Ah the peace of village life

I've been in Bhuj two days and it makes a nice change from hectic Ahmedabad. Although its quite busy, its small, easy to get around

and my hotel is in the old town not close to any main roads - not that this makes it that much quieter. There's a constant tooting of horns from rickshaws and motor bikes which seem to be

infesting the city. Every road looks like the hell angels have parked all the way down it or there's a constant motor bike rally.

Its much busier than when I was last here. More hotels have opened too and the crafts industry seems to be booming with more and more shops and galleries opening selling the work of the villages all over Kutch. The tourism is realising the attraction that the local crafts have all over the world and are beginning to promote this to give Bhuj a more prominent position on the tourist map.

I was lucky to visit Kala Raksha yesterday in Sumrasar village where I worked for 6 weeks 2 years ago. I managed to catch Judy before the classes at th

e Vidyalaya (design school for artisans) start on Monday. I wandered round the village and met up with some old friends. I drank far too much chai as every house insisted on feeding it me.

It was nice to see the artisans who were studying at the design

school when I was last here, have now graduated and are producing some really nice work. Ramjibhai, a weaver when I saw him last was producing woven pieces that were good quality but too plain and uninteresting for

the current market. He's now experimenting with texture and colour and producing some lovely contemporary pieces.

One of the much older artisans Meghiben now also works with patchwork. She used to embroider but she no longer has good enough eye sight for looking at the fine details. She has won many awards and has had her work published in magazines and books with the help of Judy and Kala Raksha. Shes' quite a character and when I saw her gave me lots of pats and hugs and showed me all her work and articles published about it with much pride. Currently narrative work is the

trend for the patchwork artisans and Meghiben's most celebrated piece is the story of her life. Shes' also rece

ntly done a piece narrating Ghandiji's life. An animation film has recently been made of these pieces which I was given so can't wait to watch!
The co-founder Prakashbhai' s family live next door to KR and Raniben Prakash's mother also does patchwork. She showed me a narative piece which is telling the story of her trip to Australia for an exhibition there. Also a lively character she remembered me as 'girl from the rann' as I stayed with the family in amud bhunga during a desert festival showcasing the crafts of Kutch called 'Rann Ustav'

So after enjoying some peace and quite and the slowness of village life it was back to Bhuj and I had the pleasure of having dinner with Judy to top off the day nicely!

I have finally had the time to get some drawing done today, looking a lot at patterns in architecture. The Aina Mahal and Prag Mahal are two amazing palaces near by. A lot of the area is filled with rubble since the earthquake, but the beautiful carvings and shapes survived and provide much inspiration.

With these drawings I plan to produce some designs for blocks which I hope to get made while I' here so I can start printing when I get home. Tomorrow I visit Ajrakpur where I'll meet some of the ajrakh block printers and document the process.

Watch a video about the story of Kala Raksha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3QD8_JHCpg&feature=related