As most of our efforts over the past few months were directed towards detailed experimentation with spinning, plying, mordanting and dyeing, it started to feel that we were loosing the forest for the trees, so to speak........
A welcomed opportunity arose. It forced us to leave our studio, and dye pots and looms; it allowed us to smell the forest. One of the self-help groups that we are starting to work with this year is based in a small village, on top of a mountain, deep in the Kullu Valley. The village is by the way surrounded by beautiful trees, a welcomed sight here, where much of the hillside has suffered from a serious case of deforestation.
Sham, who heads the group, came to our Manali studio last month for a few days of training on hand-spinning. He is an accomplished spinner, but we needed to work out some of the details, and go over terminology and specifications. Now he welcomed us to his place, to show us how the group was progressing....We were assured that the village is not far Kullu, and that we will not have any trouble making it up the mountain on the newly constructed road...
Here are a few pictures, from the 20 km drive, that took us about 4 hours to complete on the way up, the descent was a bit better....
At first, it was easy, and simple and beautiful...
This did not last, as the road was not quite finished...
Fortunately, we had help in making our way....
Eventually, Vishvanath and I had to go ahead and clear the larger rocks and branches, while Dominique and Vinod followed us in the car...
Apart from these minor mishaps, the countryside was magical.....
And the trees more abundant....
Finally, thanks to Vinod's perseverance and willingness to sacrifice his car for a good cause, we arrived at the village...
Since we still had to climb up to the top of the mountain, Dominique decided to stay back and enjoy the peace and fresh air after an exhausting journey....
Here are some pictures of KaniPan, a beautiful village in the heart of Himachal Pradesh....I love places like these. They remind me of my childhood, of simpler times, of integrity, hard yet fulfilling and creative work, and of other things that we might have lost in the name of progress....It would be a terrible thing, if they were to disappear and their people and traditions swallowed up by the Londons, Mumbais and New Yorks...
Finally, here is the KaniPan self-help group. We pass the afternoon talking grist, twist and ply, all the while sipping chai.....
It turns out that the group is also active in collecting morel mushrooms and herbs during season. Hopefully they will be able to provide us with wild madder, rhubarb and other dyes as our work continues...
Speaking of dyes, let me introduce you to another member of our group. His name is Surender, he works with us occasionally when his time allows and provides us with small samples of local plants and mushrooms for our dyeing experiments. We met up with him in Kullu, in the evening, on our way back from KaniPan. Here he is with a beautiful example that he located right in downtown Kullu. This one is not going anywhere. Hopefully no one will ever knock it down, so it can grow in peace among all the traffic... Surender even built a bit of a shelter for it, with thorny, dry branches...(There is a school nearby and boys will be boys.)
A welcomed opportunity arose. It forced us to leave our studio, and dye pots and looms; it allowed us to smell the forest. One of the self-help groups that we are starting to work with this year is based in a small village, on top of a mountain, deep in the Kullu Valley. The village is by the way surrounded by beautiful trees, a welcomed sight here, where much of the hillside has suffered from a serious case of deforestation.
Sham, who heads the group, came to our Manali studio last month for a few days of training on hand-spinning. He is an accomplished spinner, but we needed to work out some of the details, and go over terminology and specifications. Now he welcomed us to his place, to show us how the group was progressing....We were assured that the village is not far Kullu, and that we will not have any trouble making it up the mountain on the newly constructed road...
Here are a few pictures, from the 20 km drive, that took us about 4 hours to complete on the way up, the descent was a bit better....
At first, it was easy, and simple and beautiful...
This did not last, as the road was not quite finished...
Fortunately, we had help in making our way....
Eventually, Vishvanath and I had to go ahead and clear the larger rocks and branches, while Dominique and Vinod followed us in the car...
As usual, we caused some trouble, by interrupting the lunch that these two ladies were having in the middle of the road...I guess they were not expecting much traffic today....
Apart from these minor mishaps, the countryside was magical.....
And the trees more abundant....
Finally, thanks to Vinod's perseverance and willingness to sacrifice his car for a good cause, we arrived at the village...
Since we still had to climb up to the top of the mountain, Dominique decided to stay back and enjoy the peace and fresh air after an exhausting journey....
Here are some pictures of KaniPan, a beautiful village in the heart of Himachal Pradesh....I love places like these. They remind me of my childhood, of simpler times, of integrity, hard yet fulfilling and creative work, and of other things that we might have lost in the name of progress....It would be a terrible thing, if they were to disappear and their people and traditions swallowed up by the Londons, Mumbais and New Yorks...
Finally, here is the KaniPan self-help group. We pass the afternoon talking grist, twist and ply, all the while sipping chai.....
It turns out that the group is also active in collecting morel mushrooms and herbs during season. Hopefully they will be able to provide us with wild madder, rhubarb and other dyes as our work continues...
Speaking of dyes, let me introduce you to another member of our group. His name is Surender, he works with us occasionally when his time allows and provides us with small samples of local plants and mushrooms for our dyeing experiments. We met up with him in Kullu, in the evening, on our way back from KaniPan. Here he is with a beautiful example that he located right in downtown Kullu. This one is not going anywhere. Hopefully no one will ever knock it down, so it can grow in peace among all the traffic... Surender even built a bit of a shelter for it, with thorny, dry branches...(There is a school nearby and boys will be boys.)
