Doll workshop pictures

Finally these are some pictures of the doll workshop that I did in Chennai. I taught Papier. The pupils were extremely talented and so very enthusiastic. Even though most of them had never made a doll or even stitched they created beautiful dolls. I am so proud of them.

The youngest student that I ever had. A 12 year old the baby of the group, on the right. She did an excellent job of her doll.

Thats all for now folks!

Will be brief now

I went to Kanchipuram in search for silk threads. This is the place where the famous Kanchipuram silk sarees come from. A pity I didn't have enough time to walk around, which I would have loved to do, as I was due to fly back that day. So the pictures I got were not very good. Anyway I don't want to bore you too much. You can read about the place in the link I have given you. A typical house in the town. I noticed most of them had this tiny verandha with 2 wooden pillers in the front.

A man weaving a silk sari. This cottage industry is still thriving. I was told it takes at least 15 days to weave a silk sari. All Kanchipuram silk sarees are hand woven and the price ofcourse varies according to the zari work and the weight of the silk.

Some women on the roadside preparing cotton threads for weaving.

This is the silk yarn that I bought and it was very cheap. Not sure what I am going to do with it but I am sure I will think of something. The colours are gorgeous aren't they.

Meeting Isabelle and more on Chennai

Yesterday I met up with Isabelle in London. It was so good meeting up with her again and the opportunity to meet Seb as well was wonderful. They make a lovely couple. The minutes flew by all too soon. I only hope Seb was not bored by our talk, he was such a courtious and patient listner to all our girlie talk. I forgot to take my camera with me so I am so sad that I couldn't take any pictures. I hope you spent a pleasant time on Sunday before catching the train back home Isabelle. Look forward to seeing some pictures on your blog. Now back to some more glimpses of Chennai. As I mentioned before I attended a wedding of my nephew and here are a few shots that I found brought a smile on my face.

Wedding guests having their lunch. In Southern India it is a tradition to serve food on a banana leaf. Any occasion or weddings the food would be served on these leaves. This tradition is slowly dying out and plastics are taking over. A pity really as recycling banana leaves is so much easier and eco friendly than plastics.

This little flower girl took her role very seriously!

I found this very endearing. Looks like one of the flower girls got tired of being in her fine shoes and decided to dump them in her basket to go off and play with her friends LOL! My cousin asked me if I would keep the children occupied in the morning, before the wedding reception. So I cut several pieces of fabric in a round shape. Did a running stitch all around the edge and filled it with stuffing and closed it to form a ball. Then I got the little kids to draw a face on the smooth side and embellish it. They had a great time making and embellishing the face.

Even the adults joined in the fun!

Here is what they did, aren't they lovely?

And the proud budding artists with their creations.

Glimpses of Chennai contd...

Someone asked me what Briyani was. Well most people in England would know but for those who don't. It is a rice dish. It can be a Chicken Briyani or a Meat Briyani. In short the chicken or meat is mixed with all kinds of spices, and mint and coriander and yougurt left to stand for a while then cooked a bit and then mixed with the rice then the whole mixture is cooked over low fire or baked. Any expert cook looking at this will flinch at my description I know, but that is the best way I can explain it roughly LOL! I saw this bill board and thought oh perhaps a doll can emerge out of this tee... heee... This is a poster for one of the hotels. It is not a 5 star hotel but I think its food can stand up to any 5 star hotel in town. When I go to Chennai I like to eat here, especially their buffet during lunch time is excellent. Not affliated in anyway. Just a satisfied customer.

The city has many bill boards like these, which are often of the latest films in town. These huge bill boards used to be hand painted at one time. I am not too sure if they are still hand painted. With the event of computers perhaps not any more. These painters had to often work on a very tight deadline and paid very less for their wonderful efforts. It amazed me how they got the faces to resemble exactly like the actors without drawings on such huge bill boards. I think they were artists in their own right.

I went for a wedding to Coimbatore and this is what I saw from my hotel window. Some wild peacocks on the compound wall. They were roosting in one of the trees further away. My camera could zoom in only so much hence the picture is not so clear. This male peacock was following the female which had just disappeared Then out came 3 chicks following mama and papa. They are fairly grown up . A herd of goats is fairly a common sight out of town. They are often owned by poorer people for milk and meat. They are left to roam the country side to graze .

Glimpses of Chennai

A typical market street in Chennai.

The fruit stalls are always colourful.

If you are brave enough to go into a fish market you will be amazed at the variety of fish available. The above shop is selling salted dry fish.

Some fresh fish.

If ever you get stuck for something in India don't turn your nose up on shops like these. These shops are amazing. They are dotted around almost in every street. I call them the A-Z shops.

They stock almost everything. You can buy veggies, fruits, stationary, confectionary, toys, pins, needles, thread,household goods, storage cans, paracetamol, cool drinks, water you name it they will have in that tiny cubby hole, where as a big shop perphaps may not. They are like Aladin's den!

I found this sight rather interesting. I have seen little street corner shops dishing out Briyani that smells heavenly but never seen it dished out from the back of a motorbike LOL! A mobile Briyani shop!! That man seems to be enjoying it and it probably is very tasty too, but lethal for our stomachs which are not used to it, I would think LOL!

In India where there is a predominantly Catholic community one can expect to find little shrines like these at the street corners similar to little temples that one finds. However, I have never seen a nativity scene in a street corner like this, amazing! Thats all for today. There will be more soon.

Pincushion

Front view

Back view

This is a pincushion I made for Isabelle for Christmas. Some of you might remember the paperclay hat that I was trying to get my pixie to wear. Well I made a base out of this hat for the pincushion, which my erst while pixie discarded .

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of other gifts that I sent out.

Just before leaving for India Helen's flatina arrived on her way home from Israel. She insisted that she wanted to come to India with me, so I took her along. Helen, I hope you are not getting too impatient to have her with you. Hopefully she will be winging her way to you soon. She enjoyed herself immensely and has lots of tales to tell you LOL! Here are a few pictures of this lovely lady who won many hearts.

Nestling amongst the Christmas tree and gifts while waiting for Santa

Making herself at home with the family and enjoying the food!

Sunning herself under the Indian skies. The bees mistook her for a flower and wouldn't leave her alone tee hee...

Back on line

Dear friends , I am back on line at last. Before I go any further let me first wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope it has started with all things nice for you. I have a lot of pictures to share from my holidays but I would first like to share the gifties and cards that were awaiting for me when I got home from my dear friends. Isabelle sent me this beautiful needle case. I couldn't believe it that Isabelle had stitched this specially for me. Just before Christmas I was searching for a needle case high and low and was not satisfied that was selling in the shops so you can imagine my delight when I got this beautiful needle case. Thank you Isabelle from the bottom of my heart, you must have read my mind! Open view of the needle case. I got this lovely card from Bella. Bella is actually a Standard Poodle. Her human mother is my friend. Well she is a special dog. Do you know she has a wonderful blog and she even writes to all her human friends. LOL! This is how the card looks when opened. Isn't is beautiful! This card is from my sweet little friend Denia who lives in France. She is a Hello Kitty fan and has a lovely blog. Thank you dear Denia. I got a double surprise from my dear friend Kai. She sent me this lovely altered tag and an ATC and this beautiful pin doll as a Birthday present. Kai thank you very much for this lovely gift. It was worth waiting for. That is all for now. I will try and catch up as soon as possible with you all.