Restoration Project - Indian Toran

Me at the foot of the Tor

Glastonbury, town of wonder

Being an old hippy Glastonbury is my favourite place to visit. 

Ever since my family broke the long journey to Cornwall there when I was seven and I fell in love with the place. I try to visit a couple of times a year and was thrilled to find that the Majma dance festival is held there every March. Not that I need another excuse.

The number of times I have clambered up the Tor to be buffeted by the wind in St Michael's tower and to watch as others gasp and pant at the steep climb which is oh so worth it at the end.

Photo edited in Old Photo Pro. I love the halo of light around the Tor.

 I love the tranquillity of the Chalice Well gardens and the energy of the rushing waters of the well house grotto where the sound of chanting is amplified by the vaulted ceiling.

Chalice Well

Added to this is the more material attraction of all the New Age shops which can keep me occupied all day, just mooching about and looking at beautiful and unusual things.

 My favourite shop by far is Dilliway & Dilliway   Importers of Indian furniture and more excitingly (for me) textiles.

The shop is spread over three floors and you can buy anything from incense to wooden balconies. The owner is so friendly and knowledgeable and will let you peruse his textile collection and chat about where things are from and how they are made.

When I visited this week on route to Cornwall I was made an offer I couldn't refuse. The owner had acquired two Rajasthani door hangings - one of which was hanging there all resplendent in it's finished glory. The other was unfinished and was hidden away in the back store room.

'Did I want it as a project for a tenner?'  

Did I !!!

                                                                                   I practically snapped his hand off.

So now I have it and it has inspired this blog. It is going to be a big project and I will need keeping on track so I hope you will help out. 

Do you want to see what I have let myself in for?

                                                                                     I hope I have the skill to do it justice.    

So first thing is to find out what needs doing and how the finished article should look. Off to do some research but if anyone knows drop me a comment.

Wednesday 27th September 2012   22.00hrs

So I have been doing some research and have found out that this style of door hanging is produced by the Kanbi of Kutch and the farming castes of Saurashtra.

It is a type of Toran or door hanging known as a Bari which is always worked on a white background in bright shades of red, green, blue, yellow and brown.

The central motif is Lord Ganesh, the remover of obstacles to happiness. He is usually surrounded by other gods and goddesses and motifs of flowers and animals. The little creature by the foot of Ganesh is his companion rat.

My Wall Hanging showing Ganesh (in orange far right)

According to John Gillow in his book Indian Textiles many of these hangings are part of the dowries of women married thirty to forty years ago. The embroidery tradition in some parts is dying out as more girls are educated and do not have time to learn embroidery stitches and also as the caste system is challenged and people no longer continue to dress or decorate their homes according to caste.

In the case of my hanging I suspect it is a modern one produced for the tourist market which for some reason got abandoned.  

Here are some more examples of Ganesh Hangings which I will use as inspiration for completing mine.

I love the colours in this one especially the way the border has been created.

This one has very similar motifs to mine so will be really useful for hints on colour and overall design.

Well that's it for tonight, tomorrows task is to make a list of what needs finishing and to start to research the symbolism of the Bari and the elements in the design. I have a feeling that fertility will feature somewhere - doesn't it always.

Tuesday 2nd October 2012       20.00hrs

I am still researching the symbolism of my hanging but have come up with a list of what I need to do.

At first glance it looks almost complete but then you look closely and you spot lots of little unfinished bits.

Here is a close up of the flowers where you can see the central part needs finishing. The figures are the same. Then all the motifs need outlining like the peacocks have been in the picture below.

Finally the whole thing needs a border adding and sometimes the ends of the long side sections have tassells.

My first job is to teach myself the stitches as I usually use chain stitch and am not very good at satin and stem stitch. Keep an eye on the technique section as I will post my efforts there. I'm also on the look out for cotton embroidery threads which match or complement the ones used.

Once I know I'm not going to bugger it up I'll start filling in the missing sections. Then outline the designs.

Can't wait to get started but I have a few other things on the go as well so it might have to wait a week or so. Arghhhh why can't there be more hours for crafty time. Another pair of arms like Shiva would be handy to do two projects at once.