Easy Canopy bed for kids

A few years ago we started out our girls in a shared bedroom and playing room but keeping in mind that the furniture is coordinated and flexible for the time when the girls would want their own rooms. Well, my younger one decided that she wants a canopy bed… something I hadn't planned for. Even though Pottery Barn makes beautiful canopy beds, I couldn't order a canopy kit for the Catalina bed that we had and I didn't want to upgrade the whole bed for what might end up being a passing fancy.

Making Fabric Banner

If you have been following me on instagram, you'd know that I bought a sewing machine a couple months ago and you possibly might have seen swatches of my fabric banner project as well. Well, here's the first finished project that I made on my new sewing machine and tomorrow I'll share how I ended up using it in my daughter's pink room. 

My first Quilting project

Sometimes I feel like perhaps I'm a social crafter. I started quilting when I was pregnant with my first born and wanted to make some blankets for the baby. I made some easy quilts that didn't involve any piecing. It was during that time that I met a lady who made all her quilts by hand. She used to handle our print shop at the architecture firm and during her down time, she'd work on her piecing. She introduced me to the basics of quilting, then I went to a local shop to take a basics class and I was hooked, or so I thought…
Fast forward to Fall of 2014, when I picked up the pieces to continue making 'Grandma's fan' that I had started 10 years ago. By winter I had about a dozen of them ready but didn't know how to proceed. The process was slow going and I couldn't imagine the final piece anymore.

Chanderi… Handloomed silk saris

Last month as we were travelling through various cities in India, I made it a point to scout out artists in local markets and buy directly from them. During one such quest I met a family of weavers from the town of Chanderi where the famous saris with the same name and gossamer glow are handmade on looms. Chanderi sari is now protected by the geographic indicator (GI) and can only be called so if it’s produced in the region as defined under the GI and is recognized by World Trade Organization. Further demarcation for these Chanderi saris is that they can only be hand loomed, so if you are buying a real chanderi you can rest assured that it is handmade and not woven on a power loom.

From my studio this week...

Sorry about missing my usual Monday post about the weekend crafting. This weekend was very unusual where we were fighting bugs and recuperating as a family while still doing the required activities like piano recitals and attending birthday parties.
Needless to say, there was very little time to be spent in the studio but I do have some creative projects to share.

We made a tie blanket for a little girl who love Pooh bears and it's process was low key enough that my girls could help while we all told silly jokes and giggled.

Earlier in the week, I finished making my crocheted waves blanket. It was the same pattern as the doll's pink and white blanket that I had made but bigger and made with blue ombre colors- started with navy blue and graduated to light blue, sky blue and then white. Just used 1 pound of each… I like the final effect.

Besides making things, I am thoroughly enjoying deconstructing as well. Ever since I discovered the joys of up cycling, I am collecting buttons and zips and frills and flat quarters wondering how to put them to effective use.

Birdie Pillow

This weekend's studio time resulted in this birdie pillow. Its designed for my friend's daughter who has the pottery barn birdie decals in her room and we wanted to add some fun accessories. And it is from experience that I know that little girls love pillows in fun shapes… 

Cotton Lehnga for Dolls- Etsy update

This weekend I carved out some studio time and finished making Lehnga (Indian dress) for the dolls. Started working on it last weekend but was able to put finishing touches today and then photograph it too.

Eri Silk Infinity Scarf

I am so happy and excited with the little successes I encounter each day with my new venture. And I am so thankful for your support and encouragement. Through craft sales, Etsy (Craftiste) and other personal sales, the venture is slowly inching towards being self-reliant. When I took this first step, my main goal was to be sustainable, not just for my business but for all those indigenous artisans that I wish to support. The idea is for all the artisans to be able to create a livelihood for themselves and in the process preserve the art forms and the cultural traditions.

Lehnga for an American Girl Doll

Its festival season and this year I chose to make dresses for the dolls instead of my girls. Remember the sari that I made for them last year on Diwali, well they are well preserved in the dresser drawer ever since and I am not sure if they’ll wear it again (read: fit into it again).

The little 18 inch dolls offer a lot more predictability and the kids are still introduced to a cultural element, hence the decision to make lehnga for the dolls. Lehnga is a traditional Indian dress comprised of a long skirt, a short top and a veil; and to stitch this outfit I used a combination of red polyester fabric and upcycled the embroidered sheer fabric from an odhni (veil).

Wreath for Harvest season...

Harvest season is upon us and it was time update out Spring Wreath. 

Meet Leah from Sprickets Pottery

I met Leah at a Birthday party where she had brought the experience of pottery painting to little kids in the comfort of a home. It was a fun party and as much as the kids enjoyed it, the better part was watching the creative juices of adults running wild as they helped the little ones.

Remember I had mentioned decorating the 'Finger print Salsa Plate' with preschoolers for the school fundraiser. It was a tough task to excuse little kids from their classroom activities so that they can donate their finger prints to my art plate while maintaining complete silence as they walked in the lobby of the school to the craft room; and then expecting them to go back to their class and jump right back into their respective activities. I wish I had discovered Sprickets Pottery then and it could be a lunch hour activity or an after school activity for the little kids. But I am glad I could connect with her...

Once I discovered Sprickets, Leah became part of our school activities and it is wonderful to have the set up outdoors and paint under the blue sky and sometimes on windy days as well.
Leah agreed to give a brief interview about the work that she does and I hope with this post more folks can discover a local business that facilitates art.


DISCLAIMER: This is not a Commercial post. I am not benefitting from posting about this business.
I think that 'Sprickets Pottery' is a beautiful & creative opportunity for families and friends to come together and create art and memories in the comfort of a place of your choice. 

The interview follows...

Kanjivaram Sari inspired painted IKEA step stool

This IKEA stool (BEKVÄM) retired from its services in the kids bathroom since both girls can now reach the sink without any external aid. It sat in the garage among the donation pile for a couple of months before I brought it back inside. It was a sturdy wooden stool still functional except the unsightly toothpaste blotches so I decided to rescue it with some paint. 

I had picked up a pint of  SW Blue Mosque on an impulse a few weeks ago and it seemed perfect for the stool. It was bright enough to make a statement and dark enough to bear some rough use. 

It took a couple of coats to fully cover the wood and looked beautiful in itself but I was looking for a little more spunk and so I decided to add some accent color. 

The bare blue stool had a fabulous color and I wished, I had a sari that color  (I secretly wish to own saris in all colors that inspire and move me...). It was that wish which prompted me to add a gold border to the base of the stool, much like the gold zari border of a Kanjivaram sari . 

The gold paint is a craft acrylic color that I had on hand but since it is just used on the leg of the stool which doesn't get rubbed so often so I think it should hold up well, else I'll give it another touch-up coat.
Here's the final product: 

I am planning to secure the top of the stool with polyurethane or wax to increase the longevity of the paint but that needs another trip to the hardware store so I am calling it done for now. 

Very happy with my Kanjivarm inspired painting on the stool and I think it would be an elegant addition to the study room where the girls still need help reaching the top book shelves... 
I had some extra paint left in the dish that would just have to be washed off so I put it to good use by painting the inside of this wooden dish that I use for holder paperclips, erasers and other small things.

An Owl 3-D puzzle was a hoot!

Puzzles are a wonderful thing to do while watching kids’ movies with them and it gives you a sense of accomplishment on a Sunday afternoon which can be very uplifting. 

Maxi summer dresses

I love quick projects; they are like instant gratification and add just the right amount of tingle in your brain to make the necessary chores around the house more bearable. So ended up making a couple of Maxi dresses for the girls over the weekend...

Ahimsa (Non Violence) Silk

Silk might have been first discovered in China but once it entered the land of Buddha, it took on a new journey and a totally different perspective. Few people know that production of fine silk essentially requires the death of all the moths that form the cocoons which is unraveled for its silk strand. But there is an alternative, the silk can be produced without such violence.

A Kanjivaram sari from my collection

Although it is said that the making of silk was a secret in Chinese court till about 5^th Century, there have been archaeological evidence from over 5000 years ago from the exploration at the Harappa Mohenjo-Daro civilization site of the presence of wild silk cocoons and perhaps of their use for making fabrics.

According to Chinese legend, silk was an accidental discovery around circa 2600 BC when XiLingJi, the wife of China's third Emperor also called the "Yellow Emperor", found a silk cocoon in her tea cup. She happened to be enjoying tea under in the garden under the shade of Mulberry when a cocoon fell in her tea and the warmth of the water made it unravel and the silky strands were discovered. The queen had all such cocoons collected from the palace gardens and spun into threads for weaving which were then loomed to make fabric for king’s robe. Silk instantaneously became the symbol of ultimate luxury and a guarded secret in the Chinese court; only the highest of the royal subjects besides the king and queen were allowed to wear it. 

Eventually, the art of sericulture traveled along the silk route and reached the land of Buddha, modern day Bihar. Co-existing and respect for living creatures and the surroundings is one teaching of Buddha that monks and laity followed unquestioningly. So when the weavers who weaved fabrics for Buddha’s disciple took to rearing silk cocoons, instead of killing the caterpillar, they waited till the moth left the cocoon before unraveling and spinning the threads.

This special art of sericulture is tedious and requires a lot of patience and isn’t as profitable as the fast and quality controlled version. A handful of weavers are still pursuing this art form, but largely it’s on the path of slow demise. Since the cocoons are raised in the wild and are matured till the moth leaves the cocoon, the silk made from these strands are not as fine and the quality of final product is not uniform; it is something that can be described with the Japanese word, wabi-sabi.  

Here’s a visual journey of the process…

Raw silk, photo courtesy: Monica Harvey

Isolating stands from cocoons; photo courtesy: Monica Harvey

Spindle Wheel

Charkha for making silk threads

skein of silk; photo courtesy: Monica Harvey

Threads being prepared for the loom

Hand Loom

Here is a small video of the making of threads from the silk strands. This video was shot and shared by my friend, Monica. She is also sharing some of her travel experiences to Nalanda through her blog: Nalanda Journey.

Sujuni- Fabric craft of colors and story-telling

Sujuni is a distant cousin of Kantha stitch, in the sense just like Kantha it involves a cluster of running stitches. Though they developed in close corners but over the course of time have emerged into two distinct crafts. Kantha is characterized more by its radiating patterns while sujuni usually flows in soft curvilinear lines emulating the meandering edges of the fields which are often the walking paths in the villages as well.

It was traditional developed in homes where women would layer up old worn out cotton saris and then sew them together with vibrant colored threads usually pulled from the contrasting borders of the sari's edges.  Layers of cotton fabric were sewn together mostly through running stitch and occasionally embellished with chain stitches. Old Bihari sujuni's depicted religious themes as well as geometric patterns. It was a means of expression and showed local flora and fauna along with everyday life. Of course such depictions made them ideal gifts for births and marriages, and keepsakes for the family members.

A typical sujuni is made with about a hundred stitches per inch. And for me personally they reminded me of pointillism style of painting. Running stitches of various colors in close proximity plays with the mind and give the impression of various shades of colors where none exists, the parallax of duality between reality and illusions.

Meet Savitri ji. She is a Sujuni artist and supports herself through this art and her style is refreshing and tells stories close to heart. All the other women in the village tease her that none of her embroideries is complete without a drop of her blood and so it is really easy to tell apart her work from the others in the cooperative.

DH posted this picture of us on Facebook and I got a lot of comments about the sujuni hanging in the background and so I decided to talk about it here. This sujini depicts the deforestation problem and its impacts on the villages where life flourishes very close to nature. And guess who is the artist who created this piece, yes its Savitri ji; and knowing the artist and the inspiration behind the piece brings special meaning to the art and to my home where it hangs.

There are others who treasure the art just as much and so there has been efforts to revive it and make it accessible to the buddhist tourist who visit Nalanda and its vicinity. Scenes from the life of Buddha that are relevant to the area are depicted through colorful threads running through stitches keeping a tradition alive and retell the stories from the past.

Dolls blanket- crochet

Remember the little crocheted sweaters I made for the dolls?  After successfully finishing a project, I got motivated to try something new and on list to learn list was a zig-zag crochet afghan. After consulting with a few friends, I decided to start it in a small scale mostly so I can carry it around to kids’ activities and keep busy while learning from it. 

It was decided that I’ll make one for the doll first and the girls chose a combination pink and white leftover yarn from one of my Mom’s knitting project.

Dye and Come Alive

I recently experimented with fabric dyeing; the inspiration came from a wonderful article on my filpboard app a week or so ago, it talked about the amount of clothing that we American discard each year and how it makes its way into secondary markets within the country and outside as well. It is a parallel industry that gets very less attention but has turnover in billions. I so want to add a link to that article here but so far I have been unable to relocate it. 

Persnalize T-shirt with Stenciling using Acrylics

One of my friend was looking to create some unique yoga shirts for her team and asked me if I knew of quick and easy way. I had heard of the freezer paper stencils but had never tried them myself, so using the trusted Google, I came across this very help tutorial at Ruffles & Stuff

When it was time to make special T-shirts for my daughter's, 'Jump Rope for Heart' team; this tutorial came in very handy. I pretty much followed all her steps and then I had to make a few mistakes of my own, just to learn from them. Here is what the final product looked like...

Sweaters for dolls- Crocheting...

I decided to use crocheting as a medium to make sweaters for my girl's dolls to keep the warm in this cold Minnesota weather. I had learned crocheting as child from my mum and Grandma in what I recall was either third or fourth grade. I learned so many things just by watching them it is tough to say when I actually learned them. 

I have made little things off and on since then... so, here's how I made the sweaters.

Started with a simple straight chain, build around it in 5 sections as shown in the picture. 

Once the shorter edge was enough to cover the circumference of dolls arm, I connected the adjacent corners to make arm pockets and continued crocheting the length...

making progress

 finished sweater

The finished product

The girls had picked the color of the yarn for the sweaters and then decided the colors of the buttons as  well along with the flower for the hat. 

Finished the blue one while the girls were at the pool

The dolls in their new sweaters and hats

It was a quick project and a perfect one for the girls and I both.