Our last day at the Barefoot College was hectic, exhilarating,  filled with laughter and sad all at the same time.  With the help of the talented crafts women and men of Tilonia, the amazing Rimisha and our host Nishit , we achieved the goals we set out for ourselves only 9 days ago.

Presenting pattern samples, wooden buttons
and mater templates.
Our last day at the Barefoot College was hectic, exhilarating,  filled with laughter and sad all at the same time.  With the help of the talented crafts women and men of Tilonia, the amazing Rimisha and our host Nishit , we achieved the goals we set out for ourselves only 9 days ago.
At 4 pm we presented all of our work; three new appliqué designs, represented by full scale prototypes of a shoulder bag and bedspread, digital drawings of the fleshed out collections, master templates  of all the motifs, and a wide selection of wooden buttons and embroidered buttons to be used as closures for the shoulder bags.
All the women from the appliqué section and the sewing section were in attendance as well as the men from the wood shop.  Lots of animated conversation ( which we didn’t understand) and moving of the head side to side (did this mean good or bad?)
It meant good!!  We were particularly pleased with their excitement around doing something new and using the template system to create more consistency.  Two things really stood out though: the women said they appreciated being included in the design process and having their opinions incorporated into the final designs, and, everyone was positive about stronger connections between the wood and textiles shops through shared projects.
We couldn’t be happier to know that our partners in design felt that this was truly a collaborative project that fostered new interdisciplinary work. There were lots of hugs (even Samson got a hug from Kailesh ji) and talk about what we will do next year.
The kitchen put on a special farewell dinner for us, an amazing meal, and there were lots of pictures before we piled into our vehicle piloted by our trustworthy and good humoured driver Gopal –  big shout out to Gopal, we couldn’t have asked for a better driver and DJ.

Off to Jaipur for a final day of exploration and celebration.

Presenting the collections to the sewing and applique teams.
Working barefoot. Literally. Everyday at Barefoot.

 

Saying thank you and goodbye to  the sewing team Kailesh Ji, Rajkawar Ji, Raisa Ji, Pooja, Seema, Krishna, and the applique team: Sarju Ji, Badam Ji, Nandu Ji, Regesh.
New friends, Shreyus, Drhuv and Rimisha with Juliana, Clio, Emma, Samson, and Jamie.

 

Last minute gifts being made for us. We were showered with kindness.
Rimisha and Nishit. Thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you.

 

Saying good-bye and thank you to Chain Sukh Ji, Pushpa Ji, Anita Ji, and the wood shop team.