Upcoming Bell Tower Artisan Showcase

In just over a week, Saturday, February 10 from noon to 4:30, the 10th Artisan Showcase willl happen at Bell Tower Residence Hall in Merrill.  I have participated each year and find the event to be well planned and presented. The venue is the beautiful Assisi Hall in the Bell Tower Residence facility located on the south side of Merrill just off Center Avenue at 1500 O’Day Street. I’ll be bringing a variety of my work both to show and sell including a variety of jewelry, textured paintings and some small original art quilts.  Below are a few pictures of some recent jewelry pieces I have made incorporating wire work which I am currently fascinated with

Fish guts and caviar

We are on our own again.  Those are the most fun times.  We took a taxi to the Sasoon docks to see what happens when the fishing boats come in.  We found ourselves to be the only foreigners there which was fine with us.  The odor was a bit overpowering, but manageable   These are the fist fish we found

Below are some tiny dried fish.  We saw someone buy them.  She got three scoops in a plastic bag.  Didn’t cost much.  We couldn’t see it close enough

We are calling these monster fish eggs caviar 

All these women are shelling a mountain of shrimp

The fishing boats

These women are carrying a large weight of fish on their heads

After leaving the dock we went out for a vegetarian lunch

(Backup) Goodbye India

Soon we will be starting our last day in India.  It has been quite a journey.  I have loved experiencing the life and customs of India.  I will forever love these people. A few sited from recent experiences

Our tour ended two days ago, so we are now on our own.  We have been taking lots of cabs in Mumbai. Fares start at 22 rupiahs or about 35 cents. None has been over $1.50. The traffic is crazy with pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, cars and camels alll sharing the road.  Rarely are their lane markers and there are as many lanes of traffic as can squeeze in. That said,  the only accident we have seen (we arrived right after) was a truck hitting a cow.  The truck driver was quite upset as, of course, this was a holy cow.  An ambulance for the cow had been called

Yesterday we walked through a local market.  This dress stall had some very elegant dresses. Each stall is about 10feet square.  The employees are seated on a padded floor.

It seemed there were always a lot of workers available to help you.  All were men. This is a fabric store selling yardage, really meterage. I took a deep breath and didn’t buy here.  I have been pretty weak and had to buy a suitcase here to get my purchases home.

I loved the sign on this jewelry shop

Do you need a pomegranate?

Or perhaps some lentils?

A young girl was getting decorated with henna.  She was with her sister and best friend.  They said she would get engaged the next day.

The artist was highly skilled.  He accomplished it all frees hand while squirting the dye from a tiny plastic bag

On to Mumbai

It’s been a few days since my last post due to poor internet and fatigue. There is so much to see and so many people to meet,  the two pictures below are of the Mumbai laundry.  This is a place provided by the government with a water supply and drainage for laundry operation.  This is getting smaller as it is now possible to get a washing machine and proper plumbing.  We have seen several instances of progress being made.

While in Jaidapur which is a city of lakes, we took a boat ride and were able to see this palace on the shore.  We had just a few hours walked through the palace.

On the stree in Mumbai, this stand was selling sugar cane juice.  He ran stalks of cane through a masker and the juice dripped out a spout. We did not try this offering

Here we are in the apartment Mahatma Gandhi used while in Mumbai.  I am glad we went here as it gave a really good overview of his life. His spinning wheel was pretty cool.

Common site here.  Woman in sari driving motor bike.  Check out her feet!

Mumbai flower market 

Elephants, cobras and turbans, oh my

Lots of firsts today.  As we drove around the city of Jaipur, we stopped to look at a palace which was really nice, but the fun part for me was a guy on the sidewalk with a cobra in a basket and a flute in his hand.  I approached him right away because I had decided that if we had the chance, I wanted to hold a cobra..surprisingly I was the only one

From here we went up a small mountain to visit an ancient fort.   Our transport for the last bit of the climb was aboard  an elephant. What a bumpy ride.  Our elephants name was Sonya.  I still haven’t got the picture of Betsy and I on our elephant which was taken by someone else in our group, but this is what they all looked like.

While inside the fort we met a man with a beautiful turban.  For a small price he took it off and showed us how he puts it on in the morning.  I love the video I took of him,but can’t figure out how to put it in this post.  (Can anyone help me).  He was quite a showman   The fabric in,the turban was 9 meters long.

While in the fort we met this guy.  He had just been ordained as a priest from Kashmir   He was celebrating while traveling with his sister. They were both very friendly and talkative

This is a section of the marble floor in the fort.  I took several pictures like it.  Looks like a good pattern for a quilt

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This is the fort we were visiting.  It’s amazing how many really significant things there are in the world that we have never heard of.  Travel teaches us how little we know.

Another interesting road trip

Yesterday we drove to Jaipur. It was a long ride, but was interesting all the way.  We viewed how people lived and did business.  I worked on a waxed linen basket that I had started at home.  Don’t know how big it will be.  Guess it depends on how much time I have and how I feel about it.  Here it is so far.

Last night we were on our own for dinner so we went to the grocery store.  Everything in India is fried in ghee, clarified butter, and it was available in many brands in the store.

Below is a yogurt we have grown to love.   Use be working, because we are still well.

We rode to the grocery in the back seat of a tuk tuk, a three wheeled open air taxi.

We bought lassi from this man.  Lassi is a sweet yogurt drink.  Very delicious.  Our guide is from Jaipur and she said this man is famous for his lassi.  There were two similar stands next to his but they had no customers.  The guide said that he sells out quickly and then the others begin to sell theirs.  The lassi is served in the little clay cups.  When you finish your drink, you throw your cup in a bin and it is recycled.

Entering Jaipur was sad because we drove through a large slum area.  

This is a fairly common sight.  Camel carts are quite useful

Gun permits are required to buy a firearm.  Not many people own guns.

Ranthambore National Park

Poor us.  This is the entrance to the hotel we stayed at next to the park.  Opulent

Spotted deer were common.  

This is the big deer species. There were quite a few of them also.

We really loved the angry birds

This guy wanted to ride with us.

Jane got a new friend

The scenery in the park was pretty to look at also

On the road To Ranthambore National Park

Spent a large part of the day on the bus.  That was fine because the views are so interesting. Here is a market from the bus window.  We are eating lots of f units and vegetables, but none from the street.

We took a walk around a small town.  Below are some dung patties drying and being stored on The roof of a house. 

This gentleman claimed to be 105 years old.  He was smoking his hookah

These cows were not free range as most were, but were at this time tied by the house

We sto by the house of this potter.

The two pictures below are of a step well.  Built centuries ago, it caught rain water.  Women carried their containers to the well and walked down the stairs until they got to the water.  Fill your jugs and then carry it back up. There were 13 levels of steps in the well.