WindowSeat

Traffic Stopper

2011-03-27T12:39:00.000+05:30

It's 9pm.
In the midst of the Aravalli ranges.
From Jaipur to Ranthambore.
Happy decorated trucks in the front. Even more trucks at the back.
A 3 hour journey turns out to be a 5.
Oh! there must have been a break down.
Oh! There must have been an accident.
Oh! We are stuck.
Oh! It's moving.
Happy but curious..
Heads out..
What was the problem?
Oh I see!!!

A wedding procession.
Oohk! Got it..
( My recent trip to Ranthambore had a whole lot of stories to tell me. This is one of the many.)

A different Life away..

2011-02-25T20:36:00.007+05:30

From the clutter of everyday chaos.
From difficult minds.
From the to-do endless list.
From the 'I don't care'.
From the 'Now.'

to a place where..
Everyone seem to be doing their own thing.
Dawn and Dusk were the only words known for a watch.
'Their' time was more important than 'my' time.
'Patience','silence' & ' hearing' were the key words.
There were countless 'choose to ignore' calls.
All you could hear is the 'call' of the jungle.
*few postcards from my recent visit to Ranthambore to visit the Tiger Queen.
* more on Flicker and 'No-Makeup'

I love...

2011-01-23T14:58:00.007+05:30

Walking slowly on a shiny day.
Soaking in the old lanes.
The echo of people underground.
The speed of light on a wide road.
Red Stilettos.
Large Windows.
Glittering Mannequins.
Black & White romance.
Live expression of love on streets.
Raindrops on my nose.
The fragrance of fresh bread.
Dash of cinnamon.
A Steaming coffee.
Bonjour! Paris!

What makes me Happy?

2010-11-28T17:18:00.003+05:30

Colours of earth splashing by.
The evening light on my face.
Long trees. A book on my side.
Hair strands caressing.
Birds chirping in the blue sky.
The song of wind- my favourite jingle
Few postcards from a short trip to a place called 'Saswad'(outskirts of Pune)

1 KG

2010-10-02T17:20:00.163+05:30

The nurse grinned at me and ordered "Lets check your weight.
As soon as they were born, the most famous question was asked "What's their weight?"
I implemented my passion for design when my babies arrived. In the midst of sleepless nights, nappy changing, 'Fat' from any angle and 'silly, yet to believe' postpartum depression, I had couple of friends and a husband who had been literally forcing me to put my junk ideas into action & here I am with 1 KG - an innovative gift accessory lineup from cheap everyday stuff.

Love of drinking forever! Bottles converted into photo stands

Beer-juice glass/ Pen stand/ planters


Boring hangers to funky holders

Milk tins to gift boxes

Do mail me with your requests at ask1kg@gmail.com and we can work out customised gifts for yourself or for your dear ones.

Tribal Innocence

2010-02-13T15:41:00.003+05:30

These pictures are from my recent trip to Kalahandi- South of Orissa. They are the Kutiya kandha tribes-One of the 32 different tribes in orissa - North East India.

There are more on Flickr! Enjoy the Tribal Innocence.

Chai Time

2010-01-08T15:29:00.000+05:30

This a customized 'chai' set I made for a dear friend for New Year.

I enjoyed the process of making this chai set.

And on being forced by my dearest ones, am now open to customizing more such chai cups, with all kind of desires you want to portray on it. After all its a 'chai' set for yourself or the dear one you are gifting to.

Do mail { if you feel like :-) } with your requests on ashwinyiyer@gmail.com

A new Beginning

2010-01-01T22:47:00.000+05:30

I made a sculpture of the space where the sculpture was going to be.Then I made a sculpture of you looking at the sculpture. Then I made a sculpture of you sitting and thinking about the sculpture. Then I made a sculpture of me halfway writing a letter asking you what you think of my sculpture. Then I made a sculpture of me setting fire to all the sculptures. Then I made a sculpture of wondering why i did that?

Then I made a sculpture of me wondering what to sculpt next.

Then I made a sculpture of someone buying all my sculptures.

Then I made a sculpture of me spending all the money in buying everything I like.

Then I made a sculpture of me morbidly obese. Sitting and wheezing.

Then I made kinetic sculptures of me lifting weights, working out.

They were inspirational.

Then I made a sculpture of me on top of Mount Everest.

It was too heavy. It was like trying to climb Mount Everest in one go.

I dropped it into a enormous pit.

My blissful eye following away deeper and deeper into darkness.

When I finally got on to the top,

I couldn't believe there was the most awesome sculpture there.

Shocked. Surprised.

Long time. Gone away. Back to where I belong. It happens.

Happy 2010

Love.Pray.Eat

2009-07-14T20:45:00.000+05:30

I have been dying to get out and explore new places. Get to know new people and learn and unlearn life. Here are some pictures of real faces & everyday life in my recent trip to the interior villages of Pondicherry, Tanjore and Nagapatnam. They only capture the true meaning of life- Love.Pray.Eat.

Love..

Pray..

Eat...

Make yourself a cup of tea.

Enjoy the rains while browsing through a window of images I have managed to capture on flicker.

Have fun! :-)

A series of Thankyou...

2009-06-21T23:30:00.000+05:30

I have indeed been out of sight.

There were far too many things happening and too little time.

I have missed a lot of action and did realise that if I am not here, there is something I have been missing.

So here is my long thankyou list, I have been waiting to write.. :-)

I need to thank kavita from Indianbydesign for recommending my inspired home to ApartmentTherapy. They not only featured the house but also rated it as the one of the best house tours during that week.

I even want to thank 'Society Interiors' for featuring my Inspired home in the May 2009 issue.

I felt really nice and touched to see so many well-wishers, friends, appreciating the work and giving me ideas.

I was Happy. I was encouraged. I had admirers. I had critics. I got a few commissions.

And it all happened here, when I started this blog just out of sheer boredom and as an experiment to express my 'true' work and 'thoughts'.

I thank each one of you who have been regulars here.

And a special thankyou to...

Archana from RangDecor.

Vineeta from ArtnLight.

Pavitra from Masalachaionline.

'You' have unknowingly inspired me a lot.

Hopefully I will share some ongoing work soon with all you wonderful fellow bloggers. :-)

Till then. I promise my self to be updated & update here.

As someone has rightly said 'When you tell your old story. You discover a new one.'

A glimpse of the article in Society Interiors-India

In the Morning!

2009-02-14T14:37:00.000+05:30

My laziness does not allow me to be an early morning person.
Although I love the early morning sunrise.Birds chirping.Etc etc.
Recently I had to wake up.
I had to make tea for myself.
My eyes had to open.
I realised early mornings are indeed beautiful.
So here are some of those moments captured.
Which I wouldn't see otherwise.

Adding 'light' to home

2009-02-01T23:07:00.000+05:30

I switch them 'ON' and 'OFF' everyday without realizing how important they are to set the mood of the house & how they reflect my mood too.

A 'tribute' to the different light forms of my 'home'.

When colour is B/W...

2009-01-25T22:26:00.003+05:30

Let me first thank ' The key bunch' and about time now for placing windowseat design in blogs they love to visit.

I hope to keep this love for design alive and going.

My series of posts for a couple of weeks are going to be on various small artifacts I have collected over the years.
When we see a home in complete, these are the ones which actually get neglected.
So here is a small tribute to the all the knick-knacks which play such an important role in making a 'home' complete.
Since every piece has been picked at some point of my life and has a story, they are in B/W.
The nostalgia will continue every time I see these pictures.

Coasters- some of the many I have.

1st one is made of cinnamon from Langkawi.Its smells awsome.

2nd- Hand Painted Aboriginal Art from Australia

3rd -My favorite series of Vangog paintings. This is one of the series

4th- China-clay Portuguese design influenced by the muslim architecture.

5th- The french 'cat ' series. I only like the graphics though.

In a really chilly late evening at Delhi Haat I saw a woman from Mizoram selling this hookah. The smoky hookah was a perfect buy for the weather.

These hand made clay hands which is actually an incense holder caught my eyes in a small village near Changmai in Thailand.

Really expensive toffees which cannot be eaten.

Neatly crafted glass toffees picked on the banks of romantic venice.

A dash of masala in my life.

2009-01-18T14:32:00.000+05:30

This small 'thankyou' message is for
Pavitra from Masalachaionline.
For featuring my home.
For giving me the confidence to explore more design.
For getting new contacts, friends, well wishers and bystanders looking into my window.
Thankyou!

black and white lines

2009-01-03T16:47:00.000+05:30

I have always been fascinated by continues lines especially black and white which form an image. And these few pieces of work are just an extension of something I had in my mind.

A Thankyou note

2008-12-31T17:43:00.000+05:30

This is a thankyou note to all my fellowbloggers .
For taking time out and commenting on my work.
Thanks Kavita from indianbydesign for considering and featuring me as one of your Indian fellow design blogger.

My new Inspired home

2008-10-21T15:42:00.000+05:30

It’s been really long that I have posted anything. But I guess after a long time I am happy to re-start with my newly renovated house pictures. I have not completely renovated the house. Just changed the colours and added a few furniture here and there. But what I would like to share is my hand painted wooden furniture room. The whole room is painted by me. And it was fun.
The colours are truly inspired by the wanderers, the gypsies.
I needed a lot of guts to use these bright colours but I guess in the end it does look good after some experimentation. There are more pictures on flickr windowseatdesign
I have covered only the hall and study yet.

1st picture is of the room when it was getting done.

The red and moorish blue tile table has hand made by me.

Hand Painted racks and cupboards with some masks

and wooden animal toys I picked from Indonasia.

The Hand painted cupboard and racks

Hall Pictures

The curtains have not yet been changed. I have given them for stiching. Am using curtains made out of my moms old sarees. Was too eager to upload some pictures.:-)

The DVD rack was painted with calligraphic alphabets.

One part of my bedroom

The hand painted tanta cushions was picked in benaras while strolling in the market

Circles of faith

2008-08-24T20:54:00.000+05:30

When my mind wanders this is what appears on paper.
Some of my artwork interpretations in pen and ink on faith and destiny

Toleware

2008-08-10T18:45:00.000+05:30

Toleware facinates me. I have started painting and am slowly going to design different elements in tin. Its just a matter of time. Crossing my fingers!
Some of my work

Home Moods

2008-08-03T16:52:00.000+05:30

This week agenda was to share as many pictures and thoughts as I never know when will I find so much time to blog,meet and absorb so many creative minds out here.
Everyone's home is their reflection and its no different in my case too. These are some mood pictures of my house, clicked during this rainy season. Nothing fancy, but yes it does reflect my personality.[and my husbands too:-)] I somewhere realised that the colours I have used has glimpses of the tricolour. Proud to be an Indian!
Some more home pictures are on flickr

Mandu

2008-08-03T15:45:00.000+05:30

Perched along the Vindhya ranges at an altitude of 2,000 feet, Mandu - A village inside a fort is a celebration in stone, of life and joy, of the love of the poet-prince Baz Bahadur for his beautiful consort, Rani Roopmati. The balladeers of Malwa still sing of the romance of these royal lovers, and high up on the crest of a hill, Roopmati's Pavilion still gazes down at Baz Bahadur's Palace, a magnificent expression of Afghan architecture.
Under Mughal rule, Mandu was a pleasure resort, its lakes and palaces the scenes of splendid and extravagant festivities. And the glory of Mandu lives on, in legends and songs, chronicled for posterity.
Glimpse of some pictures when i had visited this beautiful place.Others are on flickr

Take a walk

2008-08-03T15:01:00.000+05:30

I realised that my feet has taken me to various grounds.
and its amazing to see how many visuals can be captured with your feet on various grounds :-)
There are a few more on flickr

Street Lights

2008-07-28T14:32:00.000+05:30

For a change I am covering different pictures of streetlights which I had clicked unknowingly over the years. These lights have their own importance and cannot be compared to home lights
For some it's their home.
For some its hope while they study under these lights.
For some its following paths.
For some its feeling secure from the dark.
Everyone would have had a 'streetlight' experience atleast once in their lives.

The other 'streetlight' pictures are on flickr
Will upload more as and when I click, now that I know I have to find a 'streetlight'

TypoTantra

2008-07-26T13:25:00.000+05:30

I have formed a new blog which will be exclusively for research and design in typography.
It's called typotantra
Right now it's at a beginners stage but I will soon be filling it with lots of new stuff.
Cheers!

A hotel inspired by Bras, Thailand

2008-07-25T17:42:00.000+05:30

There was a fisherman’s family who lived on this beach. They had a beautiful daughter who was desired by all. Her father decided to gives her daughter to different kings. Later they both came on the same day. The fisherman didn’t know what to do so he tore his daughter’s body in pieces and threw them into the sea. Her breast fell into the river in front of brassiere beach. The villagers felt pity for her so they made a spirit house where people come and give brassieres as an offering to her rest her soul and bring them good luck. That’s why there are lost of brassieres around the spirit house.
So the owners of this beach hotel in Pranburi, Thailand kept the name of their beautiful abode as Brassiere beach.
And I had the opportunity to shoot there a few years back by :-)

Key chains for the different rooms are like bras. The names of the rooms are various brands of lingerie like Wacow, sabrina, Triumph,Victoria Secret etc. Check out their site at http://www.brassierebeach.com/

Greetings from Portugal

2008-07-20T22:54:00.000+05:30

I was lucky and delighted that i got to visit parts of Portugal. If you have seen Goa, Lisbon is her godmother. I guess pictures talk more. Here are some beautiful pictures of Lisbon architecture - A city build on 7 hills with mix of modernity and traditional sights to see.

Yellow wall

Windows on white wall

Mirrors being sold in a shop with moorish design

Typical door and staircases.

design on doors

Clothes hanging outside houses

Just back

2008-07-20T22:34:00.000+05:30

I am just back from a vacation and I have been wanting to share and write loads of stuff. Will start soon on the number of things I have found.

Vie

2008-05-27T18:43:00.001+05:30

Vie is this place I recently visited for a shoot near Panchgini. I later discovered its the same place where Swades was shot. I couldn't believe my eyes that within a few hours from Mumbai we were in a place which was once upon a time ruled by the Peshwas and a lot of things are still preserved in the fort. The house of Bajirao Mastani is still there which overlooks a stream of river bypass. Women come in early and still wash clothes and children still jump into the water and swim and take a bath. What a feeling in this heat. I was standing on the ground where the 5 rivers meet. There are so many places unexplored in India which are incomparable to any place in the world.
My feet are still on the ground

Children jumping into the water

A young girl learing to swim.
Please look closer she is actually using plastic cans as floaters.
How innovative!

A typical house with it vibrant colours.

Even the school is bright and chirpy

The hanuman Akhada. I was not allowed inside though.

My best friends hut

2008-05-27T18:15:00.000+05:30

I wanted to cover 'Chattai' for a long time.
Chattai is my friend/boss's dream come true when she actually decided that she had to see a resort in Goa. One of my best experiences so far more than doing up my house from choosing the curtains, the furniture to spending one week working with the carpenters, bamboo guys, garderners plus working from there on my respective accounts. I love Chattai, I love Goa.
Goa has been my escape ground for any reason, whatever comes at that point of time. All emotions lead to Goa. Chattai is the hard work of Kumuda in Palolem and a recent extension in Agonda, South Goa. you can visit her site at http://www.chattai.co.in/
Chattai logo which i designed for her

Different views of Chattai

Sea view from the huts

Temple font

2008-05-18T20:39:00.000+05:30

I like designing fonts. That's something which just makes me happy. Font designing is a combination of logic and creativity. In my attempt to design fonts whenever I can i had started with a font named as 'temple' a year back. A lot of finishing is still required. It still has to be converted in fontographer but never the less I have started and feel good about my progress.I am researching and now trying to create various others fonts which can be purely Indian but in English Typeface.

Almost all Indian art has been religious, and almost all forms of artistic tradition have been deeply conservative. The Hindu temple developed over two thousand years and its architectural evolution took place within the boundaries of strict models derived solely from religious considerations. Therefore the architect was obliged to keep to the ancient basic proportions and rigid forms which remained unaltered over many centuries. Source - Indiantemples

The French Typeface

2008-05-18T16:30:00.000+05:30

First page of the first volume of the Gutenberg Bible, printed with an early textur typeface c. 1455. The decorative colored initials were hand-lettered separately by a scribe.

16th century France
Typography was introduced to France by the German printers Martin Crantz, Michael Freyburger and Ulrich Gering, who set up a press in Paris in 1470, where they printed with an inferior copy of the Lactantius type. Gothic types dominated in France until the end of the 15th century, when they were gradually supplanted by roman designs. Jodocus Badius Ascensius in partnership with Henri Estienne (Josse Bade) established a press in Paris in 1503. Printing with undeveloped Roman and half-Gothic types, the French pair were too occupied meeting the demand for Humanistic and classical texts to design any original types of their own. French books nonetheless began to follow the format established by Italian printers, and Lyon and Paris became the new centers of activity.
Source-wikiepedia

Source - www.designhistory.org

The Golden Age of French Typography Claude Garamond was commissioned by Simone de Colines to cut the first matching roman and italic face. He operated solely as a punch cutter, not as a printer and was one of the first to design and cast faces for sale to printers. On right is a set of his matrices. He is said to have freed type from calligraphic influences.

The new Era of french Type

I was researching and found photographs of shopfronts and roadside signages in Flickr randomly on the big internet sea . Few are pictures which I had clicked in an artist village called saint-pauldevence an hour train ride from Cannes in South France.

Typefaces in a typical cafe, art studio shopfront in france.

Some other pictures of radom typefaces on buildings, facades and shopfront.

A lot of french and Roman Typeface has been used in India with the influence of British and the French in our architecture especially Mumbai. Some pictures of Mumbai which depicts typeface similar to the French/Greek Typography which is also because of the wealthy Parsees industrialist families who were the early settlers of Mumbai. Most of the old city charm and art deco is because of their intrests. I need to go and click some pictures which I have been thinking for a long time. I should be doing that soon.

Source - Typocity

The power of letters

2008-05-17T18:22:00.000+05:30

For the love of typography i am going to post every form of letters in design which attracts me. These letters tell me something everytime I look at it. I have been clicking pictures when ever I could & where ever I could see a design form. I start off with the master of Design Stefan Sagmeister My all time favourite designer, guru whatever!
I recently had the opportunity to hear him at Ad fest in Pattaya where he was the jury chairman of Design Category. I shook hand with him :-) and he was about 6 feet amd i am around 5 feet so it was almost looking up to your master. And like anyone else hovering around him I too wanted to click a picture with him. And alas when I clicked the picture. It was blur!! I clicked one more.
You need guts to be like him and lead a life like you want to. Every 4 years I think in the month of June or July he stops working for 1year and explores and revives his designs in that 1 year. A few pieces of his work which he translated from his diary. His designs are individual master pieces.
Excerpts from his site http://www.thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com/
The idea for this site originally came out of my own list in my diary, under the very same title: Things I have learned in my life so far. Astonishingly, I have only learned twenty or so things so far. Over the last five years I did manage to publish these maxims all over the world, in spaces normally occupied by advertisements and promotions: as billboards, projections, light-boxes, magazine spreads, annual report covers, fashion brochures, and, recently, as giant inflatable monkeys.
What have you learned in your life so far? What is it that you are fairly sure about? What is it that you believe in by now?Please do write it down beautifully. Design it digitally, photograph it, draw it, scan it and upload it.
He says everyone should keep a diary and express their thoughts in it. I completely believe in it but in this age of computers I sometimes think how many time have I picked a pen and written in my small diary?

shiva's art

2007-08-16T18:37:00.000+05:30