Paris, je t'aime

I went to Paris over a weekend last month simply on an impulse. Much walking along the Siene, nutella crepes, book browsing in Shakespeare and Company ensued.

Shalespeare and Co- I love this bookstore!

The Pompidou

Notre Dame: My favourite view across the Siene

Oh the colours

The coolest Water Bar in Paris with water from glaciers, rivers from across the world

And finally, a Fashion shoot on the street

Creating a Buzz in Homes and Antiques

Homes and Antiques magazine's October 09 issue featuring my Handwriting Collection cushions. :)

Masters of their Craft

Latest 7, a Brighton based publication declared me and 5 other artists Masters of our Craft in their editorial. Nice.

Here's the editorial that appeared in the run up to MADE 09, Brighton.

 Happy reading!

It's Showtime

I've been working non-stop towards upcoming shows at the mo.

Printed some lovely scarves last week that I am really pleased about. The colours are looking delicious.... bright teals, deep aubergines and smoky greys on silks. The new prints are an extension of my handwriting collection. Scribbles in my sketchbooks, marks made with dry brush and meandering lines have all come together in an eclectic medley of artworks for this series.

The Christmas Show at Gallery Nine in Bath set the ball rolling on 14 Nov. This group exhibition where I am sharing wall space with the likes of Kevin Hughes (painter), Jane Cox (ceramicist) and other people with exceptionally beautiful work, will go on till 24 Dec. My wall pieces and accessories are showcased. For those of you who can, do go and take a look.

Next is MADE 09 at Brighton's Corn Exchange opening on Friday, 20 Nov and closing on 22 Nov 09. Really looking forward to being in Brighton. My friend is coming down from Glasgow to spend the weekend with me. The pier...the sea...giggly sessions till late in the night and of course the prospect of showing work in this beautiful city. Cant wait!

On the same weekend Devon Guild's Christmas Exhibition Wrapped Up opens at the Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey. My silk scarves and silk jewellery are eing showcased.

The following week i.e. 26-29 Nov, I will be showing at Craft Central's Winter Open Studios, London. I would be there all weekend. So if you are looking for unique handmade presents for yourself or your loved ones, come along and treat yourself.

Bottles have Caps

My trips to the juice aisles are always a rushed affair. It's always too cold to linger. Imagine my surprise when I found my favourite smoothies INNOCENT wearing woolly hats today! What fun!

Read more about it on the Innocent blog.

In Sunday Times

A good mention in The Sunday Times Origin preview 

Origin 2009

Inspite of my best intentions to upload Origin pictures right away, I wasn't able to. Here they are:

Somerset House Entrance

Opening Night

Trying their hands at making baskets

My Stand

Basketry Intervention

Set Up Day at Origin

I will be updating you all on Origin through the week. 

We were all dressed and ready to leave at 7:30 am yesterday, waiting with great excitement to set-off for London. Except the excitement soon turned to concern and then to near-panic when by 9 am the van and driver we had booked didn't arrive. How utterly unprofessional! Ughh!

All van rentals are closed on Sunday, the few car agencies that were open didn't have anything available. We finally managed to get a taxi to drive us from Bath to London. You don't even want to know how much that cost! 

Anyway, after a bit of a dramatic start the day went on swimmingly. We arrived at Somerset House at noon. Helped by two lovely porters 'Ace' and 'Lightning' all the work was in the stand in a flash. 

As you might know, Origin takes place in a purpose-built pavillion which is set up annually in the courtyard of Somerset House. It is a spectacular neo-classical building which stands on Embankment overlooking the Thames and hosts art and cultural events through the year. The views from the Somerset House are legendary. The London Eye, Southbank Centre, the Ghirkin all stand as if arranged in a picture-perfect composition. 

My stand is at a lovely spot in the pavillion. It's under the skylights, right in front of the 'activity' area where basketry workshops and demonstrations will be held. While putting up the work we were cheered up by lazy clouds flitting across the blue skies. 

I finished off the evening with dinner at Rasa Samudra with friends and some divine Malayali food. 

Today is the gala evening where press and guests are invited for a preview. 

Looking forward to it! I'll be back with more things to share at the end of the day.

Love what you find, Find what you love

What    |   Origin The London Craft Fair

When   |   6 Oct - 11 Oct 2009 | 10am - 6pm  | until 9pm on 08 Oct 2009

Where  |  Stand F7 Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA

http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/origin09/ | for more details

Walking in My Mind

Finally caught the 'Walking in My Mind' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London on Friday just in time before it closed on Sunday .  Fantastic installations of mindscapes by 10 artists, taking us on to a journey through mental processes if creativity. Weirdly wonderful...and wonderfully weird. My favourite was Chiharu Shiota's installation After the Dream, which was a dense web-like structure created with wool thread creating a floor to ceiling mesh. In the centre of this jungle-like mesh were five white dresses suspended  seemingly hovering in air, almost as if they were dancin. Beautiful, intriguing and vaguely disturbing. Here are some images

The Hayward

Yayoi Kusama's installation on the terrace

Yayoi Kusama's art originates from her hallucinations. Polka dots are a central feature of her work.

Charles Avery

Thomas Hischhorn made a tunnel like installation that led into different 'rooms' where books, photographs, foil covered mannequins were kept.

Nominated for Arts Foundation Fellowship!

Exciting news! I have been nominated for Arts Foundation Fellowship. The Arts Foundation awards five £10,000 Fellowships annually in five different art forms.The Fellowships are not open to application. Within every art form a network of established, practising artists and other professionals are selected to nominate one artist they believe should win the award. Awards are made on the basis of both talent and need to artists living and working in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands.

I'm thrilled to be nominated!

Get Excited and Make Things

Watching the film 'Coco Avant Chanel' last night was a reaffirmation of the above mantra! What an an amazing woman Coco was.The film got me excited to make things!

Bolt

My favourite athelete, triple Olympic champ Usain Bolt was in London on Friday at the London Gran Prix. And he won. In such style! , His laid back attitute, the way he simply enjoys himself on the track , his dance moves, his open delight at winning and his energy are such a far cry from tense faces one usually sees on the track. It's just such fun to see him in action. More power to him!

Usain and his golden shoes at Beijing Olympics

I have been lusting after these spikes since Beijing

For those of you who'd like to watch it again, here's a link to his London GP race.

http://www.usainbolt.co.uk/usain-bolt-london-grand-prix-high-quality-video/

Anita Klein

Small Angel-Stars

Pyjamas-with-stars (This one reminds me of my mum)

Nige-free-toy ( I love this one.! It makes me smile).

How I love Anita Klein's work!

"At a time when the art world seems to be full of artists attempting to shock and denigrade, Klein's intimate, life affirming work comes as a welcome breath of fresh air. Her works convey a unique pleasure in the everyday moments that make life special.

Vincent Eames, The Fine Art Partnership

So true! Just looking at Anita's work is an uplifting experience for me. Her simple lines, beautiful colours and composition and most of all her intimate subject matter are a joy. I am so cross with myself for having missed her exhibition at the Bankside Gallery last month.

Can't wait for the day I will own one of her heart warming paintings.

Dilli

Strains of the latest Bollywood number "Yeh sheher nahin hai mehfil hai...yeh Dilli hai mere yaar" (This isn't city, it is a party. This is Delhi my friend.) floated from the radio in my car. Smiling at my beloved Neem and Gulmohar lined Lodhi road, I couldnt agree more.

The city is indeed an exciting party for me. It's home, comforting in its familiarity and yet exciting because the city lives in several centuries at the same time. So one minute you would pass by a 13th century tomb and the next, a glistening metro station. Delhi never fails to enchant me.

On my last visit a couple of months ago, I decided to take a walk with Art Historian Navina Jafa to know my city a bit more intimately. The walk focused on Sufism in India. Walk began at the Humayun tomb and took us to the Nizamuddin Dargah (A dargah is a Sufi shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint) and Humayun's tomb.

Here are some pictures of our walk

Dr. Navina, our walk-leader introducing us to Sufism, the architecture and how the idea of being buried close to the the durgah took root and the became the preferred burial spot with graves of a Mughal princess, poets, musicians and royalty buried around. the shrine

I loved the tacillations on the Roof. The place was an oasis of calm in the midst of a busy bazaar

The tomb of Delhi's famous poet Mirza Ghalib- he's one of my mum's favourites

On the way to the Nizamuddin Durgah. People selling offerings for the Saint like rose petals and chaadar ( a richly decorated piece of cloth offered to cover the grave as a mark of devotion and often as thanks for a blessing)

Tomb of Mughal Emperor Akbar's wet nurse

And suddenly a group of pigeons swooped across the terraces, followed by another group from the terrace opposite. Ishq-baazi! Ishq-baazi (literally love-play) is a pigeon flying game that has been played in India since the Mughal times and contitues to be popular even today in some parts of Delhi.

Ishq-baazi

And finally the Nizamuddin Durgah

Sufi music lovers and devotees gather every Thursday evening to listen to music performances at the Durgah. The Quwwals (Quwwali is a form of devotional Sufi music; singers are called Quwwal) sing the same compositions they have been singing since the 1200s. We were treated to an amazing performance by the Nizamis at the Durgah. They invited us to their house where they have lived for generations and sang the most beautiful Sufi compositions I have ever heard. It was magical!

Website troubles

My website is off-line at the moment due to some technical issues. We are trying to fix the problem. Hopefully it would be up again soon.

Please come back to take a look later. :)

Origin 09

I will be showing at Origin in week 1 i.e. from 6th-11th October 09! I was thrilled to bits the day that I got the much awaited letter from the Crafts Council saying I'd been selected. Origin as you might know is the London Craft Fair organised by the Crafts Council of England showcasing the very best of contemporary designer makers from the UK and abroad.

With a great sense of excitement I began my first drawings for the new body of work for Origin yesterday. I am thinking dazzling colours, wandering lines and sensual textures.

Yummiliciousness!

Showing At Contemporary Craft Fair, Bovey Tracey

Tomorrow morning I am leaving with my friend and fellow exhibitor, Claire Loder for Devon. We will be showing at the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey. The show is regarded as the best Craft Show in the South West and enjoys a great reputation of presenting really interesting, inspiring makers. The show runs from 5-7 June 09.
For a map to the location, click here.

For those of you who can, please do come and see us.

A Perfect Summer Day

It's nearly midnight and the sky is still faintly blue. 

Is this what they call midnight blue?

It is a warm night. I can hear snatches of coversations through the open window, laughing couples, belligerent teengers, all a little drunk on what was a perfect summer day.

AK and I drove Stroud and Painswick this morning, to pick up my work. It was such a beautiful day! We walked a bit in Painswick, a charming little village with houses that look straight out of a picture postcard. On the way back, I saw mustard fields and emerald grass glowing in the sun and wondered how nice it would be to just lay in the grass there and sketch.

It's going to be another sunny day tomorrow. I can't wait!

Crafts Magazine Review

I was thrilled to read the CRAFTS MAGAZINE's review of AN EYE FOR THE DETAIL! I am posting it here for you all to read:

Aerialscapes (detail), Ekta Kaul, hand-dyed, embroidered and needle-punched.

An Eye for Detail, a mixed media show focusing on applied arts in the home, is on at Ruthin Craft Centre until 14 June

The show looks at ceramics, textiles and furniture, asking questions about their design and making process. It’s curated by Gregory Parsons and, as he explains, the idea ‘is to give people an overview of the whole or some aspect of the design and making process – something which I feel is very important and often un-considered when viewing craft’.

Textiles make up the main body of the show and artists featured include a roll call of the great and the good in the field. Look out for Kate Blee, Eleanor Pritchard and Ptolemy Mann, as well as newcomers such Ekta Kaul, who creates textile ‘aerialscapes’ inspired by photographs of fields. Kaul’s silk panels are worked with parallel tracks of embroidered and needle-punched lines in varying sizes and colour which add textural interest to the bright surface materials.

Furniture is represented by Shin Azumi and Sarah Kay as well as Angus Ross whose gently curving wooden chairs and stools are both deceptively simple and surprisingly beautiful. And the show is rounded off with ceramics by Jacob van der Beugel, Helen Felcey and James and Tilla Waters.

My Aerialscapes at Ruthin Craft Centre

Aerialscapes- detail

I am showcasing my textile art pieces at An Eye for the Detail at the Ruthin Craft Centre . Curated by Gregory Parsons, the show takes a closer look at contemporary applied arts in interiors as well and also presents each artist's design process. The exhibition is being staged in the beautiful Gallery 3 of the Craft Centre. I am lucky to be showing work alongside such established names as Ptolemy Mann, Emma Jeffs, Eleanor Pritchard, Kate Blee, Shin Azumi - people who's work I greatly admire.

Inspired by aerial photography of fields, the piece I am showing is a study of texture and colour. I have used resist dyeing, embroidery and needle punching on silk panels to create surfaces . I really enjoyed the whole process: painting and drawing the concept to scale, thinking about the colours, textures, agonizing over size of stitches, thickness of needles and then spending what seemed like endless days making it. However, it's been so worth it. On the preview night, seeing the piece hanging in the gallery was pure joy!

The show will be on till 14^th June 2009.

Venue: Ruthin Craft Centre

The Centre for the Applied Arts

Park Road, Ruthin,

Denbighshire, LL15 1BB

Showing at Stroud International Textile Festival 09

Detail of 'Pages of my Journal'

I am showing at two venues during the Stroud International Textile Festival, a really exciting show that celebrates textiles over three weeks with exhibitions showcasing some of the most exciting work in contemporary textiles, talks by artists and workshops. The show starts on May1st and goes on till May 21st at Stroud Five Valleys, England. In a relatively short period of being set up, the festival has achieved stellar reputation and enjoys a massive following among Textile enthusiasts.

I am showing a range of textile jewellery at the Jewellery Showcase which showcases 12 artists who are inspired by textiles and incorporate textiles in their work. I am showing silk necklaces in striking bold colours. Other artists include a range of established and emerging names like Susan Cross, Nora Folk, Nel Linssen, Yoko Izawa, Lina Peterson, Tanvi Kant, Ursula Hofmann, Jan Hinchliffe, Fiona Wright, Suzanne Potter and Sue Dove.

I am also showing quilts and interior furnishings at the Festival. My interior textiles and jewellery are being showcased at Made in Stroud Kendrick Street, Stroud Town Centre.

I am showing a small range of cushions celebrating colour and textures at Well Cushioned, an exhibition hosted by the Gloucestershire Guild at the Guild Gallery, Painswick Centre, Bisley Street, Painswick.

Fun Fun fun! And the best bit? My work is featured on the cover page of the festival guide and posters.

Those of you who can, please go and visit the festival and post your comments here. ENJOY!

Peacocks

I moved into my new studio today. Although I continue working from the Sion Hill studio, I have been offered the amazing opportunity of additional studio space at Corsham Court, just outside of Bath.

The court is a grand manor dating back to 1582. Sweeping formal gardens, huge staircases curling gracefully in a room that could easily accommodate 300 people, stately corridors full of beautiful china and paintings make for a place that is simply grand. While taking a 'tour of the property' with the housekeeper, I could easily imagine elegantly dressed ladies in swishing silks and gentlemen in evening suits smoking pipes near the fireplaces, with the family portraits looking benignly on.

So, I left for the Court early this morning, excited to begin a new body of work and to experience the space. I was curious how working from the new studio will feel...it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place.

I had such a wonderful time there. I painted, worked on new ideas and had a productive day. And the peacocks there were the best part! There were atleast 10 of them, strutting about in the lawns, just sunning themselves. They were breathtakingly beautiful! Seeing them there, transported me back to NID (my design school in Ahmedabad, India) and suddenly I was back in the Apparel Studio which overlooked the lawns where the peacocks gracefully drape themselves on the gulmohar tree.

Peacocks at Corsham Court

Looking down from the studio window at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England

View from my studio at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India