A section of one of the Journeys half way through.  Right - now where was I??? The Journey in Jaipur . . . It might seem rather a long way to travel to do a design exercise, But I am sure you can imagine the incredible inspiration that we were surrounded by, before we even left the hotel! Your head just spins with all the shapes,lines and forms.  A beautiful lock on a door at the Amer Fort Palace.  Part of a fence in the paper factory we visited. One of the many stunning domed buildings in the Maharani's Garden in Jaipur. If you look back trough the last 2 posts you will some of the inspiration for these Journey exercises.  We painted the first part of the Journeys in a local workshop that had plenty of space for the long pieces of paper we needed. It was cool and not too bright in the workshop, great for relaxing and concentrating on the designs.      The group getting on with creating their Journeys.  Regular readers of this blog will be

A wonderful labyrinth block print - in GOLD! So - onward with our wonderful trip to discover all things design based and just so exciting in Jaipur with Colouricious Holidays Our second day started with a trip to a brilliant factory that specialises in printing with metallic paint - no surely not Kim . . something shiny!!? It is a great factory, very well organised, and helping to bring back hand printed fabrics into the high streets all over the world. Next time we go I would love to hear the owner talk about how he started the factory, developed it and how he is, almost single handedly, changing the the image of hand block printing in Jaipur. He is employing more and more block printers who in turn need more and more blocks. It is all very exiting. I wouldn't be surprised when we go back in 2 years if he is on factory number 2.  Joyce had her own young man to help her match up her repeats. You can hear the buzz of very happy ladies printing with the met

The 2 sisters, June and Joyce, on their elephant at the Amer Fort Palace.  Having met the group at Heathrow we flew to Mumbai airport then onto Jaipur.  Mumbai is a beautiful modern airport, the roof is just FANTASTIC. Seeing it was a great start to our design based course.  The Jaipur Journey Colouricious Holiday was planned by Jamie and myself to be quite different to any previous Colouricious holiday. Jamie and I had handpicked each venue that we visited. All were chosen for their particular design and or colour inspiration, as you will see. This was not the usual block printing holiday, though we did have one or two sessions that were great fun. I wanted time for the group to absorb and just be . . .  in these beautiful places. Have time to draw what they see and take photos.  Our first day had two quite contrasting venues. The Amer Fort Palace which is very ornate and highly decorative. Contrasted with a visit to Jantar Mantar which is full of very simple massive sha