make it new again

Namaste my friends!
We have just spent some time in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. This is the city I visited in January for the open elective textiles course at National Institute of Design (NID), India. This time round I attended a conference called "Make It New Again: Models for Innovation in Traditional Craft" run by the SANGAM Australia India Design Platform and hosted by NID. The conference ran for 3 days from the 22nd of November and I met lots of new and inspiring people. To give you an idea of what the conference was about, discussions were based around the ways in which craft fits into the contemporary world, how to keep innovation and creativity alive in the craft sector in the face of an increasingly industrialized world, and determining a proposal for 'best practise' in pursuing a collaboration between designer and artisan across the global divide between India and Australia. Some fantastic presentations were given and some thoughtful discussions around building confidence in artisans, raising the perceived value in craft, establishing an understanding and respect for culture, tradition and religion, how to develop a sustainable model of income generation, allowing scope for creativity and input from the artisan, along with proper attribution and copyright of designing and making.

A lot to fit into 3 days! Especially with 1 day full of roundtable discussions.
Here is what I got from the discussions, (essentially my summary) and how I would move forward:

Respect and Consent: Build an understanding of one anothers societies, cultures, traditions and beliefs. Talk about where your identity comes from and the cultural ties that contribute to your sense of belonging. Develop a mutual respect for one another. Spend time. Build trust.

Transparency: Make sure both parties receive fair wages, explain all the extra costs in distributing and marketing a product, make sure both parties are clear on the information they want conveyed to the public and that both understand that ownership and copyright is key to the sustainability of both parties' business and income. What is the target market you are appealling to? How do you manage the target market's expectations?

Confidence building: Transfer of skills, knowledge, technology, developing an appropriate set of tools and equipment, training and building self belief and dignity in the craft.

Longevity: Make an agreement on the scope of the project. Is this a long term partnership or are both parties clear that it is seasonal? Often cultures have a vastly different sense of time. Expectations might vary. Clearly lay out the expectations held by each party, what is an achievable negotiation?

Ownership agreement: Decide on the amount of creative input from both parties, establish how flexible interpretation will be, agree on ownership/copyright, does one person have copyright or is it a joint venture? If the relationship breaks down, what will happen to the project?

Considerations:  Traditions ~If you are revitalising an old tradition, what needs to be maintained and what is allowed to be changed? Where has the tradition been in it's past? How has it changed and what might it have been influenced by? Culture ~Is there an element to the process that is sacred to a particular culture? Is the retelling of these stories appropriate to those that are a part of the culture? Religion ~ Is there a form of this craft that is too inherent in a belief system to be changed?

Communication: How will the collaboration function? What will each party contribute? What are the channels of communication you will use?

Sustainability: Work towards sustainability for both people and environment. What are the ingredients or materials needed for your project and how can you tailor this to make it more sustainable for the environment and healthier for people? How can you minimise transport?

Attribution: Allow an opportunity for identification of artisan and designer. Are there models of labeling you could draw from? How might the story be conveyed? Will you be identified by name? group? region? country? What is appropriate for each party?

Impact mapping: Quantative and qualitative assessments on how this endeavour has impacted on people, place and community. How could this be improved?

I realise there is a lot that this summary doesn't cover but I would appreciate any comments on additional I could use.

This time quite a wordy post and not many photos, I suppose that's just a reflection of how my time has been spent lately!


Some people I met:
(Left out last names if their last name wasn't public)

Alexa ~www.seekingindia.wordpress.com (which gives a much better summary of what the symposium actually consisted of)

Minna Loft ~http://northcity4.com/2012/11/artist-interview-minna-loft/ (Love the thinking behind her work and we made such great friends! <3)

Sutopa Parrab ~www.tribal-chic.com (This isn't the first time I have met Sutopa but it was lovely to meet again and I'm hoping to visit her studio in Jaipur while I am here!)

Renu Mittal ~http://in.linkedin.com/pub/renu-mittal/b/b32/216 (Renu runs Cotton Route and has trained several groups of female artisans to sustain their own business)

Matthew Butler ~www.matthewbutler.com (Matthew is developing some fair trade ranges!)

George Hiley ~www.theshopforchange.com (Check this website out! George gave a great presentation on how this platform can be used)

Jenuarrie ~http://thegalleryeumundi.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7_12 (Jenuarrie gave a fantastic presentation on her work in Australia)

Medhavi ~www.happyhands.in (I am excited to come and visit happy hands in Delhi! Medhavi was a great contributor to many discussions)

Lucy Simpson ~www.gaawaamiyay.com (This is also not the first time I met Lucy but lovely to see her in India and an honour to exhibit with her. Lucy is also a graduate of COFA and has had great success with her textiles design business Gaawaa Miyay)

There are plenty more people that are well worth mentioning. These contacts are simply the ones I established good connections with and have information about =).
Kim
 

first 10 days

This last week has been full on!!! We've seen so much and been so many places.

[Please note, for friends and family I've created a website to post regular and more detailed updates!!
Go to artisansadvocate.wix.com/indianadventure for a closer look at day to day activities]

First two days were spent finding our feet, getting settled in and finding accommodation options.
We started sightseeing on day 3, Dilli Haat food and craft bazaare, Safdarjung's tomb and Lodhi gardens.
Day 4 was my first day at MESH. Lots of exciting things ahead! The three main things I'll be working on are a) two 5 day workshops with artisans to develop labels, presentations and images of their work so that they can market themselves locally. b) A weave project developing products for three artisan groups that have many weavers but need more product ideas. c) Developing a uniform range that is fair trade right from the fields the cotton is farmed in, through to the spinning and weaving and finally to the tailoring in Bethany Leprosy Colony which is one of MESH's suppliers.
Day 5 brought us much more than we expected. We planned to meet a friend of a friend of a friend -Koko, and we ended up seeing India gate, Humayan's tomb, parliament house, president's quarters, coffee with Koko then a textile and craft bazaare. So exhausted.
On day 6 we went to Koko's church where there were some visiting Texan pastors. We also met Jen from Aus - a friend of one of my uni friends! Koko and Jen showed us the tibetan colony where we will probably be staying when we get back from Ahmedabad. We then caught the metro down to Qutub Minar, a muslim tower next to a mosque.
Day 7 was spent at MESH studio where I kept myself busy until Linnea, a swedish intern gave us a presentation on the environmental impact of silk scarf making in Bihar.
On day 8 we had plans to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal but we have been ill ever since, and have spent the time recovering in the guesthouse. There goes day 9 and day 10. Nice to hear from family! Tomorrow we head off on a four day tour through Rajasthan down to Ahmedabad for the SANGAM conference at NID!

Dilli Haat

Safdarjung's Tomb

Qutub Minar

indian excitement

It's decided, we're going to India! After a period of patience, my internship with MESH design studio has been confirmed and our tickets are booked. My husband Matt and I are going to be in India for four months from the 6th of November until the 4th of March. We're very thrilled about all the opportunities that keep coming our way and thank God for all the amazing ways He is blessing us, clearly He has had these plans long before we discovered them. 

I am going to be designing products for MESH (Maximising Employment to Serve the Handicapped) and working with artisan groups to develop labels in Delhi and South India. Matt will be filming a short educational documentary about fair trade! Our good friend Anna has been instrumental in organising this internship and we are so keen to be working with her on these projects and touring South India with her and OP. Also crucial has been my communications with Jacky from MESH who will most likely be my supervisor.

Fair trade has been a passion of mine for quite some time now and through my journey with Jesus I have been developing aspirations to work with artisans to gain a sustainable income. It is my desire that I am able to establish relationships of equality with others and love everyone I meet with the love of Jesus. It is because of Him I am pursuing this direction, because of His work in the world and His work in me. Let that not be underestimated.

A bit of henna fun with my best friend Just

red dirt

Today was so much fun! Today was the photoshoot for my major project, 'Advocate for the Artisans'. Thankyou to my great friends Bethany Tara (photographer) and Rachel (makeup artist) for all their wonderful skills and to my beautiful sister Courtney who modeled - you look amazing and you were so open to do whatever I needed, you're the best!

Bell pendants/tags designed and made by Kimberley Reh

Photographed by Bethany Tara
Make up by Rachel Austin
Modeled by Courtney Leech

The weather did not look so good until Courtnie braved the cold and rain in shorts and a tshirt... and then the sun came out! The shoot was at a semi-construction location where they had dumped all this red dirt - we even had a local stop by to ask why we were doing it "here of all places!". The first time I drove by I immediately thought - this is where the photo shoot must be. The red dirt brought me back to the rural villages of Bhuj, Gujarat, India. It is the only place I have seen lately that reminds me of being in India. I am so glad at how today has turned out. The weather, the dirt, the people, the colours, the look. Love it.
The shots look amazing, I am so thrilled with them! They are exactly what I wanted and more! The jewellery bells are the focus and I got more shots than I needed! Thankyou B! You did a wonderful job of directing and as always, your photos are stunning!!! And most of all, we had fun!

major project

At the moment I am in the middle of my fourth year of a Bachelor of Design at COFA (UNSW). For the last four months I have devoted most of my time into the fourth year major project.

I designed and modeled a labeling system that combines jewellery and textiles to create a wearable tag. The objective of the project was to provide more information to consumers about the artisans and production behind handmade indian products. These are some photos that I took of the process and end product. You can read more about what the project was about at the Advocate for the Artisans website.

Natural dye testing with Logwood on wool yarns.

Natural Dye testing with Lac.

As well as using these tests for my major project I was able to utilize these threads in my weaving project, more about that later.

A screen print test, experimenting with different typefaces and how clearly they would print. These pictures are of the exposed screen held up in the light. I screen printed a lightly coloured resist paste on a lightly coloured fabric so that I could dye the fabric after it was screen printed. Unfortunately, the resist paste came out a lot in the dyeing process so the test results didn't produce any nice photos but I will post the results up later.

The first soldering stage in producing my bells. I was so pleased to discover that tenacity flux helped me solder much more quickly and easily than borax flux. While my tests took a few days for me to solder properly with borax, these took me an afternoon!

One of my bells bound before the cap is soldered on.

My pretty pods! I was thrilled with such a raw and colourful finish.

The finished products.

These are models for how the labeling system would work.

The final presentation.

work experience

with Kristen Doran

Hi there! My name is Kimberley Reh, this is my first blog! I am on work experience with Kristen Doran this week and this is a post she asked me to make on her blog -Kristen Doran Blog.

We've been preparing for the 'Sew' craft retreat Kristen is running in August. Today we decorated a whole heap of jars to decorate the tables.

This idea is all thanks to Chiara Alberetti Milott's 'Paint-dipped Baby Food Jars DIY'on the Oh Happy Day blog.

Here's how to DIY...

First, you'll need: clean jars, water-based paint, wax paper, shallow bowl, (I also found it useful to use a straw or stick to wipe excess paint)

Pour some paint into the bowl (have a look at the images to get an idea of how much paint you need). Spread out some wax paper, making sure that it doesn't get blown about by the wind!

Once you tip the bowl on an angle, dip the edge of the jar in the paint and slowly turn as the paint touches the jar.

There was a lot of excess paint dripping off the jars so we waved them around a bit until the dripping stopped (or alternatively scrape the drips off with a stick or straw).

Put them down right-side up on the wax paper, let them dry for an hour or two.

Once the sides are relatively dry and won't drip, turn the jars upside-down so that the bottom can dry.

VOILA!