Hardworking Hands

Guizhou, 2006

This silversmith, creating exquisite silver accessories to be worn by Miao minority women in Guizhou, has his own clever way to "mass produce" his handiwork.

Posting at Mary's Sepia Scenes, where you will find links to other interesting sepia images.

Organic Indigo

Today we take blue jeans for granted. But before the time synthetic dyes could be made to color cotton yarn, blue fabric was not always so easy to get.

Here in the poor mountain province of Guizhou featured earlier, minority women still extract natural indigo from the plant Indigofera like it was done before the turn of the 20th century. The indigo is used to color their beautiful ethnic costumes and other household textiles.

This ethnic Miao woman is in the process of extracting the indigo blue from the leaves... And I couldn't help wonder how long it would take for her hands to turn back to their natural skin color.

Guizhou, 2006

These images are posted for Alphabe Thursday hosted by Jenny where the prompt was the color INDIGO. Click on the link to see how others posted for the theme.

Lacy Reflection

Manila, 2010

Long before they became common, in the mid-70s when I was still in university, a friend and I fantasized about opening a bookstore-and-cafe after we graduated. Too bad we went our separate ways and lost the opportunity to be ahead of a trend. To this day I like the idea, being a lover of both books and coffee.

This past week I had a delicious pesto pasta lunch in The Room Upstairs where they've taken that multi-purpose retail space business model a step further: upscale furniture and food. 

My friend Rose posed for me here in this photograph I took for Weekend Reflections. Click on the meme name to find more links to reflections.