Kutch- A Photo Essay

My trip to Kutch turned out to be more about seeing Art and artisans at work rather than visiting tourist spots :-) Here is a photo-essay of my trip. To read up about the finer nuances of my trip and anecdotes, please read Kutch: Travelogue- Part 1 and Part 2. 

On my first day in Kutch I met Narayan bhai, the weaver. His serene face and soft spoken nature was striking. 

At Hiramani Crafts Park, Bhujodi, this artisan crafts footwear out of camel hide.

Wares ready to sell. 

Another store for bells, each producing a different sound. 

A pigeon house at Hiramani Crafts park. 

Cows on a rampage at Bhujodi. I've never seen such active and fast cows!! 

At Ajrakpur, where I spent a couple of hours, the block printed cloth pieces are left to dry in the sun. The sunnier it is the better the colours stand out. That day unfortunately it was cloudy. 

Wooden blocks with different patterns used for block printing

And some more....

natural indigo dye in the bucket

The natural ingredients used for making natural dye...henna, dried marigold flowers, indigo, etc..

The chart for natural dyes...

Cloth pieces waiting to be printed on

Printed and dried and ready to be shipped and sold. 

The process of dyeing the cloth...Here they were dyeing it with red. 

The master block printer, Dr. Ismail even received an honorary Ph.D for his art. 

At Bhujodi, in Ashok bhai's house, bundles of thread are bought by the kilo from Ludhiana..This one is merino wool thread..

Separating the strands of thread so that it doesn't get entangled.

A closer look..

Water being boiled for the starch..

The starch used is that from wheat..

The separated thread is then dipped into the starch..

The entire length of the thread..

The drying process starts early in the morning to benefit maximum from the sun..

The whole family gets busy with the drying process..

The threads are then combed to separate the strands again..

The dried and starched thread is then spun onto a bobbin which is then used on the loom

At Khamir, Prof. R.S. Bisht, the chief Archaeologist, who led the excavation at Dholavira, at the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization gave a 2 hour presentation on the pottery of the era.  

Such exquisite designs. Some patterns are used till this date.

The extent of the Indus valley civilization. 

I loved the motifs of the fish especially and used it in my  wall-art at Khamir

Sipping tea while reading. The Kindle lacks the romance of a regular book! 

...and while sketching...

Clay cups waiting to be baked...I picked up one and it was so cool to touch.

The potter at Khamir kneading the clay to moisten it.. 

The elephant and mahout made of clay.

The pottery exhibit at Khamir

The designs with black and white are called 'slips' which are painted using watered down clay and painted before the pots and pans are baked. 

The kiln using for baking..the temperature can be set between 400 to 1500 degrees Celsius depending on the type of clay and the product. 

At Khamir they do plastic weaving to recycle them. Plastic bags are washed and dried ....

The dried bags are then cut into thin strips and woven on looms and then stitched into bags, mats, etc. 

At Khamir, the ready shawls and stoles are immersed in water to wash away the starch. 

Quality check for the ready stoles..

Look at this cute tailor bird peeping out from the nest. 

The puppy at Khamir sun-bathing.

Had heard so much about the fafda-jalebi combination.Finally tried it at Bhuj :-)

Wall Art in KHAMIR, Kutch.

During my Kutch trip, I had an opportunity to spruce up the dining area at Khamir (www.khamir.org), which is where I stayed. Khamir is an organization that works to promote traditional Kutchi crafts and arts. Every year they archive one craft, and this year it's pottery. Interestingly, while I was there, there was a presentation by Prof. R.S.Bisht, an archaeologist who led the excavation, at Dholavira, of the ruins of the Indus Valley civilisation. I was amazed to see the rich motifs in the pottery of the Indus civilisation that existed 5000 years ago. When the Director of Khamir suggested that I incorporate pottery motifs in the wall-art, I included the motifs of the pottery found at Dholavira. The motif of the fish especially interested me.

Kutch Travelogue- Part 2

Having completed the Bhujodi wall-art, it was now time to spruce up the dining area in Khamir. Khamir, which is an organization, working to promote Kutchi arts and crafts, has a beautiful campus, with earthy, mud structures. 

Sunrise at Khamir

Earthy buildings at Khamir

My room too was very comfortable. Every morning and the 3 evenings which I got to spend at Khamir, I had a ritual. There is a tree right near the entrance, with more thorns than leaves, which a colony of cute sparrows had made their home. At sunrise, they start chirping in chorus and it’s so loud, it can be heard from a distance. When I walked up to the tree, the first time, I giggled hard to notice that for a second, all the 100 odd sparrows on the tree, stopped chirping at once, as if on mute, and looked down at me, with the expression “Who is this intruder? “.And every morning that I went they would do the same. There were so many nests as well and sometimes I would try and resolve fights and arguments between them, many times unsuccessfully. I spotted a lot of sunbirds, tailor birds and others, which I couldn’t identify.

The tree of sparrows

The wall-art at Khamir was a cake walk after the Bhujodi one. The Director, Meera, wanted pottery motifs to be included in the design and the first thing that came to my mind was an image of a tortoise. And I was surprised to learn later that the word 'Kutch' has been derived from the word "kachbo" meaning tortoise in Gujarati, owing to the flat, tortoise shaped land that forms the district of Kutch. You may view the pictures of the wall-art at Khamir here.

A motif I painted on the wall at Khamir

I also had the opportunity to go around the different studios at Khamir, dedicated for different crafts like, block printing with natural dyes, pottery, plastic weaving (to recycle plastic), cloth weaving, etc.

Can you count the sparrows?

The day before I was to leave I decided to explore a bit of Bhuj and do some shopping. And what did I buy? I bought some clothes and jewelry which nomads, the Rabaris wear. I really hope I do wear these things at least once. In a shop that I bought these from, on display were exquisite and rich pieces of embroidery done around 10 to 25 yrs ago. The Rabaris have a tradition of teaching their young girls embroidery from the early age of ten and she is supposed to make her wedding trousseau herself, which then goes as dowry. The richer and more complicated the embroidery, the higher is their status. Since dowry is no longer given, many Rabaris have been selling their embroidered pieces to shops like these to make money. I remembered that I used to barely pass in Needlework in school and was happy that I wasn’t a Rabari girl.

Richly embroidered skirts

The morning I was to leave, I walked up to the tree with sparrows and bid them farewell with a promise to be back soon. Yes, another or more visits are due to feast on the art that Kutch has to offer. I had not even scratched the surface of exploring Kutchi art, I realized. I did not experience what I went looking for, but my life is richer now in terms of the experiences I had and lessons learnt.