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Sanhita Kar

@jugglersboat

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I learn and juggle with crafts here. Interested in any? DM me.
And I cook and click @karsanhita
https://youtu.be/iRs-_bsm4Is

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The time when we went to school, people didn't waste their imagination in designing school uniforms. The skirts and shorts were navy blue, light blue, gray and in one odd school red (we envied them). The shirts were universally white. Every mother has struggled to maintain its whiteness though. Brands like Tinopal, Robin blue and much later Ujala thrived on this struggle.
Now there are such lovely checks and stripes incorporated in school uniforms. Perhaps the number of schools have gone up substantially and so has the need for variety to distinguish them from each other. But I do rue the fact that I couldn't don a gingham check shirt to school!

The name Gingham apparently came from the Malay word Genggang, which means striped. Gingham came to France in 17th century, as a striped cotton fabric from Malaysia. In Vichy , they made checks and got the present day Gingham hence called Vichy fabric too. As it moved to Brittany it was tried with plaid pattern too, mostly in blue.
We do get Gingham in many colours now, white with blue, red, orange green, purple, brown, black etc. It's also available sans the white in red and black or brown and black. However, of all the combinations, blue and white remains my favourite, the original colours.
Gingham fabric makes my fingers itchy to do some Chicken Scratch embroidery on them. So these two Gingham cushion covers in my favourite blue and white couldn't escape their fate.

#ginghamfabric #chickenscratch #embroidery #cushionswithembroidery #handembroidered by @jugglersboat

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10 days ago

The Potters wheel always held me mesperised in its rotation and the magical touch of the experienced hand which transformed that shapeless lump of mud into pretty and identifiable objects. As young girls when we visited our grandparents' , we often crossed the dwellings of potters, stop there to observe. Their wheel was manual, a wooden wheel of a bullock-cart, the centre part was flat where the potter slapped the lump of mud and started rotating the wheel by hand. It was rigorous work to keep rotating the wheel by pushing it, dipping hands in water and using both the hands to shape the mud. After some time one forgets which step follows what as the wheel and shape changing object become one, holding one captive in its turns. It was like observing a well rehearsed dance, all three things happening together without a break till a pretty pot was created. I wanted to be that dancer!
However, it eluded me for decades. Then I saw the movie Ghost. Watched Demi Moore deftly giving shape to her creative thoughts, but on an electrical wheel. Still it was no less fascinating. That movie left a mark.on my mind, for many reasons including this.
After some more decades, when I was sure that I'll never be that dancer, an opportunity came to learn a few steps. This time I didn't miss it. No, I'm not on my way to become that dancer. Nor do I rue what I didn't become. Rather I feel happy that I've touched the wheel and given shape to the mud to create something of my own. It felt like being touched with magic.
The firing and glazing was done by the trainer. The small bowl is made on potters wheel, large one handshaped.
Don't miss the video courtesy Naimisha @pleepleeplooploo at the end.

#potterswheel #potterymaking #ceramiccoating #handmade #joyofmaking king by @jugglersboat

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23 days ago

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. by @jugglersboat

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a month ago

Quite some years back, I was talking to my niece, when she said, I've bought an interesting craft book, I'm sure you'll like it. She brought out a book called Huck Embroidery. There were very pretty patterns there and done in a way I've never seen before. It was a surface embroidery technique. I was intrigued and after returning home I decided to buy that book.
When Ma visited, I told her about it and showed her the book. She said, she knew it as Swedish Weaving and it required a fabric woven in a special way where two or three sts are left loose every alternate st. She knew the fabric as Cellula cloth.
It was the pre-internet times and after some futile search for the fabric in the local craft shop, I decided to try it out on Matty cloth! And voila! It worked. I did quite a few patterns from the book. After that I didn't even open the book for a long long time.
Much later I came to know the specific fabric is called Monk's cloth and Huck is an abbreviation of Huckaback. While visiting the Kyläsaari Reuse/ Recycle Centre, which sells second hand as well as donated things, in Helsinki, I found some cotton fabric woven in a waffle pattern available for sale and a few pieces had some embroidery on them. Guess what! It was Huck embroidery. I picked up some of that fabric. The last photo with Huck embroidery on red was picked up from there.
My crafty friends circle informed me that Monk's cloth is available in Chennai. In the inimitable way this friend's circle functions, soon one of them arranged to get some for me.
In this bright blue fabric, I practiced my Huck embroidery after ages, to make some kitchen towels. Since the fabric seemed too light, I lined them too. Thanks to the internet, availability of patterns was not an issue. I also embroidered one on the waffle woven fabric in yellow ,that I got from Finland and loved the result.
It gets done so fast that it's perfect for instant gratification.
#huckembroidery #swedishweaving #surfaceembroidery #handembroidered #lovetoembroider by @jugglersboat

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2 months ago

-"Ma, I want to learn to embroider."
-"But the doctor has told you not to strain your eyes. As it is you keep reading all the time, despite our telling you to stop. You can learn to embroider later, as your eyes improve."
This had been a constant refrain in our home. Ma was an excellent embroiderer and she used to teach others, but not me.
I had some issues with my eyes, weak optic nerves which couldn't focus well. Regular eye exercises and specs were my companions from the age of two and half.
My eyesight started improving with age, slowly. I was 11 or so when Ma taught me my first stitches, while we were at our grandparents'.
I learnt it on hessian cloth. Grains for the household used to come packed in large jute bags. The ones which were denser with more even weave, grandma will rip the seams, wash and kerp. At leisure, she'd embroider on them, put a lining to make covers for chair-backs and seats, aasans, bags. Those looked beautiful. The embroidery thread used to be collected and stored from the borders of old Bengal cotton sarees, ensuring fast colour. The words recycling/upcycling were yet to be coined. I too started with that. During that one month my wayward sts stabilized and became even.
Ma bought some Matty cloth only after that. I made table covers for the side and centre tables. The pattern was a bunch of grapes from a DMC booklet. Though a few bunches looked as if the fox had just been able to reach and nip a bit, it wasn't a bad effort for my first work.
Cross St has remained my go-to embroidery plan since. Just for information, Ma did teach me other embroidery sts, a few years later.
The current project allowed me to go wild with colours. Though I did the exercise of selecting colours like the prototype, but soon strayed in a big way and followed my heart.
I started this along with a few friends, which made it all the more enjoyable.
However, the best moment came when while talking on a video call, I showed it to my daughter and my 2.5 yr old granddaughter peeped in , said, Flowers! Nice! And claimed it.
#crossstitch #handembroidered #lovetoembroider # floralembroidery by @jugglersboat

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2 months ago

My eldest aunt was a prolific knitter. Eldest daughter of her generation, in a joint family, she was one of the first three girls who joined in Intermediate Science class in the then prestigious Patna Science College. She got married after she completed her ISc, but had already picked up knitting from her mother, my grandaunt. The bug never left her. We saw her more closely when my father and her husband got posted in the same place. Come winter, BaRopishi's (eldest aunt) fingers will be flying with her needles at a knuckles- break speed. She'll keep chatting with Ma and the column of cables will grow, neatly placed. It looked magical.You meet her after a week, she has finished the previous and started on another.
One winter she started a black shawl in a delicate and pretty lace pattern allover. Like always, words from her mouth and knitting on the needles were flying. Yes she could knit lace perfectly and confidently, while talking and listening to music. But then my aunt was MY aunt. As she almost reached the finish line she spread the shawl out and realised that after increasing the sts at one side for some time, she had started increases on both sides and the shawl has acquired a hithertofor unknown geometrical shape. She promptly handed it over to my mother, to do whatever she wants to do with it. With the knitting-spiked blood in my veins I can still visualise the pretty lace pattern.
I knitted my first lace shawl only in 2008. And like those who jump in where angels fear to tread, I took up a test. Though it involved quite a bit of ripping, I did complete it (Last pic). Learnt a lot too.
I got addicted to lace shawls thereafter and knitted quite a few and that's when, in those pre-internet days I fell in love with Sampler Shawl and bought the book, "Victorian Lace Today". I knitted a few other scarves from the book but knitted the Sampler Shawl only now. An elbow issue ensured that I knit slowly and I did enjoy the slow process. Following the footsteps of my aunt , I made a couple of extra repeats and the shawl became longer. But I'm happy with the final look and drape.

#handknitted #laceshawl #handmadeshawl #lovetoknit #victorianlacetoday by @jugglersboat

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3 months ago

I completed drawing the tree
And looked at it, so happy
And told everyone around
My plea,
Be careful, don't touch
Let something not drop on it.
So it is off limit
For all.
All that for a drawing
So small.
The tree smiled and
Shook it's leaves.
And told me,
Lady, it took you
An hour or two,
When you focussed
And drew.
You care so much
For your work.
Think of me,
When I grow through
Light and dark
Of years and season,
Happy to spread my
Branches with reason,
So that squirrels and birds
Can build their nest,
And fly away and
return for rest.
Give out flowers and fruits,
Deep in the soil grow my roots,
Giving strength to the soil
So that it can foil
The bid to wash it away
When the rain has its sway.
Then you use the saw and
Make me fall.
Killing every effort
To stand tall.
Blowing out a story
Which took years
To reach its glory.
Without a second thought
This is the fate
Of my lot.
Sketches (inspired by photos and images on the Net)and photos are mine.

#worldenvironmentday2026 #environment #savetrees #savetreessaveearth by @jugglersboat

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4 months ago

When kids were toddlers and we were in Pune, a distant relative came visiting. A talented knitter, she gifted the kids three handknitted animals. I wasn't even aware of the word Amigurumi. One was a fish, the other a tortoise, I don't recall what was the third. Each was approx 3", with stripes in bright colours, no variegated yarn in those days. Those were treasured by me for a long time, but after shifting places and houses 8/9 times since then, they are still bright in my memory only.
I dared to start amigurumis much later and in crochet. Knitted ones seemed more fiddly. It's only about 10/12 years back that knitted my first amigurumi, a monkey.
Recently as the granddaughters were to come, instead of buying stuffed toys, I decided to knit a few. So the cockerel, fish and octopus arrived in quick succession. Other than grumbling why should the octopus have 8 tentacles, I didn't find them fiddly. They were all 6"-8".
I showed these to my husband. After an apparently critical look he said, are octopuses so brightly coloured. Well cockerels are usually colourful. Thanks to snorkeling in Andamans and Lakshadweep, there was no comment about a blue fish. I said, children's toys have to be colourful. I can't possibly knit a grey- brown octopus and expect them to find that attractive! But I went back and searched on the Net about the colour of the octopus! Thank you, thank you the Family Octopus! There are at least five species, which are bright red-orange in colour!! I proudly went back and showed him the photos!!
Honestly speaking I wouldn't have felt crestfallen, if there were no red-orange octopus. Mine was brightly coloured and that's it! We, the crafters, do love our creations!!

#amigurumi #knittedtoys #handmade #knittedanimals #lovetoknit by @jugglersboat

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5 months ago

Learning never ends. Especially for a person like me, who despite her limited capabilities, would like to learn a new craft any time, that it crosses her path. I may or may not continue working on that in the long run, because I'm aware of my limitations thankfully.
Having walked down decades of path in life, I realised, it's been a wonderful journey learning new crafts. Call me nosy, curious whatever, but the process of learning is so enjoyable for me. So here I am, a forever learner.
However, there are a few crafts, to which I have some obvious bias and when I learn something new there, I invariably keep practicing it to improve. Embroidery is one such craft.The first time I saw the Lambani embroidery, I was smitten with it. There are such novel variations of simple stitches, giving a different and more beautiful look. Of course, use of limited, vibrant and basic colours is also an attraction.Just think, that these were developed by women from the nomadic tribes, who did this embroidery to beautify their own simple clothes, taking them to a different level altogether. They did this after doing all their daily chores. Forever in movement, their life may not have stability, but they were the true artists to continue with their art form and develop it.
Whenever, I locate a kurta, newly bought (yes, some are bought with this purpose) or an old one, where there is a possibility of doing some embroidery, I think and smile, why not!! So such kurtas have become my ground for learning and practising different stitches of Lambani. This kurta also is not new and I decided to embroider on it to change its looks and change it did!
#handembroidered #lambaniembroidery #embroideryonkurta #embroidery #tribalembroidery by @jugglersboat

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5 months ago

Long ago, the annual examination will be over in the first week of December. After the dreaded day of declaration of results was gone and life has returned to normal, we'll enjoy the Christmas holidays thoroughly, the outcome of the results notwithstanding. It's only in the last week that our parents will buy the books and copies for the next academic year, along with rolls of brown paper to cover them and sheets of stickers for writing the name and class of the proud owners.
Till class three we were helped by Ma, to put the covers. With the patience of a saint, she'll show us the correct way of folding the paper, to get the right size and tips of how to fold the corners in sharp triangles. The writing of names in the nearest hand will take another day. By then we were ready to go and start the new class.
Years later we repeated the same routine with my daughters, only the sessions have shifted to an April to March one and the brown paper came with a plastic coating. How much better that protected the books was a question though!
My mother will insist that we put covers, with newspapers this time on the Puja annuals that every Bengali household acquired. Full of stories, novels, poems these were treasure troves and precious, these were published by reputed publishing houses of Kolkata. They still do.
Time brought in drastic changes and I, who loved and still loves, the feel of a physical book, smell of the new and old books, switched over to a Kindle more than a decade back. But that instinct of putting a cover made me buy readymade covers for my Kindle. But soon the crafty fingers itched and it got a crocheted cover. Crafted with a pretty design, the cover, wiped away a wee bit of the guilt of abandoning physical books.
Recently, a dear friend said she'll be happy to get a cover for her Kindle, I volunteered to make one. I procrastinated but finally made and mailed it.
#kindlecover #crocheted #handmade #crochetersofinstagram by @jugglersboat

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6 months ago

When my daughter had just about started crawling, she'll crawl and with her tiny fingers pick up small things like a tiny seashell, fallen bead, broken crayon and bring it to us (if she hasn't already put it in her mouth, that is), with a big smile. These are things which we adults, busy otherwise, missed. We don't have the time to pause and notice.
The topic of this exhibition Seeing Small Things made me pause, breathe and look at the small things with a different eye. The joy I felt in noticing, reminded me of my daughter's smile, when she found those treasures. Treasures these are, in abundance, if we notice.
Nature is bountiful, spreading charm in every nook and corner for us to see, to observe, to notice, some we miss some we notice and interpret them in our own way, through our own imaginations, colouring it with our own thoughts and life's experiences. So observation of one may not match with the person next. But what each of us see, has a beauty of its own, created by personal thought process and ability to think.
My work was a fibre and fabric collage, with some beads and a little silk roving. Each part looks at a different thing and they merge together to create the whole 2'x2' piece.
Exhibition was held under the aegis of @_artlane_ curated by @smitadeshpande and @vedpathakmanisha from 7-9 march 2026.

#seeingsmallthings #artexhibition #fabricandfibrecollage #embroidery #artproject by @jugglersboat

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7 months ago

At ArtLane , the artists matters as much as the art .
Welcoming artist Sanhita Kar to our upcoming exhibition on 7th-9th March 2026 at The Poona Western Club , Bhugaon.

Watch this space.

#seeingsmallthings #artlane #kalagoshthi2026#artlane #meettheartist2026 by @jugglersboat

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7 months ago