First Inner Tube Bag - DONE

The inner tube bag that was almost done has been finally completed. I know it has taken me way longer to have just one design done, but my teaching assignments have kept me very busy since the last three months. I have been able to save some money over this period and can now concentrate more on developing and selling my work.

I will be teaching one class in the evenings over the next few months and will be working full time on taking leftover studio forward. I just hope I can get closer to where I had envisioned myself at this time of the year when I wrote my business plan about six months ago; at this stage I am no where close.

Here are some pictures of the bag being completed and the final look.

Stitching the inner lining and internal pockets

Aligning the inner and outer sections together

Here it is - FINALLY

Taking Shape

It has been almost a month since I completed the task of cleaning the inner tyre tubes and have not been able to do much ever since. I did draw and cut up a couple of new patters but am yet to try any of them on fabric or other materials. My pattern making teaching assignment has been keeping me busy of late as I am taking classes during the day and evenings too. I decided to take on an additional evening class as I have already prepared the material and the only extra effort is spending the time to teach the physical class. I did not know if I will get a class going forward as some students will return to colleges in September and the enrolment here might just drop. It would also leave me with some much needed buffer cash going forward.

We have had four days of holidays this week on account of Raksha Bandhan, then the weekend and Monday being the Independence Day. I was able to execute one of  my initial designs which I had perfected with the newspaper bag. It took me most of the day to have the body of the bag stitched up, I had to experiment with some pieces of rubber on the sewing machine before starting but I found it easier to stitch than thick leather or hard canvas.

Here are some pictures of the days work and the waste inner tyre tubes taking the shape of something useful.

Cleaned tubes lined up for cutting

Cutting the pattern

More cutting

One side fully cut out

Leather strips to join the pieces

Making a straight edge

Aligning the pieces together

Pasting the leather strips

Sewing the pieces together

Sewing the two sides together

It has almost taken shape now :)

Consumer - IZATION

I get my daily fix of happenings in the world from the BBC News website, the following picture on there series Day in pictures reminded me of my childhood and got me thinking how things are changing everyday and small businesses are disappearing.

Sevian (Vermicelli) being dried in the sun

I remember as a child I used to help my grand mother make fresh sevian, which were then dried out and used to make a traditional pudding specially during the festive season. My grand mother had a hand cranking machine which used to be fixed on a table and she used to run dough through it, and my job used to be to put the soft fresh strands out to dry on the roof top.

It was a simple process but as a child I knew what was going into making some of the food I was eating and how it is made. My grand mother used to be more concerned about the quality of the product and her eye would watch the dough and the drying strands and she just knew from experience when it was ready for the next step.

Food made and touched by hand rather than a machine

Slowly as I was growing up and my grand mother was getting old I saw the transformation from making at home to buying from a local neighbourhood store. Local stores were just around the corner and they typically sold some national brands but a majority of there merchandise was product sourced from local manufacturers who had an expertise on one product. With the advent of television commercials with great pictures and messages started appearing and you slowly forgot about the local brands and wanted the ones you saw on television.

Fresh sevian being sold by a traditional shop

These days no one has the time or patience to try on anything like this at home, and the simple argument against it is how long it is going to take to do it when it is readily available at a store shelf. My eye now knows what is the color of the package of my favourite brand and where I can find it.

Most consumers get there sevian in a package now

Without even realising the transformation in our daily life, my household is now a consumer of a product with a neat package and a bar code from being a manufacturer of the same products a few decades ago.