On the 3rd of February, we had our final full day in Rajasthan, we started off today by walking through the village and the shops, eventually, we made our way to the grass wood cafe for lunch, after that most went outside and did artwork to contribute to the cafe (since the people who owned it were a part of the family who were working on the hostel)

Today’s sketches:

Later in the afternoon, we all took tuk-tuks to go see the Sajjangarh Monsoon Palace, to get up there we had to pay for cars to drive us up there, our visit was short but the views were excellent.

On the 2nd of February, we all made our way to a family home, while we were there we were tasked in drawing/painting our own artwork to contribute to the art collage for their upcoming hostel (Hello!Boho) I decided to do something with my own hieroglyphics, so I wrote the name of the hostel in my hieroglyphics as well as my own alphabet, as a way of people translating my message and to inspire them to write their own message in my hieroglyphics.

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(try out HP reveal to decipher the hieroglyphics)

In the late afternoon as I made my way back to the hotel, I stopped to look at the temple.

On the 1st of February, the first thing we did was go to an artist studio to do miniature paintings, during this we were being taught step by step on the drawing and painting process, while everyone gave there paintings color, I made mine in sepia.

After we did our paintings we were shown around a local’s home where he demonstrated natural dyeing.

After that, he showed us into his house so he could show and even sell some of his miniature paintings.

On the 31st of January, we had our first full day in Udaipur, our first stop was the city palace, while we were there we looked around the place, learned about the royal family and did some sketching.

Today’s sketches:

(My book idea, my own hieroglyphic alphabet)

In the afternoon we took a water taxi to an island hotel named Lake Pichola, while we were there we had a look around and did some sketches until we made our way back.

On the 29th of January, we all went to Jaipur safari, the day started off when as a couple of jeeps arrived at our hotel and took us to the safari, the jeeps then took us around, I only saw a few animals including Monkeys, peacocks, deers, baby owls and (?), there were however leopards, but I didn’t see one 😦

On the 28th of January, the first thing we did was visit The Indian institute of craft and design for a tour, while we were there we were given a brief chat on how their academic system works, showed us their student’s projects and workshops and even workshop demonstrations.

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Our next stop was the Jawahar Kala Kendra Museum, while there we had a brief look round, and what really caught my interest were the shadow puppets in the Gandhi exhibition

Our last stop was to see (to be added) and her designed clothes and textiles, while there we had a look around and observed the printing blocks, the fabrics, the patterns, and the natural dyes.

On the 27th of January, we all started the day off by going to the monkey temple, there we saw many monkeys and most of us even let them sit on our shoulders.

Today’s Sketches

After the temple, we made our way to the carpet store to see how carpets were made.

(The patterns being block printed)        (Trimming the excess material)

Heres a link to a video on my youtube channel on how they fringe off the excess material off the floor side of the carpet to prevent the carpet from slipping:

After we were shown how they were made, we were then invited upstairs so they could showcase their carpets and list out the prices for any of us who were interested in buying them.

Our last stop for the day was the pottery place, there we were shown how ceramics were done in there (e.g if the kiln goes over 90 degrees the ceramics get damaged.) after that we all looked around the shop.

On the 26th of January, I and my group had our third full day out in Jaipur.

Our first stop was the Maharaja Museum, while we were there we took a look at the artifacts and leaned about the Maharaja and the royal family.

(Fun Fact: When the flags are raised, it means the Maharaja is in the city.)

Biggest and heaviest silver jar in the world

After that, we had a look round the sundials

Today’s sketches

In the late afternoon after lunch, we made our way to a nearby balcony and did some sketching in front of the Wind Palace.

Jaipur by night tour

Around 6 PM four jeeps come round to the hotel to pick us up and take on a nighttime tour of Jaipur, the journey lasted for about 4 hours (including stops at certain landmarks)

Everyone (including me) had a good time on this tour and was even one of my favourite activities from this trip :).

On the 25th of January, we went to visit a local family at their home to learn how paper is made from elephant dung.

First, the dung is collected from elephant stables (each dung varies as per season and what they eat)

1. Next, they clean it thoroughly with water and acts as a fertilizer
2. Next, the mixture is beaten (as long as it’s soft) to get the fibre ready for the next stage and is cooked up to 4-5 hours
3. Once it’s cooked, the water is drained, it’s left out in the sunlight to dry, once dried the excess fibre is then removed

After we made our paper we were then invited upstairs to join the family for an afternoon lunch.

Here’s a link to a video of me draining the water from the dung on my YouTube channel: