Jodhpur - the blue city

The last city on our tour of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, Jodphur boasted the most magnificent of the palaces, Mehranghar Fort. Run by a private company set up by the royal family, it was a very professional set up (think National Trust). No hawkers badgering you to buy tourist rubbish here.

Started around 1460 by Rao Jodha (after whom Jodhpur was named), the fort is situated 410 feet (125 m) above the city and is enclosed by imposing thick walls. 

Most of the current fort was built by Jaswant Singh in the early to mid seventeenth century.

We entered through the Victory gate (Jai Pol) built by Maharaja Man Singh to celebrate his victory in a war with Jaipur. It depicts the wedding procession of Lord Shiva.

The approach is by a steep slope up to the usual huge, elephant-proof doors.

Inside the final gate (Loha Pol) are the handprints of the wives of Man Singh, who threw themselves on his funeral pyre

But look around and you can see swallows' nests on the ceiling, huge oil jars (for making the slope even more slippery), and interesting shapes everywhere 

The palaces inside boast several courtyards with intricate sandstone fretwork panels in the upper levels, each one different to the next. 

These allowed the women to watch proceedings in the courtyard below without being seen themselves.

Here are some views from inside

Right at the top are the Maharaja's private bedroom 

and several other intricately decorated rooms, 

 including the Pearl palace which was a throne room.

There is also a large museum containing intricately decorated silver howdahs (elephant seats),

Royal palanquins (elaborate chairs carried by up to twelve servants in which royalty rode), 

armoury, a large collection of Indian miniature paintings depicting the defeat of the evil Mashishasura by the goddess of power, Durga, and many other artefacts. 

All quite spectacular, but simple things also have beauty

And this is the view of the blue city (the old city) of Jodphur from the courtyard, which is the closest we got to it unfortunately. The walls are painted with indigo to repel mosquitos apparently.

On the way out we saw this bridal party on their way to the temple for a blessing - look at the decoration on her hands

Next was the Jaswant Thada, the Mausoleum of the Maharajas, white marble in the sunlight, the original building in memory of Jaswant Singh II.

The sunlight shines through the six-inch thick marble walls and sets them alight,

whilst the bright offerings left by worshippers add an interesting contrast.

And that was the end of our Rajasthan tour. Next stop Mysore!

The Stitching Project

Day two in Pushkar was quite different to day one. We had arranged to go and visit The Stitching Project in a village just up the road - it's run by Fiona and her husband Praveen, and is a collective employing local people to make ethical clothing. You can look them up here: www.the-stitching-project.com/home

Finding it was interesting because there are no maps or roadsigns, so Shyam drove out of Pushkar, past the nomads selling grass for cows and all sorts of other things, through the desert, 

and in the general direction of the village, asked for directions (probably along the lines of 'do you know an Australian woman who lives near here'), picked up a local man as a guide, and off we went to find the workshop.

We had a warm welcome from Fiona and Praveen, who were happy to chat about the aims of their project, how they got started and what they're up to today. A textile artist, Fiona has set up the workshop to bring work to local women in the village, that can be fitted in around family life, and enables them not to have to look for work further afield.

This lady is a new supervisor, learning the projects so she can work directly with the women working from home, and the blackboard gives the day's schedule.

They source ethically produced fabrics - many are Khadi or homespun fabrics, produced locally on hand looms in 11 metre lengths,

print them using traditional skills but contemporary designs, 

and then make clothing and homewares, using their own fabric and recycled saree silk and cotton. This garment is a cross between a wrap and a waistcoat - it's got armholes so that it doesn't fall off when you move. It has been hand stitched at home by one of their ladies, and this man is finishing the binding.

Much of the hand stitching is outsourced to local women, whilst the block printing, cutting, machine stitching and finishing is done by the end at the workshop. 

Even the coat hangers for shows are decorated with saree silk off-cuts, and the packaging is done in a tiny room. There is stock everywhere, but the men know exactly when to find most things. 

Indigo dyeing in done by a local dyer, 

and blocks are cut to Fiona's designs by another local man. 

He apparently took a lot of convincing to cut what he saw as imperfect blocks for Fiona's designs, which have a lovely hand drawn quality about them. He wanted to line everything up and make perfect squares and circles.

There is also unintentional art to be found on the workroom walls and the drop cloth - oh to have a workroom space like this - I think the key is keeping it uncluttered!

Garments and other products carry a label identifying who made them, and also the CraftMark for kantha stitching.

We spent a happy half an hour looking through the garments for sale and playing dressing up, and inevitably came away with some purchases. This lady is just adding some buttons to my top.

They sell their products through trade fairs, but also through Etsy and their own website - have a look ...

https://www.etsy.com/in-en/shop/TheStitchingProject?ref=hdr_shop_menu

https://www.etsy.com/in-en/shop/TastyOldChooksClothz?ref=hdr_shop_menu 

Our morning ended with a roti making lesson and a shared lunch. 

Having been made very warmly welcome by everyone, we left for the long drive to Jodhpur. The road was interesting because it was not a 'highway'. Instead it ran across open countryside 

through local villages and towns, each one seemed to specialise in a different trade or craft - scrap metal and lorry repair, tyre recycling, quarrying, where trailers were beautifully stacked with stone blocks. 

It was also interesting because it was non-existent in places, with huge potholes and the obligatory speed bumps when you least expected them. They even caught Shyam out at times, and we were very glad it was him driving not us!

Rajasthani crafts - hand embroidery and textile trickery

We went to Rajasthan to see textiles, and we had plenty of opportunity to do just that, with varying degrees of orchestration and hidden agendas.

This guy in Jaipur was apparently a textile designer. He showed us a huge variety of stunning hand stitched textiles and bed covers in traditional styles, clearly made by local women. So far so good. This was a slick operation, obviously geared up to bus loads of tourists, and the real shame was that he claimed all this work as his own designs. His catchphrase 'look my art' has become our go-to phrase for whenever we feel we're being ripped off (with a couple of letter changes - use your imagination!).

In Pushkar we looked in what appeared to be a tiny shop which opened out into a huge cave of a room with a Hindu shrine in the centre, surrounded by textiles. 

The quilt below is Punjabi and probably over 100 years old. It was huge and the simple kantha style stitching really complemented the now faded colours.

All over you see wallhangings made from recycled tribal dresses, the embroidery on which is a lost art form. Indeed, the guy in Jaipur had many of them that he claimed to have designed himself. The young guy in the Pushkar shop brought out several and explained which part of India their embroidery came from.

This yellow one contains canvas work with dense areas of shisha mirrors and could well be from Punjab or Pakistan (but I might have made that up) 

Gold thread work from cuffs and bodices in this one comes from a specific region, but I can't remember which now. These were our favourite, being more subtle than the others and often on a dark blue or green background.

These are traditional Rajasthani embroideries, featuring bright colours and shisha mirrors. The shapes of the collars and yokes can still clearly be seen.

Pieces like this are exported, so often seen in England, and it appears that there is an inexhaustible supply of old costumes with which to make them, although that cannot be true. 

This warehouse in Jodhpur (underneath the hugest junk/antiques shop full of incredibly quirky things) was packed to the ceiling with old and new textiles, mostly for export. Their stash certInly beats ours!

It does seem a shame that this is the fate of such beautiful family textiles, but perhaps they were not seen like that by their owners as progress happened. And India is nothing if not expert at recycling everything, so at least they can be appreciated again.

New work is being created for the export market (designers such as Hermes and Miu Miu, and various Italian houses) in the traditional ways, and the manager of the Jodhpur warehouse showed us this selection of bed covers - those at the bottom in this picture are the traditional work, with commissions from design houses in silk and woven throws above.

This is local embroidery worked in the home and would have taken six months to complete, using designs of elephants, camels, butterflies and pineapples.

These beautiful cut-work covers have organdie backings making them translucent; they'd make great curtains.

Below is Rajasthani embroidery with four layers of cut back appliqué - making it quite heavy

and this is complex canvas work with shisha mirrors, taking twelve months to complete.

A stunning Kashmiri throw commissioned for a European design house.

Perhaps the most amazing thing is that items that we could have purchased for around £100 would sell in Europe, the US or Japan for ten times that price. I think the manager thought that we were buyers, so we didn't disabuse him of that idea, but though sorely tempted we managed to leave without buying anything! That was a first!