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.

Setting up Shop - Products

The last couple of months and the past few weeks especially have seen me do a more than average share of new designs and samples. My focus was to have my shop opened and well stocked by the Navratri in early October. The Navratri came and went by and it has been three weeks since then and I am still not done, but am pretty close.

It is a challenge to do everything you have to do to get started selling online, and I have to admit that I do struggle at a few things. I had not planned on doing any gadget cases a few months ago but when I see the market for them I have certainly had to have a second look and do a few designs. Designing the case was the easy part, but doing the loop or the closing mechanism was where I had no clear direction.

A few different designs I cut out

I drew  lot and cut out about 10 different combinations in paper and a few in leather to see what works and what does not. I finally picked up two from the batch and made a complete finished sample with them. Somehow I was not fully happy with the loop as I thought that they were adding a lot of bulk to a clean simple design; so I made a case with a simple snap button that keeps the look very clean and minimalist.

One case with three different closing styles

Setting Up Shop - Pictures

Opening my online shop has now taken way longer than even what I could have imagined in my dreams. It has been a very slow ride with a lot of learning in the process, every thing has to be thought out and executed with care. In my case I have been doing a lot of things a few times over to get them right.

A couple of days ago I started photographing some of the products that I have made in the past month or so, and getting the pictures just right has been a big challenge and I will still call it a work in progress. Although I have taken three rounds already, every time I shoot some pictures I see them and realize what mistakes I have done and what can I do to make them better.

Take two

For my very first attempt I just used a bed cover as the back drop and the background in the pictures ended up being very grainy. I tried a couple of different sheets but it was far from anything even average. Eventually I bought a special fabric curtain that photographers use from a wholesale photo goods shop in Chandni Chowk. It is a fairly big piece of fabric without any seams to join it and is fairly light, I believe it is some sort of a synthetic material.

Take Three

I used the curtain over the bed cover so that the background comes as a solid white, but I used it during the day and the colors on some of the pictures came out to be brighter than they actually are. I learnt that the the day time sun is not ideal light to get true colours, so I did the whole exercise again at about 7 am to catch the early morning light. The colours came out to be much better, but looking at my pictures I know I have a lot to learn and a long way to go.

Festive season in India

The month of September/October corresponding to the month of ‘Ashwin” according to Hindu Calendar holds significant importance in Indian culture as almost all major festivals are observed in this period. Hindus observe a 10 day ceremony of fast, rituals, celebrations, fiests to honor the mother Goddess and triumph of Lord Rama over Demon Ravana, this 10 day period is known as Navratri.

This celebration starts with prayers, fasting, dancing and ends with the festival of  Dussehra. Navratri and Dussehra is celebrated throughout the country at the same time, with varying rituals, but with great enthusiasm and energy as it marks the end of scorching summer and the start of winter season.
The tenth day after Navratri is called Dussehra it is also called Vijaydashami, on which a number of fairs are organized throughout India,  which culminate with burning effigies of Ravana. The day marks the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana.


Ravana with his 10 heads

A lot of local traditions and crafts have been a part of the culture for centuries. The biggest fascination for kids are the effigies of Ravana and his siblings, the burning of the effigies symbolizing the victory of good over evil.

Ravana and his siblings take a truck ride in Delhi

Setting Up Shop

My online shop has been in the works for months now, I did not want to just start it without having all the pieces in place first - but it has taken me way longer to have things in place and organised. If I had not broken my wrist earlier in the year then things would have been way different, but I had to take up tasks that I had not planned for initially.

Anyhow, all that is past now and I have been able to complete my Etsy shop though I do not have anything available in it right now. Working on all the aspects of it, specially the policies took a while to complete. I am almost done with everything and it seems alright for now, any kinks I will have to sort out as I move forward.

I did take the help of a few resources while I wrote down the details; some specific ones are Handmadeology, Life, Craftiness and Everything Else and there was another blog from an Etsy seller which had very detailed and relevant information. I do not have the link or search for it right now, but this lady makes amazing suede moccasins and is a full time photographer, I will keep on searching and post a link to her blog.

I have not stopped Blogging

It is not that I have stopped blogging, but I have been terrible at updating this blog; though I have so much that I want to talk about - There is so much happening with new designs and new materials.

When I straited this blog I never thought that sometimes I will not even have a post for a complete month - and that is exactly the case today. I am getting on here after a hiatus of 30 days. Initially I could not blog as my computer gave way, and it took abut 10 days to have it repaired. After that I just kept on thinking I will do it tomorrow and that tomorrow never came till a whole month went by.

Lazy at blogging - that's me

I had planned to start selling my wares online by this time, but then last month I decided that I should concentrate on doing a few more designs before I get on with the selling part, it is better to start something the correct way a little late than something not perfectly correct right away. I am working from morning to evening these days so that I can have it started during the Navratri considered to be the most auspicious days here in India - though I am running late but I still might be able to catch up; at least I am trying.

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.

The Treasures of Delhi

There are not many cities in the world that have a lineage like Delhi. As I have mentioned in some of my previous posts there is not a thing in the world that is difficult to find here. All you have to do is go in the back lanes of the old city and ask shopkeepers related to the trade and most often they will point you to the right place or tell you where to hunt and whom to ask.

Since I had got some woven labels done for branding my products, I was hunting for metallic letters that I could use to stamp my name onto the rubber tubes and other materials. I went to a part of old Delhi  called Chawri Bazar, it is famous for printing and related stuff and after about half an hour I got to a place where I could purchase what I was looking for.

This shop is full of history all over and has been running as is since the last 70 or so years, though with the advent of computers it is way past its prime but there is just so much to seep in from the past and think what it must be in its hay days. I'll leave the details of the history for a later post and let these pictures do the talking for now.

This gentleman runs the show now

Pictures of two earlier generations on the wall (towards left)

Different fonts and alphabets

They have been sitting in these drawers since decades

A closer look

All these racks date back to pre-independence India

Hidden surprise

After I finished washing and cleaning the inner tyre tubes yesterday, I just let them stand on the terrace to drip and dry out. They did not take a long time to dry out even in such humid conditions, I'd say about 30 minutes or so, I bet in the Dry summer heat of Delhi it would have been no more than 5.

I decided to cut one of the tubes on the terrace itself rather than my work table as I knew some of the tubes had a hole or two and all of them had a big cut where the air valve once existed, and water certainly went inside from some of these cuts. I did not want to cut them and see the water dripping inside the house.

Cutting through the inner seam

Cutting it across, to make small manageable pieces

Once I cut the tube to manageable pieces, I was in for a big surprise. The inner surface wall of the tubes was not as smooth as the outer surface and it had a white powdery thing sticking to it. I tried cleaning it with a damp cloth, but the powdery surface just repelled the water away just like an oiled surface would do.

Powdery surprise all over the inner surface

The pieces on the right in the picture above have been cleaned with a damp cloth, but they are still not totally free of the white powder. To get them perfectly clean I had to wash them again, just like I had the outer surface earlier. The smaller manageable pieces made the task a little easier than washing the whole tube as it is fairly heavy, and going forward I will first cut the tube into smaller pieces and then wash the pieces rather than the heavy tube.

Clear of everything now :)