Vidya Featured In Hindu Newspaper!

Jewel in the crowd
by BINDU TOBBY

Economics Major turned jewellery designer Vidya Gopal says her venture Adya started as a fun activity.

“I strongly feel that we no longer need to have careers defined by one aspect of our education or strengths; we have the ability to develop multiple interests and work in areas that speak to us in diverse ways,” says Vidya Gopal, quite simply.

With a bachelor's degree in Marketing and a Masters degree in Economics (from The Ohio State University, USA) becoming a jewellery designer was not really a natural extension of her educational background.

Her venture ‘Adya' started out as a simple interest after she was introduced to the techniques of making necklaces and earrings by her mother-in-law who used to have a jewellery business herself. “It was always a fun activity for me to work with her collection of beads whenever I visited. Given my love for travelling and shopping, I started developing a collection of beads during my trips. I was able to create designs that incorporated the different cultural influences, arts, and crafts of the places that I had visited,” says Vidya.

Her pieces try to mirror her global experiences and each of them, which is one of a kind, is further customised to the specifications that her clients have.

She says, “One my favourite beads is the ‘Shiva's Eye' from Dharamsala. It is a beautiful shell bead with a natural swirl and while the swirl has many connotations across different cultures, (Tibetan symbol for the origins or seed of the universe) this symbolism resonated with me deeply as I started my new venture.” She adds, smiling, “As I combine these beads in my designs I hope that it carries that feeling of new beginnings and potential energy for those who wear the jewellery, apart from looking stunning!”

Her first local exhibition in Bangalore was at the 2009 Christmas Bazaar at the Spastics Society of Karnataka, followed by a small showing at the ‘Things' boutique in Domlur earlier this year.

Her online store is based at Etsy (a global community of buyers and sellers of handicrafts ranging from jewellery to furniture) and designs (mainly necklaces) are available online at adyadesigns.etsy.com.

A peek at the online store is a treat with each piece captivating you with its brilliant colours, combinations and subtle elegance.

Since Adya does not have a retail presence in India, the prices currently listed against each of her pieces are US dollar prices but she is happy to work with any clients locally and discuss materials, pricing and specifications of the jewellery.

She adds, “The next steps for Adya Designs in terms of evolving the product further is to source beads and materials from local women's co-operative societies, communities and artists at fair trade prices — sourcing papier-mâché beads from women co-operatives in Ghana or Tibetan beads from the refugee community for example would not only address the global perspective that is part of the design of the product, but also allow me to play a small part in helping promote and sustain local arts and handicrafts around the globe”

Vidya can be contacted on adyadesigns1@gmail.com or through the online store website at adyadesigns.etsy.com

Note, the original online article can be found on the Hindu newspaper website here.

Backpacking trip to Bigelow Range

This weekend, I decided to take advantage of the great Maine weather and go on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Bigelow Preserve in Western Maine. The trip started near Flagstaff Lake, the fourth largest body of water in Maine that was created in 1950 when the power company dammed the river (apparently, there are even some remnants of a few towns underwater!). I then hiked up to the Appalachian Trail (AT) and hiked the ridge line of the Bigelow Mountain Range until tenting out at the Horns Pond Campsite, where I met at least a dozen AT thru hikers that were on their way from Georgia to Katahdin - many of which have been hiking the 2175 mile trail since March!

On day 2, I volunteered to help some members of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) with their semi-annual task of cleaning out the campsite's two composting toilets (because the campsite is in a sub-alpine zone with very shallow soil depths, they are unable to use the much easier to maintain 'big hole in the ground' privies). The process consisted of mixing the 'waste' with wood chips, tilling it up, and then putting it in large bins to be 'cooked' by the sun before being dried and then distributed around the campsite as fertilizer. It is safe to say that this volunteering job will give me a lot of 'guilt free' hikes down the road.

Day 3 essentially took the same route back to Flagstaff Lake. Unfortunately, the cloud level was below the 4,000 foot peaks that I was hiking over, so much of the day was spent hiking in the fog. Regardless, it was a great trip that I would recommend to anybody looking to do a challenging but rewarding hike. Here's a bunch of photos from my trip, including the infamous composting toilets:

Vidya's Latest Jewelry Creations on Etsy!

Vid has really ramped up here jewelry designs over the past few months, and things have definitely come a long way since she first sold some earrings and necklaces at last year's Christmas Bazaar in Bangalore. Over the past few months Vid has come up with a ton of new creations and posted them for sale on ETSY.com, a website dedicated to selling handcrafted items directly from the creator. We've even come up with a cool and creative name for the store, Adya Designs! Here's a slide show of some of her latest items:



The rest of the designs can be found here. As this is still an evolving project, we'd love to get feedback.

We're Alive and Well!!!

Yes, we know that it's been more than 3 months since our last blog post. The need to update the blog was pointed out by more than one person this week, so a big thanks goes out to Emil and the Florritys for pushing us to make a new post. We could come up with a whole host of excuses, but the real reason is that we've been spending all of our free time watch you tube videos of our new favorite Tamilian performer and global phenom, Wilbur Sargunaraj. Here's a clip of one of his top hits, "Love Marriage":



In all seriousness, we've been wanting to post all of our recent adventures and updates, so consider this post just the beginning of our re-entry into the blog-o-sphere...

Tons of New Photos from Our Latest Adventure

Adam's parents came to visit us these past couple of weeks, and considering it is so hot in Bangalore, we decided to head back up north to the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. There, we spent some time in Dharamsala, the Indian home of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan Government. (his residence is in rear of photo)...

and Shimla, the former summer capital of British Raj...

On the way back home, we also stopped at Nek Chand's Famous Rock Garden in Chandigarh...


Everybody had a great time. We'll upload more photos to the blog soon along with a longer repot on the trip. In case you cannot wait, more photos from all 3 places can be found on our Picasa site.

Scenes from our Himalayan Trek

We just got back from a nearly two week trip to north India that was highlighted by a 9 day trek over Kuari Pass in the Garhwal Mountain region of the Himalayas. The altitude and steep slopes made the trek more difficult than we anticipated, but we managed to trek over 100km without any major problems. The breathtaking scenery that accompanied us most of the trip more than made up for the extra effort we had to put in climbing up and down the mountains. Here's a must see slide show from our trip, including a few photos from Rishikesh, where the trek we organized the trek through the outfitting company, Red Chilli Adventures.

Happy Tamil New Year!!!

Yesterday we celebrated the Tamil New Year which is called Vishu. The year is based on the lunar calendar from what I understand.

Vishu is actually one of my favorite festivals in India because of the way it's celebrated. Here goes the description. My mom usually wakes us up at dawn, and asks us to keep our eyes closed. She then takes us (eyes still closed) to her where she keeps an altar. She then gives us some water in our palms, and asks us to wash our eyes and open them.

When you open your eyes, you are greeted by a mirror right in front you, flowers, fruits, rice and other grains, basically all the things that are beautiful and essential to your life, including yourself. It's such a great way to start the new year!

A couple weeks back we also celebrated the Kannada new year, called Ugadi. The custom here is also really cool. You start the day by taking a shower, wearing nice clothes, etc. The first thing you eat is a mix of neem flowers which are bitter, and jaggery (raw sugar). Its points to the fact and probably reminds us to accept that life is bitter-sweet. Another really cool idea!

Here are some pictures from both the festivals. Needless to say yummy food consisting of whatever is in season is part of the parcel! Yay for mangoes! :)