Walking Into the Light

So now I am in the fourth week of being in Godawari. Some of the bangle sculptures have been completed by the girls and we have been making animals, clay on a metal armature, so that we can create part moulds for repeat casting. All useful skills. The director of the charity returned to Nepal this week and this morning we met with a contact of his who is opening a shop in Kathmandu, just the day I fly from Delhi ironically. She is interested in selling mosaics and ceramics and anything else the girls make. Much to my delight she was very taken with the bangle sculptures and we talked about what sort of figures we could make, woman carrying baskets and water carriers. I now feel filled with enthusiasm, but realise that the large scale naga (snake sculpture) is probably out of the question. Last week there was a naga festival and pictures of nagas appeared on everyone’s gates, including ours. I am still pursuing ideas about these potent fertility symbols. I have been told that there are many stories of snakes coming in the form of women and luring men into relationains with them. They then turn in snakes again. The daughters of nagas are half woman half snake and called Naga Kanya. I am pleased that in some way the work that I am creating with the girls is relating to ideas that are circulating in my mind for my own work.