Vernice Church - Textiles, the Taj Mahal & tuk tuks

After the formal AGM our October speaker was Branch Member, Vernice Church.  Last year Vernice was invited to go on a 19 day textile tour of India.  

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She started her talk by showing us a map of India and explained her journey starting in Delhi, moving on into Utter Pradesh, then Rajasthan and ending in Gujarat.  Images of tuk tuks, motorbikes transporting families, unusual doors, windows, buildings, ladies in colourful saris and animals gave us an insight into a country with a completely different culture to our own.   Many of the photos showed amazing textures, shapes and colours which could be used as inspiration for textile projects.

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​Vernice then showed us the various styles and techniques of the tribes in the different states she visited - Bandhani, Banjara, Shisha, Rabari, Sujani, Phulkari and Applique. They all used vibrant colours but each was very different.

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​The group tour started  in Delhi, where they were shown the main sights, then moved south to Agra and one of the highlights of Vernice’s tour was an early morning visit to the Taj Mahal.  They then continued to Jaipur, the pink city, where they had an elephant ride up to the Amber Fort,  visited the Anokhi Hand Block Printing Museum, watched a cookery demonstration and attended a block printing workshop.  There was a lot of retail therapy and Vernice showed us wonderful throws, books and souvenirs of her holiday.   En route to Jodpur they visited  the Chippa Community in the town of Bagru to see their Dying and Block Printing processes.  Vernice concluded this first part of her talk by telling us about her visit to Jodpur, the blue city, where she visited the Mehrangarth Fort. 

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We now look forward to the second instalment of Vernice's trip when she visits Udaipur and then moves into Gujarat, the home of textiles in India.

​Report and photos by Ros