Friday, August 27, 2010

Spring mix

Doodling for spring patterns and colors today...
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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Coffee anyone??

Not just one but many cups of coffee...
Bumped into this design when I was browsing through my archives, and it also made a freshly brewed post for today!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Kitchen Tree

A Banana groove for fun colored kitchen towels!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rakhi

Happy Rakhi Pournima!! Happy Rakshabandhan!!

Monday, August 23, 2010

My New Book


A book added to my library...
I ordered a new book and got it delivered in just 5 days from V&A, London. Thought it would take longer, but no, it was super quick!! V&A Pattern: Garden Florals; is a small collection of V&A's huge and extraordinary collection of prints, textiles, wallpapers and patterns. A book full of inspiration!! A collection of classic designs of William Morris, Walter Crane, C.F.A. Voysey and many more designers.
An awesome possession to rejoice!!!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Rubber Stamp

I'm super excited with my new rubber stamp!! I got this made as a part of celebrating one year of being an independent design professional and hoping this will add a lill more to my professionalism ;)

Medallion 3


Happy Independence Day!!!

and
to my best friend RUJUTA :)
The whole country celebrates!!!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fun poly bags!!



For sandwiches on your way to office, for medicines while you are on travel, for sending cute small things to your friends etc etc and more over for the FUN factor!!! Couldn't stop drawing with markers and couldn't get more colorful markers!!! Make not one but dozen for yourself and keep spreading the fun!!!

Sawantwadi toys

Sawantwadi, a small town in Konkan is well known for its handcrafted wooden toys. The photographs here illustrate my encounter with the toys in the local market called chitari aali...Fruits, mainly for decorating purpose.

Other toys for kids.

Craftsman coloring the tamarind shaped wood.

Got a set of three such ducks for myself!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

It's Shrawan

Shrawanmasi harsh manasi hirval date chohikade,
Kshanat yete sarsar shirve kshanat firuni un pade...!
(Lines from a famous marathi poem by famous poet Baalkavi)

Happy Shrawan everyone!! :)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Ganjifa

Ganjifa is a royal card game played only by the kings and queens. The cards are all hand drawn and painted with natural colors. Today, very few artists/craftsmen are involved into the making of ganjifa and these are patronized under the current queen of Sawantwadi but are not made using natural colors. Here are some images of the ganjifa and its making from the rajwada of Sawantwadi.
Ganjifa artist, Mr. M. V. Kulkarni (in the above images) says that this art needs to be inborn and self taught. To draw a beautiful image, you should be able to imagine it in front of your eyes, he says.
A set of ganjifa is available for Rs 3000/-. Today, very few people can play ganjifa. Modern necessity has made the artists to paint our regular set of cards which have a wider market.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Real Farmville

As the grass gets greener, one can see only coconut trees and rice farms hidden between hills and rivers in Konkan. Believe me, the saying ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ stands true here. As you travel from Kolhapur towards Konkan, the grass changes it color from dark green to a much fresh and stark green!

It’s monsoon, time to sow rice. In the very interiors of Konkan, everyone wakes up to start the day’s work in their rice farms. Me and Vaishali did the same and tried our farming skills (yet to gain mastery over it) on her granny’s farm. Farming in the morning, then nice Konkani lunch then again farming and then dinner!! No need to work out specially!! No fish food, as being a veggie I cooked dal with awesome malwani masala.


Never have done farming earlier, I loved the feeling of being bare foot in farms and working with each seed in hand. It is always said that you need to love your work to make the best of it. For many of us it takes years to know what is that we love doing. When you work in farms or just grow some plants in your balcony, very naturally you have a liking for it. It is the love for mother earth, love for Mother Nature. It is the love for creation. Then you realize that you don’t need to put special efforts in liking what you are doing… and this is a beautiful realization. But yes, there are no shortcuts to good work! It takes 12 hours to harvest rice in Farmville but here it takes 6 months. Today in the world of fast results, farming is indeed a slow and tedious work. I don’t know what I am saying… but one thing I know is I’m going to plant some plants in my new house for sure :)

I love basketry!

Irla! It’s a Marathi term for what you see in the picture below. Made from palm leaves and woven in the hexagonal weave, it is used to protect oneself from the rains. It is so ergonomically convenient and awesomely finished that not a drop makes you wet! Loved it! But unfortunately, now-a-days it is being replaced by plastic which more unfortunately is not as feasible and efficient as the traditional irla. We tried to find the community who makes these but sadly couldn’t reach due to heavy rains and flooded rivers.


Me with the irla :)

Medallion 2

One more medallion...