And speaking of Spring…
It has been a very Samunnatty few weeks! We (Samunnat Inc in this case) have reopened our US shop, launched our utterly divine flower brooches, got our Zoom based Design lessons back on track and made travel plans. And doesn’t that feel weird!? Planning ahead like that?
But, first things first.
Our US shop was in resting mode while our darling Kathleen Dustin recovered from a very nasty bike accident. Like all of us of a certain age, Kathleen was frustrated with how much longer recovery takes when you are of a certain age. Bugger the certain age shite eh? Thrilled that she’s going well now.
The flower brooches began their lives when Kathleen and I were in Nepal in March. The women learnt a wonderful new cane which incorporated scraps and then used it in a design that Kathleen helped them develop. Working out how to actually produce these in a consistent and cost effective way was transformed thanks to the generosity of Gill Scott (Clay Lady Down Under) who made and donated FABULOUS cutters exclusively based on our designs. Brooches were made, glitches were unglitched, hitches unhitched and, finally….the brooches are ready to sell. They really are magnificent and if you want to see more of the range, head here. Talk about Springy!
We (that is the Samunnat girls and me) were meeting monthly via Zoom with Kathleen and gorgeous Christine Dumont. The aim has been to help the women strengthen their design skills; to help them be able to understand better why some things work and some things don’t and to be able to independently and confidently make good design decisions. We’ve been working through the principles and elements of design…laboriously trying to translate these into Nepali where possible and explaining and experiencing them when a common language needed to be developed. Each lesson is shared, translated, turned into a Canva tutorial, translated and then the women create some work based on the particular principle. This had got a bit scatty due to the vicissitudes of life but we’re back on track now.
After the lesson, the women spend some time making their own designs and we all meet again and talk about how the stuff they have learnt was applied and could be used more. It’s been fantastic and so exciting to watch as the women have got more and more understanding!
I was disappointed this month that we had to cancel the Colourful Journey slated for November this year. We had, perhaps, left our run a bit late with advertising and post COVID travellers seem to need MUCH more notice. We didn’t have enough people able to travel in 2023 so it just wasn’t viable for my darling Bishnu to run. BUT….excitingly, the two trips for next year are almost full! Lovely Sarah Bartam has a full group going in March and I have only got one space left for November. AND we already have interest for 2025. So that’s super exciting. As a women who has had travel plans cancelled due to cancer and COVID I am well aware that THINGS HAPPEN but it is nice (albeit a bit weird) to make some longer term travel plans. I still head over in November this year for the usual Samunnat gig. (Photo shows a few lovers of adornment at a little place on no maps called Bhedetar. You are never too remote to wear fabulous jewellery are you, CV?)
And…I am in preliminary discussions with a local gallery owner about classes so watch this space!