Oct 13

Indeed I have found it between the past and the future, my mind and my heart, It is a place where nothing has to be repaired because nothing is defective, where can take ownership of my own life without fear

...A happy medium where I can feel simply at ease

I did find time to create 

so let me show you what I've been up to.

A self-standing hollow crochet structure of interlaced tree

 

Ankodi

Today am visiting a friend's Exhibition so thought of making a gift for him

My mother always tells for handmade gift  "there is a lot more thoughtfulness that goes into the gift, free reign on expression and personalization in a handmade gift. A lot of time and care invested into its creation Being able to bring a true smile to someone you give your gift to is a very pleasing moment"

Hope my gift brings a smile on his face

Ankodi

Remembering Dr Radhakrishnan on his birthday 5th september "Teachers Day"

The first vice president of India and the second President of India, Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in a poor Brahmin family of South India on 5^th September 1888. His father earned very less income through zamindari and had to take care of a big family. Though his father wanted him to become a priest and not join school and learn English, Radhakirshnan was finally sent to school of the local area itself.

Radhakrishnan was a brilliant student from the very start and most of his studies were covered through scholarships. At the age of 17, he joined the Madras Christian College and attained his bachelors and masters in the field of philosophy. The 21-year-old Radhakrishnan, after graduating with good marks from the Madras University, got selected as an Assistant lecturer at the Madras presidency college and chose to work there.

On a mere salary of just Rs.17 per month, Radhakrishnan faced hardships in managing a house of around 8 people. With time, his hard work, intelligence and wonderful and famous ways of teaching lessons paid him back and he was chosen as the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University when he was around 40 years of age. After 3 years, he was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. He actively participated in the protests when the Banaras Hindu University was fighting against getting shut. He rapidly got renowned amongst the British Bureaucrats as well the then Indian leaders.

The Bharat Ratna Awardee (1954), held the position of the Vice President of India from May 1952 to May 1962. He was then made the President of India from May 1962 to May 1967. At the age of 86, he peacefully died on 19 April 1975.

On the birth occasion of Dr. Radhakrishnan, that is the 5^th September, India celebrates its Teacher's Day where students across the country participate in certain programs prepared exclusively for their teachers. Students make their teachers feel special in the form of flowers and hand made cards too.

My niece too wanted to gift her teacher something special and here's her gift for her favourite teacher, she had glow on her face that her gift is unique and special as its handmade :)

.
"In school, we used to become the teachers and teach our juniors on Teacher's Day. Miss my school :(

Ankodi

An online compilation of 262 crochet stitches for reference

http://issuu.com/talpa/docs/262_patrones_crochet

the book is in a language i didn't understand but the graphs are clear and easy to understand

Hope it comes to use for Many

Book Love

My grandfather used to say " boli ne vesh olkhave desh" means the dialect and the dress of the person we come to know where do they belong too

i want to read this book, soon 

The Story of Colour in Textiles By: Susan Kay-Williams, is an introduction to a broad, diverse and fascinating subject of how and why people coloured textiles.

Ankodi

I crochet because I have not been doing other creative expressions and must survive this lack

 

 

Ankodi

Last 3 days have become a factory making friendship bands for my Niece ( HUNAN) and have made more than 18 bands

Enjoyed making them but too much of repetitive work, Hunan  is thrilled that her friends are going to have unique friendship bands as they look cute as bracelets too

Soon will write a tutorial and post

Friends swap

http://www.sewprimkhris.blogspot.in/2013/07/friends-swap-2013-sign-up.html

Renate Hiller - "On Handwork"

Am deeply touched by this short you tube movie of Renate Hiller, co-director of the Fiber Craft Studio at the Threefold Educational Center in Chestnut Ridge, New York
.

R e p o r t

Handwork Research Conference

April 20 – 22, 2012

Preparing for the Future

 How do practical, artistic activities support the development of soul-spiritual capacities?

 

This theme and research question was at the heart of the second handwork conference organized by the Fiber Craft Studio of the Threefold Educational Center in collaboration with Dr. Gerald Karnow and the Conference Planning Committee*. It brought together 60 individuals from Waldorf Schools and other settings eager to form a learning community and support each other in their common striving.

It was in ancient times,

There lived in the initiates’ souls

Powerfully the thought

That ill by nature

Is every human being.

And educating was considered to be

Like a healing process

Which brought the maturing child health

For life’s fullness of human existence.

        From Course for Young Doctors by Rudolf Steiner

It is of the utmost importance to know that the ordinary thought-forces of man are the refined forces of bodily growth and formation. In the forming and growing of the human body, a spiritual manifests itself. For it appears as such in the further course of life – the spiritual force of thought.

         Excerpt from Fundamentals of Therapy, Chapter 1,

                                       by Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman

These leading thoughts - that were also part of the pre-conference study materials -formed the inner core of Dr. Karnow’s lectures at the Threefold Auditorium. Drawing on his wealth of experience as physician, school doctor and educator, and by involving the conference participants, he brought alive the developmental stages of the human being from embryonic development through physical birth and the three seven-year periods up to age twenty-one. This journey of the human being towards maturity, towards the birth of the ego, is one of communication and movement with the forces of the cosmos and, through the senses, with the earthly environment. It is a process of gradual liberation of soul and spiritual forces from the physical.

This liberation happens in three successive stages from the head to the heart to the limbs in each of the seven-year periods. During the first seven-year period the child’s communication with the world happens through imitation. During the second period (age 7 – 14) the child works on gaining self-mastery in the feeling life by looking up to an authority. During the third period (age 14 – 21) the capacity of judgment evolves; then the capacity for self-direction begins to be acquired.

The handwork teacher – who is aware of these general developmental movements and has a sense of each child’s individual being – will find the right gesture of communication and the right handwork projects to bring healing and support on the path of maturation. Dr. Karnow stressed that the rich sensory experiences and most varied movement gestures inherent in handwork projects have the potential to support the developmental movements in just the right way. As the child engages in meaningful work, creating items that are useful and beautiful, skill capacities, cognitive capacities, moral capacities are being supported and fostered. A project that embodies beauty and truth brings joy and satisfaction.

The three-section workshops on handwork in the kindergarten and the lower and middle-school years led by experienced Waldorf teachers served as laboratories for practical research and conversation with regard to the conference theme. The resulting projects were displayed in the Threefold Auditorium Side Room where the plenum session led to a rich harvest of presentations from the workshops and a sharing of questions, thoughts and insights.

In educating children through artistic handwork activities we are preparing for the future – a future that they will shape with their heads, their hands and their hearts in their present incarnation and in incarnations to come.

*Conference Planning Group:

Nicole Nicola, Philadelphia Waldorf School

Tjitske Lehman, Kimberton Waldorf School

Chris Marlow, Green Meadow Waldorf School

Renate Hiller and Mikae Toma, Fiber Craft Studio

From : http://www.fibercraftstudio.org/handwork_conference

Ahmadabad’s Acropolis

Sarkhej Roza is located in the village of Makraba which is 7 km south-west of Ahmadabad. The mosque is known as “Ahmadabad’s Acropolis”, because of the 20th century architect Le Corbusier’s famous comparison of this mosque’s design to the Acropolis of Athens. 
The place has been interpreted has being composed of both body and spirit (Jism and Ruh) comparing with the qualities of a human

We 5 reached around 8 45 am at Sarkhej Roza. When we reached there,  while we started to study the architecture and surroundings of the place. We started roaming in and around the place. The place has intricate stone carvings on its walls the carved stone grills mitigate light and proper temperature and also adds some privacy and the proper dignity of the place. We marveled on the architecture of the place. Sarkhej Roza built with both Muslim and Hindu architecture examples. The domes and pillars are of Islamic religion, the ornamentation has Hindu religion prints. Almost all the buildings do not have arches and instead are depended on stone trellises for support. the two tombs of the saint and the king-Mahmud Begada, both nearby and could feel some peace and vibrations. It is said that The Saint resides in his tomb even after his death. It was a tranquil environment near the tomb. The tombs and palaces were used by the royals while the tank, pavilions and platforms were used by common people.

 The place was originally in 72 acres with gardens on all sides but with development of human settlements, the gardens were destroyed and the area is now only to 34 acres. Half of the size it originally was

ankodi

During the silent time that i work on my piece repeatedly touch and re-touch the material, my own emotions.  Hope, desire, love, sadness, yearning, all these are somehow carried into that material.Thus through touch, 
our inner self is transferred to the exterior world.
All those feelings that we have when we are in the act of making remain.  They exist in the 
material object.Hand made things are very powerful.  They carry something of the maker with them always Inner stuff from me, is felt by you, the viewer. I keep coming back to this abstracted figure I love to watch the piece react to wind and sunlight. 

ankodi

I made a pot of tea ,put the radio on and settle down on the sofa in my home with my hook and thread.

Call me crazy, ...............but I had a full day

wonderfull rainy days <3 span="">

For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors 

Remember: creativity takes no excuses. If you don’t know where to start, start with what you do know.

restarted crochet after ages and made a mermaid dress for a little angle, and loads of flowers and leaf's, pictures in next post as yet to document them

Trying my hand at block printing video is from Kutch trip Jan 2009 

Handmade

I feel happy when i create something with my hands, a good New year start