my logbook for the trip:)

finishing off half day

Today i suddenly found out that it would be my last half day as the next three days are off for Moharam- a very big festival for everyone there. So i spent the day finishing of some the products making sure that i left , templates and sizes for the products.

pencil case

the design i made with applique can be substituted with the applique patterns that the women already do.

flowers made out of corn husk with some of the village children

A small jewellery box or container

Day 8

My suppper entertaining vanoramaamma shows me how one should never be sad and should always smile!

We started the day with revising our system of production and final recipe for the papier mache containers. This time i got my kannada lingo right and we wrote the recipe down in kannada for the women.

we soaked dried rice grass for two hours and then ground it slightly for 5 minutes. To this we added the three handfuls of paper pulp and two spoons of methi powder.

This seemed perfect! To create larger containers we patted this pulp onto a bottle and kept it out to dry. By evening this had nearly dried.

a possible material for lighting...

Day 7

Today was the day to go to gangavati to get the Lamp holders made and to get a mould for the new size of the packaging bowl. The bowl we didnt find, but after a lot of patients and time Varalaxmi and i managed to get the holders made to the sizes we wanted. The biggest problem that the workshop has faced in the past is getting a consistency in the products. so i told him to cut pieces of wire in the size we need and then circle them around a pipe of the correct size.

Meanwhile i had also begun ideating some products using the waste coconut shells that were lying around in the workshop. I found a workshop with a fine cutter and got them to make two handles from coconut for me.

cost: labour 35 rupees. cost of rope 15 rupees. The cutting can finally be done in the workshop at Anegundi itself. I got the machine repaired at the workshop.

sunday:

plan: take a break. Go to Hampi, then Shamas house. Do some activities with the children of Anegundi who come there.

After talking with shama i realized that the bowls we had made for the sante would be fine, however we need to create some larger ones for parceling larger quantities of food. Here cost wouldn't be too much of an hassle, as she plans to charge a small amount for packaging.

Jenny's shop placed an initial order for 20 of the lamps that i had made, so before i left i would have to create a system for the production of those. Having made two with the women at the tailoring unit i felt it wouldn't be too difficult.

We decided earlier that the belts we would give the trainees to make at Kamalapur. Today i learnt that these were nearly ready.

The pencil cases too had been given to the women at kamalapur. Since they were working with crochet, we thought that we could try a sample completely in crochet. The design too would be made in crochet. However i felt this wasn't very successful, and infect the woman to crocheted the case said the same reason for it not working as i had in mind- it was too bulky and not attractive enough. We felt it was good to stick to using the woven sample or to try another sample with a more spaced out crochet pattern.