Are handloom prices increasing like gold price ?

Are handloom prices increasing like gold prices ?

Gold is on a decline because of multiple reasons. But I do not see the same happening with Handloom.

I have been buying hand-loom sarees and materials for many years now and I surely see the rise in prices and no sign of decline.

I am going to provide a comparison of prices of some of the handloom cotton sarees where they have increased exponentially !! You are not still late, if you find these sarees grab them.

Let us start from north-east. 

The beautiful woven Manipuri cotton saree which was at Rs 1000 4 years back is now priced at Rs 4500+ at government emporiums.

Should we start investing in sarees? Hope there was a re-sale value for them too. The beautiful weaved motif of delicate manipuri sarees cannot be missed.

 

http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/from-manipur-to-madurai/article2200912.ece

Kotpad saree from Orissa was once priced at Rs.1200, now starts from Rs 4500+ for off white shade. Any other color the price is way higher.

Orissa Sambalpuri IKKAT cotton sarees were available at Rs 2000+  4 years back the same saree is now available at double the price.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/policy/orissa-govt-ropes-in-top-fashion-designers-to-revive-handloom-sector/article2131380.ece

Will get more updates on south indian sarees too in my next post.

Flower Power Tuesday's - Double Red Hibiscus

Power means strength and force, Shakti, which enables one to face all that can happen and to stand and overcome, also to carry out what the Divine Will proposes. It can include many things, power over men, events, circumstances, means etc. But all this not of the mental or vital kind, but by an action through unity of consciousness with the Divine and with all things and all beings. It is not an individual-strength depending on certain personal capacities, but the Divine Power using the individual as an instrument.

SRI AUROBINDO

Force is the essential Shakti; Energy is the working drive of the Force, its active dynamism; Power is the capacity born of the Force; Strength is energy consolidated and stored in the Adhar.

SRI AUROBINDO

Power of Consciousness

All the powers of controlling and governing the lower movements of inconscient nature.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. Double flowers in all sizes with colours that range from raspberry pink through red to crimson.

Home Tour - ANOKHI's Rachel and Pritham Singh's Jaipur Home

Anokhi's roots lie in Jaipur, a city whose founders were enlightened patrons of the 

arts and crafts. Skilled craftsmen were invited to settle here and were ensured a 

secure livelihood. In the Jaipur tradition, Anokhi tries to maintain an open and honest 

relationship with its craftspersons. It helps them to work in conditions of their own 

choosing and commits itself to providing them with sustained work.

Below is the home tour of  Rachel and Pritham Singh's Jaipur home which 

was published in InsideOutside 2002 October edition.  

I have carefully saved all my favorite inspirations :)

I am sure you are going to love this. 

Flower Power Tuesday - Plumbago Auriculata

Krishna’s Ananda
Manifold, abundant and so full of charm.

Plumbago Auriculata
Cape leadwort - Small lavender blue flowers.

Prepping For The Wedding Season

The wedding season has started in my family. Every year I look forward to such occasions even though it makes a big hole in my pocket.  A wedding season is nothing but a shopping season which I love.

If a wedding is performed in an old traditional fashion then we will need minimum 4 to 5 sarees. One would not just need sarees but would also need matching jewelry. I have been following a jewelry buying tradition for many years now. Whenever a wedding happens in my family I buy a piece of jewelry. This way I can I easily remember the year of purchase and calculate the ROI (Return On Investment) J

Even this year I wanted to buy some jewelry and I visited my trusted jeweler. I liked an enameled gold antique pendant. Once the price was calculated it was nowhere close to what I expected so I bought an other piece of jewelry for the marriage. I left the store with a heavy heart as I was not able to buy what I liked.

I liked the enameled jewelry so much that I started googling to see if similar pieces were available. I did not find a similar piece but found “Sayuri” in Chennai.  

Sayuri is owned by Divya who believes in creating contemporary and fashionable pieces by incorporating recycling and reusing. Her tagline is "Designed to please your soul".

Each and every peice is handcrafted by her. 

Divya creates jewelry based on different themes. Only after I met Divya I found that ragas were depicted in pictorial form in our ancient scriptures. Divya has created a range of jewelry based on ragas. Most of her Raga based jewelry has been sold out but it is worth seeing the pictures for visual treat.

Here is Ragamala by Sayuri.  Click on the link to read more.

Finally, the peice of jewelry Divya created for me. Radha madhav bib. I just love it because it is so unique:

Flower Power Tuesday's - Bougainvillea

Protection

Let us Give ourselves entirely and sincerely to the Divine and we shall enjoy His protection.

When we are in close contact with the Divine, a protection can come which helps or directly guides or moves us; it does not throw aside all difficulties, sufferings or dangers, but it carries us through them and out of them - except where for a special purpose there is need of the opposite.

SRI AUROBINDO

When you think of the Lord's Peace it acts as a call, and the more you think of it the " more you surround yourself with it, which is the most powerful protection.

THE MOTHER

Corporate Dress Code

Each organization defines their own dress code. Frankly speaking uniforms are the best. You need not worry on what has to be worn every day to work. I am not saying that it’s easy for men to choose what they want to wear but choosing what to wear for women is more complicated.

In most of the organization in Indian private sector, women population is roughly 10-15% when it comes to middle management and top management and the age group is 35+ years. When you fall in that group your dress code becomes very important. Among 20 colleagues only 1 or 2 would be women while attending any key meetings. Under these circumstances one should not look odd. The female dress should gel with the blues and greys and whites in the room. If you are a person like me who rarely wears western clothes, then you have to make your wisest choice.

In this post I am going to talk about saree as the choice of attire. I feel saree’s are more comfortable and the options are innumerable. For every day work, we can go for cotton ikkat’s, Bengal cotton, block prints, chettinad cotton, mangalagiri, Kanchi cotton, or Maheshwari.

For chettinad and mangala giri saree I usually do not go for plain blouses. I try to pair them with kantha work, block print or differently weaved ikkat blouses. But if we have to attend team meetings or conferences it is better to go for pastel shades and apart from cotton’s, Tussar/simple silks look great.  

Via

Though in the movie the actress has not potrayed  the role of a corporate person but the costume design can be effortlessly followed.  

Go back and watch the movie again to get more inspirations. If you have any questions on what was the type of saree worn, you can ping me and I will clarify :)

Initially, I was apprehensive to link this post to a movie but then I thought it was the right fit so why not. :D

Flower Power Tuesday's - Jasminum

Purity 
True purity has a lovely fragrance. 

This is purity, to accept no other influence but only the influence of the Divine.

THE MOTHER

One is truly perfectly pure only when the whole being, in all its elements and all its movements, adheres fully and exclusively to the Divine Will. That is total purity. It does not depend on any moral or social law, any mental convention of any kind. It depends exclusively on this: when all the elements and all the movements of the being adhere exclusively and totally to the Divine Will.

THE MOTHER

Jasminum - Jasmine
All varieties of small single white flowers with a slender tube and four to nine pointed or rounded lobes. The flowers are typically highly fragrant. Shrubs or vines. 

Flower Power Tuesday's - Amaryllis

Conversion :The starting point of realisation.

Conversion: the turning of all the movements of the being towards the Divine

THE MOTHER

When [the psychic being] is awake, it begins to take hold of the rest of the being, to influence it and change it so that all may become the true expression of the inner soul. It is this change that is called the inner conversion. There can be no conversion without the awakening of the psychic being.

SRI AUROBINDO

Hippeastrum
Amaryllis, Knight's star lily, Barbados lily
Large trumpet shaped flowers with six petals in shades of white, red, pink, orange, salmon.

Amaryllis have long vase life. They stay fresh in a vase with water for close to a week. 

It Is A Beautiful Day !!!!

It is a beautiful day (“Sun”day). I kind of repeatedly say this line whenever the weather is beautiful and when I am in a joyful and happy mood. Today was one such day.

Chennai had showers in peak summer. It was cool and nice.

I had a to-do list for the weekend. On Saturday I did complete some of them but lot more was pending for today. I started off with the most daunting task of organizing my closet. It took close to 2 hours to sort things and rearrange. I was relieved and happy when I saw an organized closet.

Then I moved on to my next task to book an online ticket for my aunt. The site was acting crazy for the past couple of days. I said a prayer, crossed my fingers and logged into the site. The site was finally working well and I had booked the tickets in no time. After every task I finished, I kept saying “It’s a beautiful day”. Somehow saying that gives me a positive vibe. J

Nothing can be more elevating when you browse through an old magazine inspirations when you are in such a mood. Today I picked up one of my favorites in the lot. “Interiors India’s Second Volume of India’s first annual on interior design”.  

I would like to present one of the home tours in the magazine for you. The pages in the magazine were coming out so I had to carefully scan them.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Flower Power Tuesday's - Fuchsia

Fuchsia flower(Lady's ear drops) is used for representing Art by Sri Aurobindo.

Art

Living only to express beauty. 

Art is nothing less in its fundamental truth than the aspect of beauty of the Divine manifestation.

SRI AUROBINDO

If you want art to be the true and highest art, it must be the expression of a divine world brought down into this material world.

SRI AUROBINDO

Making of the Gallery Wall Part - 1

Started writing this post on May 1st but posting it today :)

We have a long weekend in this part of the world and I have plans to complete my long pending project.

My DD wanted a gallery wall in her bedroom. She said "Ma,i want one wall of my room to be filled with art". This statement was not made recently but couple of years back. You know time really flies.

Now, I've finally got enough paintings to fill her wall with.

Most of the painting were done by my DD herself..For the past  years during her summer vacation’s I bought her painting by number kits. These kits are fun for children of any age group. 

Wiki has answer for everything J 
As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_by_number Paint by number (or painting by numbers) describes kits having a board on which light blue or gray lines indicate areas to paint, each area having a number and a corresponding numbered paint to use. The kits were invented, developed and marketed in 1950 by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan and Dan Robbins, a commercial artist.

The kits come with different skill levels based on the age group. I strongly advise people to try these kits. There are many online sites selling these kits.

"Paint Radiant Realism in Watercolor, Ink & Colored Pencil" by Sueellen Ross is beautiful book.
Sueellen Ross achieves realism in her paintings by following the principal of painting by maps or areas the painting by number kits use. She does not have a dedicated site but you can find many of her paintings online. Her pet paintings are photo realistic J  Do check them

The painting by number kits are not closer to what Ross achieves in her paintings but worth the try.

Suellen Ross Cat Painting

Flower Power Tuesday's - Lotus

Avatar

An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.

THE MOTHER

The word Avatara means a descent; it is a coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.

SRI AUROBINDO

Avatar - the Supreme Manifested in a Body upon Earth

The pink lotus is the flower of Sri Aurobindo. Nelumbo nucifera, Sacred lotus, East Indian lotus.

Home Tour - Art Dealer Sharan Apparao’s Home

First home tour I have picked for you is of Art dealer Sharan Apparao’s home in Chennai.  

Sharan Apparao’s residence at Chennai is her own private gallery, a move able feast that she shares with her friends. See more at: http://www.insideoutside.in/inside-outside/issue-magazine/2394/colour-vibrant#sthash.dmA7O0kZ.dpuf

Images are  Via

Flower Power Tuesday's - Madagascar periwinkle

Progress :

Progress is  represented by Madagascar Periwinkle(Vinca)

Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.

THE MOTHER

It is especially the will for progress and self-purification that lights the fire. The will for progress. When those who have a strong will turn it towards spiritual progress and purification, they automatically light the fire within themselves.

THE MOTHER

Progress 
This is why we are on earth.

Add caption

Swing in SK house

I have a fascination for swings. My early childhood memories are of those of my aunt’s ancestral home with a central courtyard and a swing, an afternoon nap on that swing is a bliss which has stayed ever green in my memory.

A central courtyard and a swing are two things I always wanted in my house. Chances of having a Central courtyard looks like a distant dream so I had to settle just for the swing. L

For swings which are suspended from the roof, the hooks should be put in right at the time of construction at least that is what my understanding is; if we miss that phase it is not easy to add the hooks. In my first home I missed the construction phase so I was not able to have the swing but I did not miss the opportunity when we bought our second home (an apartment). While the roof was being laid I made sure I had couple of hooks. In fact our building contractor commented that I was having too many swing hooksL. He does not know that having a swing was my lifelong dream J

Now comes the most interesting part to get the swing plank. I made several visits to antique stores and couple of other places but I wasn't satisfied.

I and my Sister had single cots during our childhood days at my parents place. It was made of rosewood. I had a bright idea to convert that single cot into a swing. I had to just remove the legs and add the rings. I asked my father if I could take the single cots as they were not using it and he readily agreed (How could he say no :p).  Finally, my lifelong dream (repeating word!!) to have a swing was fulfilled.

So yeah, may I present you *drum roll*

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MY SWING  :D

Flower Power Tuesday's

I will be posting regularly on flower power . If you have a particular flower which you want me to post..let me know in the comments :)

No one can describe a flower better than "The Mother".

This week's flower is  Tagetes/ Marigold which signifies "Plasticity". 

That which can easily change its form is "plastic". Figuratively, it is suppleness, the capacity to adapt to circumstances or necessities. When I ask you to be plastic in relation to the Divine, I mean not to resist the Divine with the rigidity of preconceived ideas and fixed principles.

THE MOTHER

The physical being and physical consciousness must be very plastic to be able to lend themselves to all the necessary changes, so as to be one way one day, another way the next, and so on.

THE MOTHER

Overgrown Indoor Plants

Plants are integral part of my life. Plants are the first thing I see after I wake up and the last thing I see before I go to bed. I do not have a big garden but my balcony is big enough to pursue my passion for plants.
While on my way to work or during travel I (un)consciously note many facts about various plants. As my plants are in containers I am in a constant pursuit to know how long they would sustain in the same container and how they would look as they age. The below picture caught my eye today ..Don't you think the Split Leaf Philodendron is beautiful? Overgrown in a teal container.

Via