chai patterns (Cj)

My focus within the Pol Project is Chai (tea) and today we got to try some from the local chai seller - which was very good, and tasted even better when he was so very smiley!!  We hope he will temporarily relocate his stall for our event on Saturday!

More from Chai Patterns on flickr...

Pol dancer (Steve)

Noticing that Amanda and CJ have avoided the obvious and completely inapropriate pun, I'm using this as an excuse to post another 'ghost dancer' image, to show that I did in fact join in the Navratri celebrations last night, although I was easily the most inept dancer on the floor.

Dancing in the Streets - again (CJ)

Today after meeting many of the wonderful people in the pol with Palak, 

 

we were invited to the Navrati dancing at 11pm in a square within the Pol.  Of course we gladly accepted, and we tried to join in as best we could, 

though we were all in need of some dancing lessons Ahmedabad style…

Fun was definitely had by all – probably mostly by the locals laughing at our bad attempts at their beautiful dancing!!

More on dancing on the street on flickr…

Walls have ears (Steve)

I've been adding to my growing archive of photos of Ahmedabad wall paintings. Until recently all commercial advertisements had been hand painted onto buildings, walls, vehicles, in fact any flat surface available. This seems to be rapidly changing with commercialistion and globalisation, but there is still a legacy of this to be seen on the walls of Ahmedabad. I'm constantly drawn to these faded, richly layered, painterly surfaces. This is one of todays photos, a detail of the wall opposite the digital ceramic printers, taken while I was waiting for the first digitally printed banner to arrive. (More of this later.)

Another of a painted steel sign, which Palak tells me is advertising a womens' tailor.

and another of a rather magnificent elephant....

.... which coincides with my first sighting of an elephant, snapped very badly from the rickshaw as we flashed past.

Traffic and hospitality - Amanda

Last night CJ made a list of tasks for today.



I wanted to buy a door for something I'm doing this Saturday. Steve and Lokesh had located a door place on their way to the printers, and Steve, myself and Palak went by Auto to buy it.

The civic elections for Gujarat happened last Sunday and the results came out today (a landslide victory to the BJP), so the traffic was worse than usual and it took ages to get there.

Steve's election photo

Because of the election results there were extra policemen on duty at the council offices opposite the door seller. The police got interested in our negotiations.



Eventually after photography on both sides (a policeman photographed us in front of the door), the police invited us to drink tea with them on the street.

Happily, even while stopping for chats and tea, we managed to get everything on the list done.

ceramic heaven (CJ)

Finding somewhere to fire the ceramic pieces I wanted to produce was always a bit of a concern.  A priority for me.  After meeting Mayur, he very kindly brought us to Laxmi to meet Deepak Tahilani, and see the ceramic production set up there in Memco - about 25 minutes in the car from Dahl ni Pol.








Perfect for my way of working, there is a tunnel kiln firing tea cups and saucers in their hundreds every day, and the firing cycle takes around an hour - amazing!

Transfers are printed upstairs, then covercoated and dried in beautiful stacking racks.

Downstairs, pieces are decorated with transfers and painted lines,

before being packed into wire baskets and stacked ready for firing.

After processing through the tunnel kiln (note the tiles with gods at the entrance to the kiln), they are then returned to the packing room,

where they are checked

and packed ready for distribution.

Deepak was so accommodating and was very supportive of the project and idea of running a workshop with families in Dahl ni Pol, he gave us 3 boxes of cups and saucers and the promise to send 2 of the decorating ladies (one transfer, one line drawing) to work with us on Sunday.
All in all a very good day!!!

More images of both Mayur and Deepak's studio/productions facilities in flickr...

Cycles adorned - Steve

I'm finding flowers are used everywhere to adorn and beautify the most mundane and incongruous things. Spotted this tricycle earlier, the front wheel encircled by marigolds (the flowers that is, not the washing up gloves).

The bicycle is emerging as a possible theme/subject for the flower piece, an idea triggered by Devi Singh's bike, parked daily outside Arts Reverie. Could I make one out of ceramic flowers I wonder? The bicycle is such an iconic environmental symbol, appropriate to the recycling (no pun intended) of the ceramic flowers into another artwork.

This bicycle belongs to the caretaker at the Rani Sipri Mosque just outside the Pol, on the Astodia Road.

(jokes by CJ and Barney)