Hello all from us here in Rajasthan India, where we are enduring the cold spring nights (10degC) and days are getting warmer again (32degC) or for those among us who still live in the Fdeg era 50F and 90F, warmer this month.
Wow its been a busy month!
Comment
Kris completed her art installation at Buddha College...great reviews
Some friends in the UK decided to give us some 'extra' help.
Hens trade and barter.
HDS update.
Comments from Kris
Comment:
This month it is something close to my heart. Its a joke, and perhaps a lesson, hope you like it.
There is a Muslim temple, a Christian church, a Hindu temple all located in the same town square.
In all three pigeons live happily above the human population.
The day comes when the Muslim temple is redecorated for a festival and all the pigeons have to leave, they are readily accepted into the other two buildings by the other birds.
As time goes on both the Hindu temple and the Christian church are redecorated and the birds move to the other buildings, where they are welcomed and stay while the work on their building is being done.
They all live in harmony together.
One day a fight breaks out between two of the religious groups in the square beneath them, the pigeons look on in wonder, why they say if we are all alike and accept each other, when
men are all alike, why can't they accept each other and learn to live in peace together as we do?.....What does all this violence achieve?
An old pigeon who had been listening to the conversation remarked 'I don't know, but from the beginning when God made all things it has been so, perhaps they will change and one day learn to live in harmony together as men should', just like us pigeons.
Kris's art installation.
Commissioned By
The Buddha Group of Institutions.
at
Buddha Architectural College Udaipur as part of their annual exhibition of students work.
Thanks to friends.
A group of our friends decided it was going to be too hard for us to continue to go everywhere on our bikes now we are working for HDS so knowing we were on a fixed income they have kindly given us some money to buy a second hand Mahindra Jeep. Built for the last 25yrs they are as solid as a rock. This one needs work but its nothing that frightens Kris or I. It belongs to the same owner who bought it new. As soon as we can we will get it delivered here so we can work on it. It drives ok (ish), brakes need work as does the steering, at the moment it runs in an average straight line!
Maybe by this time next month we will be well on the way to getting out into the villages a little easier than we do now.
So again to those of you who did this for us a heart felt thank you and may God bless you.
Hens, trade and barter.
We have started to trade our cock hens and so far having sold 4 we are in profit, however the plan to have six HENS alludes us, at least five of the remaining eight are cocks!
We are now trying to trade our valuable cock hens for females, cocks bring good money as they are used to breed and improve a farmers stock quality, especially in the villages where the eggs from these hens are superior and therefore more costly, more profit for the household when they are sold at market, over twice the cost of standard white eggs, so good news for them but a bit of a delay for us and the egg production The manure production is going great though!
NGO
HDS is now completely legal with a bank account and all the correct documentation in place. We have been so frustrated by the Indian, 'It will be done tomorrow' but are slowly learning to adapt.
Now we can make ourselves known! No more low profile.
Our President will be contacting girl schools in the area for the 'Breast cancer awareness course', we are telling everyone we know that we are now beginning what we came here to do, help those in need. It all seems to take so long, if God brought us here to learn patience He couldn't have chosen a better place. As with everything we do here we put our faith in the Lord and walk the path He guides us on.
The mustard seed may be spouting!
Perhaps a new plan, Hens for families...........mmmmm.
Visitors on a block of apartments.
Local bees, we must try this again one day, for now we watch and learn. They certainly don't seem to behave in the same way as UK bees. This type of colony is the standard model, shaded and in a cool breeze, please note, not as we were advised by a UK bee keeper....in full sun.......it melted the wax. I don't suppose he had ever had to cope with 115degF in summer.
Comments from Kris
Well guess what I have been doing for the last month!
Yes mostly spent at college, long days planning and testing out my art installation, and continuing the work at home into the very wee hours. I had the original concept and Chris really grasped where I was going and what I wanted to do, I am so glad I married an engineer who also has an artistic eye. It took a lot of discussion and drawing of Vector Diagrams to overcome the weight issue. The first attempts pulled the railing out of its anchor so we had to take it down quickly and I am so pleased I understand Vector diagrams and forces. Chris used his engineering skills to the max on this project and I and the students are really grateful for all his hard work. Although I had the initial concept for "Journey of Life" Chris and I worked on it together and for me will always be a joint venture between Chris, Myself and our magnificent team of students. I have to be honest most of the students and staff could not visualise my concept and some even doubted we would complete, but with Chris's encouragement I continued to remain true to my vision. I did have to compromise on some aspects due to time and financial constraints, ie I would have used more string and had more density in the pathway and in the random strings and more figures, but you have to work with what you have. We stripped white and black string till the students and I hated the sight of it, they then joined it together and glued the knots to represent the thorns and difficulties of life we all face. The string for the pathway was hand dyed, students made and painted the white and black figures and did many more jobs besides. We had several visits to our home from the students to discuss the installation and plan when we hit problems how we would could move forward. They are a great group who will make very interesting Architects in the future, several I feel I may do great things, Chris and I will be able to say do you remember when we did our art installation with them.
As Chris says I was in a lot of pain having to push my body more than I should, but I will be fitter having climbed all those stairs up 3 floors and down many times a day. At least I can do that now so I am so grateful for God's healing which allowed me to get knee replacements. I am still suffering some discomfort but it will settle down in a week or so, that is the usual pattern. Someone suggested that Chris try to stop me doing the work, he said he valued his life too much, hee hee. The thing I like about Chris is that he does not try to stop me achieving my goals in fact he is a great encourager.
Chris and I also collaborated on a 3D painting which was to complement the installation. My brief was use of nails, string, to complement the installation and to be Abstract. Well we did it. The painting is 4ft 4in by 3ft 4in by 6in deep. Chris made and attached a frame, we painted white string white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, all so it could be used on the painting. We did string art with a twist and called it Diversion. It has all the same colours as in the pathway of the main installation, we continued with the ying yang theme, and if you stare at it you feel as if it draws you in. It does not look much in the photograph but it is different from every position you stand to view it. We have dedicated "Diversity" to my Aunt Jenny who passed away in January.
Yes it has been a month of joy, sadness and frustration.
Sadly my Aunt Jenny died this month at the age of 82 years, sad for Chris, me and our families who will miss her; but joy knowing she has gone home to the Lord. I will miss her more than words can say, but at least Chris and I got to see her and chat to her last October during our visit to the UK. We have some lovely pictures and memories of that visit.
For me it is surreal still to have achieved the concept "Journey of Life", and mind blowing with the compliments that were given to me by visitors to the exhibition, some of whom were well respected artists, architects and engineers. I still smile when I remember seeing the children fascinatedly looking over the side of the railing down and up at the installation. One of the greatest compliments was that it was moral and that several people had to just climb up each floor to see the whole piece before looking at the other work on each floor. The students are very talented and there were some really good art and graphics on display as well as Architectural buildings and drawings. The students had every right to feel proud at the end of 4 long days of exhibiting, yes like Chris and I they were tired and in discomfort, standing, walking for long periods but they were so buzzing that yes they had done it. One well known Architect stated much better than last 2 years, and he raved about the installation too.
The exhibition made it to the Udaipur Times and a photo of the installation was one of the images used.
If anyone asks me to work with string in the next few months I have to confess I may wish to strangle them as I have seen more string than I wish to remember for a very very long time.
Thats all from me for now
Kris
We must close now, hope you enjoyed the blog and all the photographs
God Bless till next month
Kris and Chris
Wow its been a busy month!
Comment
Kris completed her art installation at Buddha College...great reviews
Some friends in the UK decided to give us some 'extra' help.
Hens trade and barter.
HDS update.
Comments from Kris
Comment:
This month it is something close to my heart. Its a joke, and perhaps a lesson, hope you like it.
There is a Muslim temple, a Christian church, a Hindu temple all located in the same town square.
In all three pigeons live happily above the human population.
The day comes when the Muslim temple is redecorated for a festival and all the pigeons have to leave, they are readily accepted into the other two buildings by the other birds.
As time goes on both the Hindu temple and the Christian church are redecorated and the birds move to the other buildings, where they are welcomed and stay while the work on their building is being done.
They all live in harmony together.
One day a fight breaks out between two of the religious groups in the square beneath them, the pigeons look on in wonder, why they say if we are all alike and accept each other, when
An old pigeon who had been listening to the conversation remarked 'I don't know, but from the beginning when God made all things it has been so, perhaps they will change and one day learn to live in harmony together as men should', just like us pigeons.
Kris's art installation.
Commissioned By
The Buddha Group of Institutions.
at
Buddha Architectural College Udaipur as part of their annual exhibition of students work.
Journey of life
The Struggle through life from our very beginning has many wrong
turns to deflect us.
Most people never fully achieve their desires or ambitions as
they are led astray, as students may wish for glory and outstanding success but
without hard work and determination they will not achieve their aims.
Only through persistent application and effort can success be
reached, a balance of body and spirit, this balance is represented by the
circle of life surrounding the symbol ying yang
Various obstacles are encountered along life’s path,
distractions, addictions, lack of effort, lack of commitment, following unwise
advice, these and many other things will all lead away from the path to
fulfilment. These are represented by the thorns on the pathways.
To be truly happy one must strive always to attain
completeness and balance in your life, never undervalue the chances or dangers
that lay in your path, for they may change your whole life, but not always for the
better.
Many will fall by the wayside but those few who will continue
to always work hard and balance their material and spiritual life in harmony
will attain their goals.
Success and balance lead to the Celebration.
This is represented by
the celebration being held as at a wedding where two become one, now stronger
than either was alone. This is represented by the decorations on the top floor.
The path is long and hard but the rewards for those that
strive on and are not diverted from their efforts are great.
Truly a cause for celebration.
This build is three stories high twice (two wells) and 28' x 8'.A team of 15 students worked (not all at the same time) to build this led by Chris who did the engineering, including floating the whole thing all three stories of it on weights to allow for monsoon growth and summer shinkage.
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| First Floor if Black Well, blue net represents the sea |
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| First floor of white well with blue net representing the sea |
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| We closed off bottom of railing so you had to go and look into well |
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| At first level the density of strings represents the difficult start on the pathway also more people in this area starting out on the Journey of Life |
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| Here you can see there are people caught up on the strings of distraction and problems represented as thorns with only a few on the pathway just as in life. Pathway depicted by coloured carpet |
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| However we hoped to show that although many fail to follow their goals, you can climb back on the pathway |
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| Those that work hard and keep focused remain on the pathway |
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| Clinging onto that dream |
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| Looking at the installation from another angle |
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| Getting distracted from ones goals |
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| This shows some of the pathway depicted by the colours of the rainbow |
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| Proud students |
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| Looking down on the white well installation |
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| Many try to reach there goals but few are focussed |
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| This is the curtain of celebration under the circle of life with the ying yang symbol showing balance and achievement for those who get to the top. I used tinsel which although very common in India represents Celebration and Party time. On the back wall is the 3D painting Diversity which compliments the installation |
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| Proud students standing either side of the Celebration Curtain |
Build Photographs.
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| First Attempt at putting in pathway onto trapeze |
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| This is the railing that lifted out of its fixings due to force and weight of pathway, hastily removed and redesigned |
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| This is a trapeze in process of being hung to support pathway |
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| Fixing used at top to take weight of pathway |
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| Oh no not more string to strip, what a tangle |
 |
| Might not look much but it was a great achievement to get this far |
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| Not sure that this will work strings began to get tangled up |
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| Solution twist same coloured strings makes more of an impact |
 |
| First weight a combination of bricks and glass in bucket |
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| We are busy really! |
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| We can still have fun whilst we work |
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| These girls stripped the majority of the string used. |
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| Early view of pathway how are we going to put in random strings the students thought. |
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| This had to tidied up, one volunteer climbed up onto the table and chair to reach this. |
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| Work in progress |
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| Floating weights are chained and padlocked under black cover |
Quite an achievement for any artist, reviews have all been very positive, 'a moral lesson', 'It takes work to get where you want to be'........................Lots of comments from school parties who came to see the exhibition about what it says to their students.
And Kris?..............very happy, in a lot of pain from overdoing it, Knee's and hips in particular but much better to live with now its done!
Thanks to friends.
A group of our friends decided it was going to be too hard for us to continue to go everywhere on our bikes now we are working for HDS so knowing we were on a fixed income they have kindly given us some money to buy a second hand Mahindra Jeep. Built for the last 25yrs they are as solid as a rock. This one needs work but its nothing that frightens Kris or I. It belongs to the same owner who bought it new. As soon as we can we will get it delivered here so we can work on it. It drives ok (ish), brakes need work as does the steering, at the moment it runs in an average straight line!
Maybe by this time next month we will be well on the way to getting out into the villages a little easier than we do now.
So again to those of you who did this for us a heart felt thank you and may God bless you.
Hens, trade and barter.
We have started to trade our cock hens and so far having sold 4 we are in profit, however the plan to have six HENS alludes us, at least five of the remaining eight are cocks!
We are now trying to trade our valuable cock hens for females, cocks bring good money as they are used to breed and improve a farmers stock quality, especially in the villages where the eggs from these hens are superior and therefore more costly, more profit for the household when they are sold at market, over twice the cost of standard white eggs, so good news for them but a bit of a delay for us and the egg production The manure production is going great though!
NGO
HDS is now completely legal with a bank account and all the correct documentation in place. We have been so frustrated by the Indian, 'It will be done tomorrow' but are slowly learning to adapt.
Now we can make ourselves known! No more low profile.
Our President will be contacting girl schools in the area for the 'Breast cancer awareness course', we are telling everyone we know that we are now beginning what we came here to do, help those in need. It all seems to take so long, if God brought us here to learn patience He couldn't have chosen a better place. As with everything we do here we put our faith in the Lord and walk the path He guides us on.
The mustard seed may be spouting!
Perhaps a new plan, Hens for families...........mmmmm.
Visitors on a block of apartments.
Local bees, we must try this again one day, for now we watch and learn. They certainly don't seem to behave in the same way as UK bees. This type of colony is the standard model, shaded and in a cool breeze, please note, not as we were advised by a UK bee keeper....in full sun.......it melted the wax. I don't suppose he had ever had to cope with 115degF in summer.
Comments from Kris
Well guess what I have been doing for the last month!
Yes mostly spent at college, long days planning and testing out my art installation, and continuing the work at home into the very wee hours. I had the original concept and Chris really grasped where I was going and what I wanted to do, I am so glad I married an engineer who also has an artistic eye. It took a lot of discussion and drawing of Vector Diagrams to overcome the weight issue. The first attempts pulled the railing out of its anchor so we had to take it down quickly and I am so pleased I understand Vector diagrams and forces. Chris used his engineering skills to the max on this project and I and the students are really grateful for all his hard work. Although I had the initial concept for "Journey of Life" Chris and I worked on it together and for me will always be a joint venture between Chris, Myself and our magnificent team of students. I have to be honest most of the students and staff could not visualise my concept and some even doubted we would complete, but with Chris's encouragement I continued to remain true to my vision. I did have to compromise on some aspects due to time and financial constraints, ie I would have used more string and had more density in the pathway and in the random strings and more figures, but you have to work with what you have. We stripped white and black string till the students and I hated the sight of it, they then joined it together and glued the knots to represent the thorns and difficulties of life we all face. The string for the pathway was hand dyed, students made and painted the white and black figures and did many more jobs besides. We had several visits to our home from the students to discuss the installation and plan when we hit problems how we would could move forward. They are a great group who will make very interesting Architects in the future, several I feel I may do great things, Chris and I will be able to say do you remember when we did our art installation with them.
As Chris says I was in a lot of pain having to push my body more than I should, but I will be fitter having climbed all those stairs up 3 floors and down many times a day. At least I can do that now so I am so grateful for God's healing which allowed me to get knee replacements. I am still suffering some discomfort but it will settle down in a week or so, that is the usual pattern. Someone suggested that Chris try to stop me doing the work, he said he valued his life too much, hee hee. The thing I like about Chris is that he does not try to stop me achieving my goals in fact he is a great encourager.
Chris and I also collaborated on a 3D painting which was to complement the installation. My brief was use of nails, string, to complement the installation and to be Abstract. Well we did it. The painting is 4ft 4in by 3ft 4in by 6in deep. Chris made and attached a frame, we painted white string white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, all so it could be used on the painting. We did string art with a twist and called it Diversion. It has all the same colours as in the pathway of the main installation, we continued with the ying yang theme, and if you stare at it you feel as if it draws you in. It does not look much in the photograph but it is different from every position you stand to view it. We have dedicated "Diversity" to my Aunt Jenny who passed away in January.
Yes it has been a month of joy, sadness and frustration.
Sadly my Aunt Jenny died this month at the age of 82 years, sad for Chris, me and our families who will miss her; but joy knowing she has gone home to the Lord. I will miss her more than words can say, but at least Chris and I got to see her and chat to her last October during our visit to the UK. We have some lovely pictures and memories of that visit.
For me it is surreal still to have achieved the concept "Journey of Life", and mind blowing with the compliments that were given to me by visitors to the exhibition, some of whom were well respected artists, architects and engineers. I still smile when I remember seeing the children fascinatedly looking over the side of the railing down and up at the installation. One of the greatest compliments was that it was moral and that several people had to just climb up each floor to see the whole piece before looking at the other work on each floor. The students are very talented and there were some really good art and graphics on display as well as Architectural buildings and drawings. The students had every right to feel proud at the end of 4 long days of exhibiting, yes like Chris and I they were tired and in discomfort, standing, walking for long periods but they were so buzzing that yes they had done it. One well known Architect stated much better than last 2 years, and he raved about the installation too.
The exhibition made it to the Udaipur Times and a photo of the installation was one of the images used.
If anyone asks me to work with string in the next few months I have to confess I may wish to strangle them as I have seen more string than I wish to remember for a very very long time.
Thats all from me for now
Kris
We must close now, hope you enjoyed the blog and all the photographs
God Bless till next month
Kris and Chris
