Platformtwo

1st stop: Ridley Road Market

Rodrigo & Mario try out Yuri’s japanese

jelly!

2nd stop: Neal’s Yard Cheese factory

3rd stop: Strange turkish bread factory in

Tottenham Hale

4th and final stop: Martino’s place for soup and books

Greetje and me went to visit the marble workshop which was about 30 minutes drive into the south of Jaipur. They had a really nice house there where the family lived with the workshop to the rear of the property.

The men loaded a huge piece of marble onto their lathe and proceeded to turn it into Greetje bowl. I loved his health and safety outfit - a scarf tied round his head to dull out the huge noise and a pair of everyday specs - there were chunks of marble flying everywhere . . . It didn’t take him that long to turn the rough outside shape and then then to extract the middle section of the bowl.
As he turned the bowl we were invited inside the house by the women - it was amazing - everything was made out of marble - including the tv stand and clock.

One of the nicest things about India . . .

We were warmly welcomed to a strangers wedding . . .

Me and Shai were nearly married off to the grooms two brothers. . .

The whole of Jaipurs sky was filled with beautiful paper kites

blackkite_bluesky.MOV

Went to the JVF organised Nahargarh Fort party.

http://www.rajasthantourism.gov.in/destinations/jaipur/jaipursightseeing-nahargarh.htm

The most incredible view of Jaipur at night and lots of outdoor dancing

Mmmm . . .

the morning after the night before curry at 6 am. . .

http://www.jantarmantar.org/

We take a trip to The Jantar Mantar Observatory.

it was built in the 1730’s and includes one of the largest sundials in the world.

****Its amazing!

We experience our first taste of Jaipur market. We go to the hardware section to see what is being bought and sold. They sell some pretty hardcore nails. And crossing the road is a major test in nerves - you just have to cross your fingers, dodge the camels, scooters, trucks and hope you don’t die!

We are shown past work of the Lohar’s - its mainly hardware stuff thats beautifully imperfect.

For the duration of the project 5 Lohar families are moving to the grounds of The Institute to work solely with the students. We are amazed by how little possessions you need to set up home.

We will be working within in 3 different craft disciplines:

Blacksmithing,

stone
and metal beating.

Today we were taken to the Old Town to meet the different craftsmen in their workshops.

Blacksmiths (gadia lohar)
LOHARSIndia1.pdf
The Lohar were originally travelling blacksmithing families. The ones we met in Jaipur though had settled by the roadside in the busy and chaotic city. They work as family units with up to 3 generations living and working together. The young son will turn the bellows to heat the small fire pit as the wife and husband work together heating, beating the metal into shape.

When we visited them they were working on an order of industrial building hooks as well as selling small trinkets they have made to passing tourists.

Stone

We were shown around a large marble workshop where the craftsmen were doing handcarving. Then we saw their showroom - everthing was white! then we enjoyed some chai!

Metal Workers (Thathera)

The Thathera live and work in the same building - working the metal from flat sheets into mainly rounded vessals using copper and brass.