No price tag attached to a li'l fun

It has been nearly a year since A Full Moon began and we've been itching to create something interesting for our customers and well-wishers to get involved in. 

Retail therapy is always fun, no doubt. But we just wanted to add a little more zing to it. :)

Starting May 2014, we'll host an activity each month centred around the time of the full moon (the celestial one!). Details of which will be posted on the Facebook page.  

The first contest just got over, for May 2014, where one of our favourite customers, Amrita S, won a beautifully hand embroidered coin purse for her mother from A Full Moon's collection of bags & purses.

We hope you will join in and enjoy being a part of the whole activity. Watch out for our next activity in early June.

If you have any comments for us, please do drop a line here or email us at pc.afullmoon@gmail.com. We would be happy to hear from you. 

Patterns

The other day while browsing through some old photographs, I realised there were so many photographs of walls that I had captured over time. Not huge imposing barricades as the word conjures up but pretty colours, tiles and textures. Almost works of art that these walls (and some floors and ceilings too) were adorned with.

Interestingly, many of them hundreds of years old. Intact and surviving.

Take a look at what I found...

Ceramic designs decorating a doorway in Old Goa

Tiles long forgotten in an erstwhile 'chai' cafe in Mumbai. 

Rough, rugged walls of the fort in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra.
Standing tall since the 17th century, approx.

Patterened terracotta tiles decorating a wall 

Grass growing between stone blocks forming a
pretty pattern on the ground in Old Goa

Restored floor tiles at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai

Restored ceiling at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai

Here are two more that I just could not resist including. They are not Indian but their sheer opulence ensured they made it into this post. :)

Buildings at the Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand

Black & Gold

We've recently added stoles in black with gold block prints to A Full Moon's collection. Perfect for an evening out or to add a dash of glamour to that elegant outfit you have on.

Photo credit: A Full Moon

These stoles are sourced from a non-profit in Southern India that works with underprivileged communities to empower them to access quality education, healthcare and better livelihood opportunities. 

The non-profit has enabled women's groups to train in traditional block printing techniques. The women belong to low income families and their skills at block printing give them a steady source of livelihood. It allows them to provide a better life for themselves and their families. You can check out our block printed collection here.

At A Full Moon, you will also find other personal and home accessories, in black and its combinations. 

Wall Art: Madhubani paintings in shades of black

Cushion cover embroidered by women from a nomadic community in India

Embroidered pouches by women's groups in India

Thick cotton scarves handwoven by women from the North-East of India

Journals made of handmade paper sourced from a non-profit that uses
'waste to wealth' technology to create recycled paper

Happiness in black

Think of the colour black. Close your eyes. What does it immediately bring to mind? 

Here's a few that I thought of:

• The night sky (dotted with a million stars & a full moon, maybe)
• Cats :) like Bagheera (the black panther in Mowgli). Yeah, well, he's a fictional charcter. So?
• Classic films & photography - where would B&W be without the colour black (or white).
• Ink - on newly printed paper and in books fresh off the shelf. And I have always loved writing with black ink.
• Evening dresses - timeless, sophisticated, fashionable and elegant as always. Coco Chanel?
• Kajal (or Kohl) - the one thing most Asian women (and men) can't keep their hands off.
• Skin - beautiful, healthy, dark complexion. Think Naomi Campbell, Zoe Saldana, Nandita Das, Lupita Nyong'o, Padma Lakshmi etc. 

(photo credit L-R: Google search; learningfromdogs.com; homecologist.com; kuriouskitty.blogspot.com)

Yes, there's all that stuff out there about black being the colour of darkness & mourning & other sad things. But let's leave the negativity aside and focus on the more positive associations with the colour.

Black has long been perceived as the colour of power and prestige. In the 14th century when good quality black dyes became available, government officials and other important people started wearing black. It was seen as the next best colour to scarlet, purple and blue which only the nobility were allowed to wear. But not for long. Soon, even royalty were seen adopting black in their clothes, especially at court. Even today, the perception lives on - black cars in a presidential convoy, black tie-affairs, black suits in the boardroom.

Somewhere in the 20th century, it also came to represent the colour of rebellion - black leather jackets of motorcycle gangs, street gangs, Goth sub-culture etc. The idea was to remove themselves from accepted norms and conventions. Black suited fine. It implied an end to the old ways. And by default, the start of something new. 

(photos credit: Google search)

­A line of thought is that people use black at various times to also hide - some use it to hide their weight; some their feelings or insecurities, some to project an aura of mystery. 

To be honest, I have worn black many times because it makes me feel more confident & more in control. Who cares if it's all in my head... after all, it's how I feel that counts. 

Wearing black makes me happy!

(photo credit: pinterest)

How green is my valley

Continuing the posts on the trip to the North East, here's one more. 

I travelled with a friend in October 2013, after the rains had ended and the weather had turned milder and more accommodating. The roads too had opened up which were now motorable after the seasonal land and mudslides were cleared. 

We got to see clear blue skies and warm days, though the nights were chilly and we did need to wear woollies, even inside. During the day, the sun shone brightly, without a dark cloud in sight. Operative word being 'dark'; the clouds we could not escape for we were in the land of clouds, after all :).  

Everywhere around us, amongst the emerald green of forests and ferns, there were plenty of colours. All seemed to be thriving in the warmth after the cold, wet spell. Almost as if spring had arrived in October :)

Sometimes, photographs can express it better than words.

Emerald green paddy fields surrounded by greener forests 

The land of clouds where green is an alluring backdrop for brightly coloured flowers

A fern bank lining the roadside. If one ignored the 'modern' road, it could have been straight out of middle-earth (from Lord Of The Rings that is)

Wild flowers on the road side

Cheery yellow flowers lining village streets

A variety of colours in front of a traditional wooden home

More bright colours in the villages we visited

After the hustle and bustle of cities and the concrete jungles we've surrounded ourselves with, the colours were definitely a sight for sore eyes and the unpolluted atmosphere a balm for our bodies and minds.

North East of India

A view of Mon town, Nagaland

Recently, a friend and I travelled to some parts of North East India. Apart from the natural beauty that is so completely overwhelming, it was interesting to note the variety of work done by hand. There were handmade wraps of leaves to hold vegetables, woven bamboo containers that held oranges, bamboo baskets of all shapes and sizes, the matting for walls of tribal houses, thatched roofs and of course the beautiful cloth the region is famous for. 

The North Eastern region of India is not about 'wild and forgotten' lands and peoples (forgotten might still hold true). Modern machinery and goods have made its inroads into the villages and towns but demand is greater than supply. Instead of waiting for weeks or months for material to come over the mountains, from the nearby state of Assam, they continue to live as they have from time immemorial - self sufficiently.

A few photographs from the trip:

Ziro town, District HQ, Arunachal Pradesh

Woven baskets of bamboo used for all sorts of purposes

Woven containers and leaf wraps to hold produce & even live creatures.
Bottom left: hanging baskets hold crabs at a roadside market stall

Left: Hanging bridge with bamboo footboards but steel ropes & netting, the newer version.
Right: Only bamboo hanging bridge built fully by hand, the older version

The weaves created in almost every home with a smaller back-strap loom
(pink threads) or on larger hand looms mostly in govt. run craft centres

In and around the house - vessels from gourd to carry liquids;
backpack made of closely woven bamboo; walls of a home made of
bamboo matting and a ladder with deep notches for steps to climb up to the loft

Times are changing though, in larger towns, thatched roofs and walls of bamboo matting are giving way to concrete and tin roofs. Satellite dishes pop out of the tops of most houses and in the evenings as we walked along the homes, we could hear the latest soap operas and Bollywood tunes blaring from the television sets.  One can only hope that a modern outlook to life doesn't erode the better aspects of the traditional living all that easily.

The many chic ways of wearing a scarf

In India, our version of the scarf has traditionally been the dupatta or odhni. Larger and longer than regular scarves or stoles and covering a larger part of women's bodies than its western counterpart. 

Scarves are no strangers to us anymore, though. It's an essential accessory to jazz up a plain dress or add colour to a monochrome outfit. 

Wearing just one in different ways makes it look like a different scarf each time. Here are a few options:

A style that's perfect when you feel that nip in the air (like now!) 

Carry it off in style, draped across your arms, for an evening out

Falling down across your shoulders - looks chic as well as practical enough to leave your arms free











(The fuchsia embroidered scarf seen in the photographs above is available at A Full Moon.)

There are oodles more resources on the internet which show you intricate ways to wrap scarves, each one more creative than the other.