Artisan Group Feature : Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra

Thanksgiving - a time to express thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation.

As a thank you, we introduce our artisan groups these 10 days before thanksgiving. Let's know a little more about these wonderfully skilled men and women who create such beautiful products with so much of effort... just for us.

Introducing Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra!

products available at TGE

Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra (SKKK) works with Lambani artisans in the Bellary district of Karnataka. Lambanis also known as Banjaras, are a nomadic gypsy tribe, well-known for their exquisite traditional hand-embroidery using various stitches & mirror crafts. Currently, Sandur works with 300 women engaged in embroidery, khadi spinning and weaving. In addition to being paid for the production of each craft product, women artisans that work with Sandur also receives an annual bonus & other benefits such as health and life

insurance.

Coin Pouches

V-Shaped Bag

Bohemian Bag

Sandur has been previously awarded the prestigious ‘UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts in South Asia’. Sandur make unique one off wall hangings, as well as a product range that includes cushions, bolsters, bags & belts.

If you like what you see here... check out more of their products on our website... Shoot us an email-- we have some lovely products coming in from sandur this season. ENjoy today!

Cork It !

Print Party (based in Tel Aviv) is using cork to make it even cooler than it already is!
Baskets and placements printed in white and blue with NICE patterns and words will update any decor! You have got to love it. :)

Lime green coaster set

Shocking pink Flora coasters

Light Blue flora coasters

Snow Forest placemats for your upcoming christmas

A l'ttle about the material: Rubberized Cork
By itself Cork is amazing, it is natural, light, water resistant, flexible, it has great dimensional stability and is a thermal insulator. Remarkably when combined with rubber we get strength and flexibility of the polymer plus the property of cork. This unique combination has a never-ending potential of applications.
Rubberized Cork Sheets have a deformity of less than 0.1% and the physical stability of the products is excellent. They do not swell, have high tensile strengths and are resistance to the temperature as high as 110 degree Celsius, so it is the perfect material to be made in to kitchen and table ware, and as we found out can be cut into patterns and sewn into three dimensional objects.
The material is pleasant to the touch, and comes only in a combination of light brown (the cork) and black (the rubber) .it is hand printed in a variety of designs and colors, single pull silk-screen is being used to apply water base colors on to the surface.

Pair of "nice" baskets

Snow forest basket

Last but not the least : NICE placemat

 I found them on Etsy... You can also check them out on facebook!

Art meets Fashion

Its FRIDAY!
Before we leave for the weekend...just wanted to share this bright and colorful work by Aarti Verma....an Art lover and a fashion lover too.She believes an artistic mind holds every source of creativity.I just loved the rajasthani kathputli bags....

Have a Bright weekend........enjoy!!

You can visti her to see more of her work @ http://fashionisnart.blogspot.com/

Design Feature: Smart Graphics

We love smart products and we love smart graphics. I came across artist Neil Dantas.A designer based in Mumbai ,his team makes bags and t-shirts with his patented Bus Kya designs... Someone who knows India will relate to these.

His very Mumbai-esque designs really appealed to me. Take a look...
I will let him do the explaining from here :

A tribute to the always 'WONDERFUL' Taj. The tee reads "We've made it WonderfuL"

A visual puzzle combining the image of the iconic bus and the word 'Kya' in Hindi. This design takes bombay's buses as the carriers of the middle class, the unnoticed workers who form the backbone to this city and just anyone & everyone. In colloquial Bombay slang 'Bus-Kya' (hindi) means 'enough' like 'What-ya' (english)

The OM is known as a sacred syllable in the Indian context. & is written in Devanagari & is popularly used everywhere it it's typical Calligraphic style. Thus i felt like creating something that gives it its mystical charecteristics & so came up with this graphic

And then this self explanatory message : Smoking kills...smart huh!

My browser is playing tricks on me now... so to see more of their work check out http://www.neildantas.com/ 

Design Feature : Design with a Conscience

To call these products stunning would be an understatement. Let me introduce you to Artecnica : a LA based design company that collaborates with the most established and emerging international designers to create inspiring decorative objects for the living environment. The products are plain beautiful! 

Check em out.

KnoWhere personalized clock.

Write on and affix multiple hands to the 24 hour clock face that designate the time zones of your favorite people and places. A contemporary tool in our communications driven, post-geographic world, KnoWhere makes it possible for far-flung people to think of one another as friends and neighbors. Greenwich Mean Time suddenly sounds a lot nicer! Pre-assembled with five popular zones but interchangeable at wish. 

Oneworld clock

You and Me

Cosmos

Its impossible to share all their products cause they have so many but here you go--one more!

Bottle Stoppers

Cast resin in brilliant colors, these blooming bottle stoppers were conceived to capture and conserve wine, olive oil or simple H2O.

the purple aemilia

the white lily

the yellow orchid

They have a program called Design w/Conscience to manufacture and produce products in accordance with environmentally friendly principles.The designers work alongside the artisans and more so they try to work with recycled materials in a sustainable way. Way to go!!!

Check them out @ http://www.artecnicainc.com

'Reuse' Ideas : @ The Purely paper flower shoppe : David Stark

What is gray and white and metallic all over?
Although all of you creative people might have already seen this work earlier, i just came across David Stark and his studio and had to share it! I love the whole handmade take of his this season. With fall turning into winter already in some parts of our worlds and with the holiday season just around the corner, the whole concept of paper decor for our festivals seems nice & guilt free! One can reuse the products year after year or give a new spin each year too. Tell me, what do you think about this winter collection from David Stark?

 I loved these smart looking plates, these with the paper flowers would make a nice table setting i think...

 and garlands that can be used from winter to spring...

 simple smart lamps... you can even try them yourself is what he says...

And here's what David has to say for the purely paper flower shoppe...
"It was open for 4 days only and everything from the flowers and plants, to the gardening tools were created out of paper and made by us. Even the walls and awning of the store were paper, and it was really fun to have the cutest corner flower shop land, unexpectedly, in the very center of west elm. We collected discarded books from random stoops in Brooklyn as well as uncorrected text books and used the pages to create an array of orchids, house plants, tropical leaves, trees, shovels, watering cans, and loads and loads of flowers. I was inspired by the concept of the now iconic show presented by Claes Oldenburg in his studio in the 60’s called THE STORE. In our flower shoppe, we created a stylized stage set where the purchase of accessible hand-made art objects became part of the theater piece."
He's also got a very interesting website... surely check it out...http://www.davidstarkdesign.com/
or his blog http://www.davidstarksketchbook.com/my_weblog/page/2/

Indian Festive Feature : The five days of Diwali!!

Diwali marks the beginning of a new year for victory of Good over Evil.

For me it marks the  get-togethers of  friends and family, good food and its aroma! Rangolis being made, diyas and lights, fireworks in the air... Its the mishmash of colors, lights, aroma and sounds...

This post is for all you lovely people out there, those who celebrate and those who don't, for each of you who is willing to open your heart and let in some of that magic that each festival holds!!!

May you have a beautiful celebration that brings with it lots of  fun, success and meaning to life this new year!

 May your evenings be bright... May your diyas be lit!!

And May you enjoy each and every day --creating memories as you go...

Images : Of peacocks and paisleys... thanks for the lovely inspirations!!

It's a Wrap, Gift wrap!... As preparations continue this Diwali!

Festivities galore! This Diwali while wrapping your presents for your loved ones be creative... Think Green!

Instead of the usual gift wraps try : Vintage old broaches placed in the center make a unique wrap idea!

Use brown paper-easy to find-easy on our planet. These flowers on top are just colored paper folded or tie newspapers with buttons attached. Simple, smart and beautiful!

If you have any unique ideas share them with us!!

LETS CELEBRATE TOGETHER!!

Art Feature : Diwali Decor with Alpono Designs

Alpana or Alpono designs are drawn during festivals and Hindu rituals in Bengal, Orissa and other parts of Eastern India. It's also drawn during Kojari Lakshmi Puja to welcome Goddess Lakshmi. The designs drawn during Lakshmi Puja display the feet of Goddess Lakshmi.

The Medium

A level surface is required for Alpona such as floors and steps inside the house or in the atrium, rarely to walls and ceilings. For weddings, Alpona decorates wooden seats, rattan trays and other utensils used in the rituals; for religious ceremonies it is used to decorate the special seat of the idol, the columns in the room of worship and special earthenware used in the ceremonies. Alpona is painted in most applications, unlike Rangoli, where designs formed by piling and spreading multicolored powders are more prevalent. Alpona is usually white, the medium, known as pituli, being derived from the paste obtained by finely grinding a special type of white rice softened by soaking in cold water. The base may be colored sometimes with organic dyes, such as turmeric for yellow, spinach for green or charcoal for black, but such use is rare in Alpona.

The Purpose

Alpona is a required element of religious occasions or social occasions of joy or festivity, such as weddings, Hindu communions, harvest celebrations and pujas. Practiced primarily by womenfolk using techniques based on local customs, Alpona patterns are meant to adorn the venue of celebration. A form of worship based upon the long standing belief that the artist would express her deepest desires to the one who may fulfill these desires, an Alpona design placed at the seat of worship ensured her desires would come true. To the uneducated, nearly illiterate women who used to decorate the platforms of worship, this unspoken principle was a strong motivator for preserving the art form for almost 4000 years throughout history.

Preserve Traditions... Paint with rice paste this Diwali!!