground white. To the north is desert and the Pakistan border, and an area where no one lives. There is nothing as far as the eye can see, and it looks like you are staring out over the ocean. After a trip to some of the northern villages of Kutch, we stopped at the Rann to watch the sun go down. Our timing was off so we didn't see the sun set (we were too early) but I have never seen anything like it. And even though you are miles and miles from the ocean, it smells like you're standing at the beach.

We also saw a mirage in the distance: what looked like the coast with water and boats was actually heat waves and a car far away at the horizon. I had never seen one before, but it's easy to see how people (or characters in every cartoon ever) are tricked into walking miles and never reaching the "water."

We headed home with our feet and faces caked in salt, as if we had just spent a day at the beach.

The New India Scissors House

While walking through the market last week, we came across a little hole-in-the-wall shop selling scissors and antique sewing machines. All the shopkeepers in India use huge brass scissors but we couldn't find them for sale anywhere until this little place. The shop is run by an adorable old man, and if I could have fit some of their old sewing tables and antique Singers in my suitcase, I would have walked away with a lot more.

The bags he wrapped the scissors in were almost better than the scissors themselves:

Textile Heaven

Kutch continues to be amazing. After two weeks, I'm still not bored of looking at textiles (which we have done all day, every day). Here is a look at what we have been seeing since we arrived:

Plus, a baby cow for good measure: