Taj Mahal and Bear Rescue

The two UNESCO sites of the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort begin our trip in grand style. We’ll visit the Taj at sunrise for the best light. The exquisite Taj was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 42-acre complex and is set in formal gardens.

Near Agra we’ll visit the Agra Bear Rescue Center, managed by the wonderful and caring SOS Wildlife team. This center is home to over two hundred Sloth Bears rescued from horrific lives as dancing bears, or from poaching and situations of man-animal conflict. The facility is the world’s largest, and is truly a heart-warming place, with bears playing with balls, lounging on tire swings and in rope hammocks.

Delhi to Jaipur

Next we’ll go by van to Jaipur, and check into our lovely royal palace. In Jaipur, we’ll visit many interesting places including the excellent Anokhi Printing Museum for a great introduction to our workshop of wooden block-printing! In a nearby village, we’ll visit an old friend and expert block print artist for a complete introduction into block-printed or stamped fabric. At his studio, we’ll all print 2 yards of light cotton cloth suitable for clothing, a tablecloth, or a pareo/scarf, below.

Jaipur also has a large branch of the famous FabIndia store where you can get hand-made home furnishings such as pillows, or little girl’s dresses, or inexpensive and good quality Indian-style kurtas and pants for yourself. Everything in the store is made in India; FabIndia links over 55,000 craft-based rural producers to modern markets, giving economic empowerment to disadvantaged rural women.

Printing Workshops

Textile artists are happy to open their studios and as we meet them along our route, we’ll learn detailed techniques of the traditional dyeing and printing processes. First is a visit to Bagru where woodworkers carve slabs of wood with intricate designs to make the printing blocks. And we can watch some of the artists stamping patterns onto cotton fabric, before we start our first project. In a nearby studio we’ll print pareos or light cotton wraps with our choice of designs.

Later at an Ajrakh resist-printing workshop, we’ll see how various resists and dye baths of indigo, madder and other natural substances make different color combinations. In another town, we’ll meet dyers who will show us how to make our own beautiful silk bandhini-style tie-dyed scarves. You can make an exquisite scarf that you’ll be proud to wear at home. There may be an opportunity to purchase some of the artists’ beautiful work also.

Astronomy and Ikat Weavers

Also in Jaipur we’ll see the ingenious astronomical observatory called Jantar Mantar; it was completed in 1734. It features the world’s largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At this fascinating place we’ll learn about how the brilliant early scientists studied the universe. The Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur. The nineteen instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye and are used for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking the location of major stars as the Earth orbits around the Sun, and more. Jaipur also is known for a good selection of silver jewelry so anyone interested can stop by one of the shops on our free time.

Our great guide knows all the textile artists and collectors, so there will be some surprise visits! We’ll fly from Jaipur to Ahmedabad, where an expert Indian textile guide and old friend will meet us. Next we will see the historical city of Ahmedabad, the guide’s home town. He will take us on a fascinating heritage walk around the old quarter and to see the famous textile collection at the Calico Museum.

Also on this route is a visit to meet the famous silk ikat weavers of Patan. The Salvis’ ikat is double, meaning that both warp and weft have resist patterns tied and dyed in, to make a design when aligned correctly. The Salvi family has perfected the ikat tying, dyeing and weaving methods. They will show us how they bind the silk threads of the warp and the weft, so the rich dye colors don’t penetrate the bound areas – and how they weave the complex patterns.

In their hometown of Patan, the Salvi family has established a private museum of the ikat technique with fabrics from all over the world. (They welcome donations too if you have ikat cloth from another country and don’t know what to do with it!) For special events wealthy women wear the Salvis’ exquisite silk ikat saris that cost thousands of dollars.