Jaipur and beyond

From Agra to Jaipur on a bumpy road, we arrived at Amber late afternoon to see the
elephants returning home after a busy day ferrying people to the top of Amber Fort.

 The scene in the morning as the elephants gathered to start the day.   At 7.30 people
 were already queuing for a ride, at R950.   


Not far away is the Anokhi Museum, somewhere I have tried to visit many times.   Unfortunately it is a festival day and the museum closed.  To the rescue - the janitor 
opened the door so we could have a little peek;  wonderful selection of block printed
cloth, and really fantastic display of early 70's clothing.   So cool.


So, to Anokhi shop,  new kurta and churidar, then for a proper cup of filtered coffee 
and carrot cake.  I think the only thing I really miss is my proper coffee.


Wandered around the Pink City, all hustle and bustle, taking in sights and sounds.  
Caught the local bus back to Amber, many intent stares and little conversations.


Next day, on the way to Rathambhore, we stopped off at Saganer, just outside Jaipur.
Famous for it's block printing, although today is seems that screen printing is taking
over.  Not so time consuming I guess.

Now that's a screen printing table - it takes a whole bolt of cloth - 30m I think.  
There are two more tables either side.

On a much smaller scale - the white rolls of cotton are going through the process of
being scoured.  At the back cloth hanging from a very tall drying rack.  In the middle 
printed dyring the sun.

Experiment - screen printing

Play time.  You will need:

A well worn screen - just in case

Indian printing blocks

Yep, got all those to hand

So, now to try screen printing using neocolour crayons.

I took rubbings direct onto the screen using printing

blocks and crayons.   Then loaded screen with Golden

Medium to print onto cotton.   A pretty good print.

Result, after stitching.

Conclusion - Worked well, although colours

were not as expected - darker.  The

cloth has a slightly plastic feel.  Not sure I

like this.  I tried hand stitching in places.

A bit difficult to say the least.  Machine

stitching, yes, but no room for mistakes.

Needles leave holes that can't be removed.

Some machine embroidery threads seemed

to shred and break.

Well, checked that technique out.  Will I

do more?  The jury is still out.  Sample to 

be filed for future reference.