My Absence! My Return! - II

It has been a bit busy around here since I posted the Part - I of this post. I had planned to post the second part within a day but I am getting back to Part - II after more than two weeks. I am still struggling to organise myself and be a little regular in posting on my blog and communicating with my customers - trust me I am trying.

Being away from work the whole of January and February was a challenge but I was determined to find out more about the traditional leathers I had in mind since the last couple of years. In fact I had tried to find out more about them but it lead me to nowhere - now I know the best way is to get out there and try your best and things will slowly come out in the clear and you will get answers to your questions.

During my journey I met some great and some not so great folks, and have formed some friendships and business relationships during this time. I am so grateful to all those people who were patient enough to listen to me and did everything the could to point me in the right direction. I finally  met a gentleman Durga, who's family has been doing this for generations and he was so kind to share all his knowledge with me, and in a couple of days I learnt so much from him - probably what would have taken me forever on my own with trail and error projects.

I came back to Delhi with a couple of different goat skins that Durga was kind enough to sell to me; I started working with them on a couple of different designs. I made a few errors and was stuck a few time but Durga was always a phone call away and always more than willing to help and see me move forward - it is very rare to see this kind of people in India these days.

I was finally able to get a regular lot of the leather and the second part of doing, perfecting and finishing a few designs and have them listed in my shop took another month and I was only to do this by mid April. My absence has been long but I have been able to accomplish what I had in mind and return back with what I had wanted is a great feeling. It is still a work in progress and I am working on a few more designs and different sizes for the designs that I already have.

My Absence! My Return! - I

Well this is not the first time I have been away from this blog for weeks - it has happened a couple of times in the past 15 odd months (since I have this blog). The first time it happened I had fractured my wrist and was away from a whole lot of daily worldly activities for almost a month. The second time, it was sheer procrastination, I was waiting for the tomorrow, which we all know never comes.

The last I updated this blog was on 7th November of 2011, that is a whooping 162 days ago (if I have my maths right). I have been absent for a host of reasons; First after I opened my shop in October things were really slow and so was the money and I kept on doing small projects just to keep my everyday life rolling and committed myself to work on them till December. Suddenly in late November early December it just picked up in a flash and I had orders coming in on a daily basis. I did not know or expect this kind of a rush as I had no experience with shopping patterns for Christmas. I had to say No to a few buyers who wanted to know if I could ship it immediately, had I known or researched earlier I could have made some bags and kept them ready for the busy season.

I had been working almost 16-18 hour days right till the 30th of December, I am not complaining of the long hours - it is good to be busy but the stress of sending orders out in a timely manner gets to you specially when buyers start asking and you know that you are behind. Had I not committed myself for these other side projects I would have been able to do more for my shop and also make more money for myself than what I got working half of the time for someone else. I have learnt my lesson and will be ready for Holidays 2012 well in advance.

In early January I closed my shop as I wanted to change my direction a little and concentrate on learning certain thing I did not know. I wanted to start using a traditionally tanned goat leather that has a real vintage look and is processes in the small towns in the northwest of the country. I set out and travelled to a few towns to learn more about it and find suppliers as this is not a commercial product and regular shops do not carry it.

It proved to much tougher to find out everything about it, initially I had planned to be away for 2-3 weeks researching and learning but it took me almost 6 weeks to find out some of the things that I had set out for. I now know how easy life is with the Internet what took me 6 weeks can be done in a few hours, but I had to spend that time as there is nothing much documented about this leather and there are very few people who would share there knowledge with a stranger. Luckily I found some strangers who took me under there wings and now I know way more than what I had set to learn.

New Machine - Thank you Everyone

I have never owned a high end industrial sewing machine, the one I have is a domestically manufactured machine and it works just fine with stitching leather or fabric. I had been struggling to sew thick layers of leather and inner tubes on my machine and it was a hit and miss. Sometimes it would sew just fine and the other times it created problems, and I certainly did waste a lot of time with it.

They did not go for a cheaper Chinese brand but this Korean machine

This holiday season my wife n family got together and contributed money to get me a new Industrial sewing machine, and that too a walking foot. I am so happy and blessed that folks around me are thinking about me and they have put in a big chunk of money to equip my studio with proper equipment and tools. Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart.



Nice and clean - just out of the box



High capacity motor n walking foot mechanism

I did give it a short try once it was set up and it just zipped through four layers of thick hard leather like a hot knife slicing butter.



First Sale :)

Making your first sale is definitely a bit tricky when you’re the new seller on the block, selling lemonade — next to a hundred other lemonade sellers. Your chances of getting noticed? One out of a hundred. This is the typical scenario that most newbie online sellers like me.

Fortunately someone did notice my products and I had my first online sale toady - that is about 10 days from when I had the products listed in my shop. It just felt great at that moment and I am still feeling giddy, I believe it will take a day or two to totally sink in.

I am now more confident about my designs and the design direction I want to go in. I know it is just  ONE sale but it has really helped me with my confidence and I feel so positive right now. I know nothing comes on a platter and I have had my share of struggles and ups n downs since I decided to go this way about 9 months ago. It has taken me longer, and I for sure am way late but I am not out and am still in the race and I plan on running even harder now.

Thank you for trusting me and my work.

Diwali - Festival of Lights

Traditional earthen diwali diyas

Diwali is the biggest festival of India, much like Christmas in the west. On this auspicious day, people light up diyas and candles all around their house. They perform Laxmi Puja in the evening and seek divine blessings of Goddess of Wealth. The festival of Diwali is never complete without exchange of gifts, diwali gifts are presented to all near and dear ones and the unprivileged.

People lighting candles at a Gurudwara

The exact day of the festival is decided by the position of the moon. According to the Hindu calendar, Amavasya or 'no moon day' is considered as the perfect day to celebrate Diwali. This dark night comes after every fortnight and in the month of Kartik, it marks this festival of lights and diyas. As per the English calendar, the festival generally comes in the month of October and November. For all Hindus, the festival holds an imperative meaning since the festival is reckoned with Lord Rama's victory as the King of Ayodhya after his return to the kingdom from 14 years of exile along with his wife Sita & brother Laxman after killing the demon, King Ravana. Diwali is celebrated by lighting diyas and candles to drive away the darkness of Amavasya.

The festival is celebrated for five continuous days, where the third days is celebrated as the main Diwali festival or festival of lights. Bazaar's are decorated and entire streets and neighbourhoods are lit up. This diwali eve I happened to walk through the humongous crowds doing shopping in the by lanes of old Delhi. Here's is a sample of some of the sights, wish I could add the sounds and smell too.

Bazaar in Old Delhi

Idols at a roadside stall

Fresh marigolds

Jewelery shop lit up

Mithai - traditional Indian sweets

Setting up shop - Done

The last couple of weeks have been like mad, there is just way too much happening all around me. I had completed some designs and fine tuned them and was now all ready to get them in my shop and start selling. Suddenly the studio space thing came up and I just went for it and left everything asides for a few days.

Besides all this happening at my end there is a lot more happening at home as this is the festival season here in India. You are supposed to shop for everyone, visit friends and entertain a lot of friends, family and other folks who visit you to wish you for the holidays. I have simply not had the time for everything this year and I know for sure that some folks are not really happy with me - I hope I have some free time going forward and make up for the lack of hospitality that I have shown in these past few days.

I was finally able to open my Etsy shop earlier today, I started with just one iPad sleeve and I hope to add a few items in the next couple of days. It has been a long road to come to this point, though it has taken me way longer than what I had planned but I am really excited and happy to see a product in my shop.

New Studio Space - WOOOHAA

This had been in the works for the past few weeks, and I finally managed to find a small space not too far away from my house, where I can work out off and set up shop. This space just came up and I grabbed it immediately as it is not far from home, is not the top most floor (they heat up like an oven in the summers) and has ample natural light.

Real estate in Delhi is expensive and when I say expensive I mean really expensive. A small artist can not just afford any kind of a commercial space as the growing economy has got up the rents to levels that an individual just can not afford. The only option for a lot of people like me are the Lal Dora areas of Delhi.

The term `Lal Dora’ was first coined in the early 1900s during the Raj. In 1908, land was consolidated by the then revenue officials and maps made. In Delhi area, there were 365 villages. On each village map, officials marked in red the area where the villagers had their homes. The area within the red line was residential and the land outside that zone was agricultural. It was from this red line that the term Lal(red in Hindi), Dora (thread in Hindi) originated.

In 1961, when the Delhi Development Authority acquired land for development, it was decided that the villages would not be disturbed. So, while agricultural land was acquired, the lal dora land remained intact. Over the years, many villages were urbanised - of the initial 365, a little over 200 remained rural - but the lal dora rules apply to both urban and rural villages.

One of the most prominent Lal Dora areas in Delhi is Hauz Khas Village. There are a lot of art galleries, restaurants, high end designers and other creative folk based there. A few independent designers came and set up shop here decades ago for its cheap rent and the quite vibe, these days Hauz Khas Village is a commercial hotbed with real estate prices going up to a million US dollars for about 2000 square foot of built up space. Hauz Khas is now featured as a destination in Delhi on most travel books including Lonely Planet, Fodor's and a host of other travel guides and websites.

Hauz Khas Village

I am so excited to finally have a place of my own; I guess folks at home are way more excited than me to know that they will get there living  and storage space back and all my junk will be out of sight.