A mass demotion

There are no PFDs here.*

Yesterday we called an emergency meeting of all our paddling gear, poured a few drinks, and broke the news as gently as we could. All the PFDs are now lifejackets**, we explained. We're sorry, but this wasn't our decision, we told them. We're only following orders.
The MsFits took it well. One of the Lotuses shed a few tears. The Locean asked for another shot.

* with apologies to Alex Kotlowitz.
** see the italicized portion at the end of the previous post.

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Stapleless Boat Building

Today Glen posted on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board a link to photos from the recent joint WCHA reunion and Bear Mountain Rendezvous 2008. Going through a few of those photos, something caught my eye (aside from many beautiful wooden boats). It was a series of photos that depicted a novel method of securing strips for stapleless building. Building with wood strips requires that the strips be held tightly to adjacent strips while the glue dries, and to the station mold for the duration of the stripping. Typically, staples are used to achieve this. Staples are fast and effective, but they do leave behind a row of little holes at each station. Many builders use clamps, jigs, tape and bungee cord (or all of the above) to hold the strips in place while building. I tried this initially while building the Guillemot, but I decided to revert to staples in the name of speed and efficiency. The method shown in Glen's photos from the BM Rendezvous uses a wire device attached to bungee to hold the strips down against the previous strips, the bungee is tightened using a chain that can be hooked to the right length to the strongback. Meanwhile, a strap which goes around each form keeps the strips tight to the forms. This latter component seems to solve one of the perpetual problems of some stapleless methods which would allow the joined strips to move away from the forms. In areas such as at the bow of the Guillemot kayak which have a concave curve, wedges would probably be needed to maintain the pressure to hold the strips tightly to the forms.

The straps and jigs are being assembled and sold as a kit by Ron Frenette of Canadian Canoes. The kits are pricey ($375) but seem like a pretty slick system for building a fine piece of woodcraft.

Teach early and often

After several days of paddling for fun -- something that goes by the term "personal paddling" in our kayak logs -- we were scheduled to teach a Level 2 class yesterday at Geneva Kayak Center. The class began at 9 a.m. at the Big Rock Quarry in Sugar Grove, but we had to leave our house pretty early to drive to Geneva; hitch up the trailer; load the spray skirts, life jackets*, paddles, pumps and paddle floats; stop for more coffee; and get to the quarry before the students arrived.

Time to get on the road. That's a.m., not p.m.

On the drive out, we reviewed our lesson plan, making a few modifications based on new ideas we'd been thinking and talking about. We wrote an outline on an index card and put it in a zip-lock baggie because we were too sleepy to keep more than one idea in our heads at a time, and right then, that idea was the need to drink more coffee.

Boats and gear are loaded up, and we're ready to head for the quarry.

Shortly after we arrived at the quarry, our students began showing up. They were excited, and their mood was infectious. Before long, the five-hour night was forgotten and time began to fly.

This is what makes it all worthwhile.

Six hours evaporated. We aren't even sure where they went. We worked on wet exits, strokes and rescues. We talked about safety and local paddling opportunities. And in the process, a group of strangers began to feel like a group of friends, and a group of beginners gained considerable skills. At the end, it was hard to say "good-bye," and many of them lingered, helping us strap down the boats and chatting.
Teaching is rewarding on many levels. Students force you to think about why and how you do the things that you do without thinking. They require you to figure out how they learn so you can effectively teach them. They remind you how far you've come as a paddler. And they reinforce your conviction that kayaking is a blast.

* Yes, we know. We wanted to write "PFDs," but we just got the following note from the American Canoe Association:
"USCG says 'Lifejackets'
"It has been clarified by the USCG that the use of the term
lifejackets is back and should be used when discussing the essential
piece of equipment all paddlers should have and should wear.
"The only time the term / acronym PFD is being used is when discussing
the types of lifejackets and/or regulation issues.
"It will be a challenge for many of use [sic] to change the terminology that
we use, but to keep with the winds of change we thought you should
know that the USCG will be using 'lifejackets' for general terms
and PFD for regulatory reference."
A challenge, indeed!

Crosstraining redefined

The BCU (British Canoe Union) recently revised its requirements for certified coaches, requiring more interdisciplinary skills. It's no longer sufficient to be able to teach one type of paddlesport; coaches are now expected to be able to teach students to paddle a variety of boat types.
We've begun an interdisciplinary approach of our own, too, though mostly in jest.

Stand-up paddling. Harder than it looks!

Skin-on-frame boat with Euro paddle. Sillier than it looks.

Ready, set, surf!

Yesterday, Hannah, Alec & Sharon took Clare (8) and her mom, Karin, to 63rd Street Beach.

Ready.

Set.

Surf!

Handmade in India: The team and the mission

Image: Book Launch function at the Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhavan, New Delhi presided on by Shri Shankarsinh Vaghela, the Honourable Minister of Textiles, Government of India.

This project was handled at the National Institute of Design from early 2002 when the proposal was drafted by the NID team and it went through many phases of research and design till the book was finally in print by the end of August 2007. However the book release was delayed for various reasons but we now hope that the sale and distribution copies will be available widely in India and overseas through the Mapin Publishing network as well as the Office of the Development Commissioner of Handicrafts, Government of India. The list of people involved in the various stages of work and on various aspects of its creation are listed on pages 562 and 563 of the book and this list is reproduced below for the blog post here.

Besides these contributors listed in the Credits pages we have listed a full set of implicit contributors in the form of an Annotated Bibliography from pages 551 to 556 covering the numerous crafts documentations studies done at NID over the past 40 years that have been a foundation on which this particular structure has been built for the production of this publication. Further, pages 558 to 560 has a list of all field contributors with whom our teams had interacted and drawn support from during the elaborate field work phase that was done over the four years when the content was being compiled and verified through forays in the field. Page 561 has a list of all Museums and private collections from which images or samples were referred for filling in some of the material that has appeared in the book. The bibliography and list of useful websites are listed in pages 556 and 557. We do hope that much of the material in the book will appear as part of the proposed web portal that is planned as phase four of this very interesting project in the days ahead. This would be modeled after the emerging web 2.0 paradigm and be an interactive platform that can assist our vast crafts community to connect with the world in new and exciting ways. This would be the foundation for the growth of the creative economy of the future that is based on the enormous crafts skills of India that we hope will be strengthened as we move forward from here.

Image: Screen Capture of the Credits page from Handmade in India. The full text is listed below.

Credits

Concept and Structure :
Aditi Ranjan, M P Ranjan & Jogi Panghaal

Editors: Aditi Ranjan, M P Ranjan

Preliminary Research: M P Ranjan, Jogi Panghaal, Kuntal De, Jonak Das, Mushtak Khan, Aditi Ranjan, Navrang Panchal

Library and Archival Research: Bhavneet Kaur, Archana Vidwans, Anuradha Nambiar, Vellachi Ramanathan, Deepa Varia, Nikita Mehta, Priyanka Bhattacharya, Vinutha Mallya, Sushma Shetty Sreenath, Aratrik Devvarman, Pooja Jha, Arghya Sinha Roy, M P Ranjan, Aditi Ranjan, Sangita Shroff, Zenobia Zamindar, Poorvi Das, Shankar Natarajan, Tush Singh

Technical Glossary: P Ramakrishna Rao, M P Ranjan, Gunjan Singh, Kuntal De, Aditi Ranjan

Index & Resource Mapping: M P Ranjan, Aditi Ranjan, Pooja Jha, Arghya Sinha Roy, Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen

Annotated Bibliography: Swadha Majumdar, Mann Singh, Aditi Ranjan, Nirmala Khadpekar

Copy Editing: Anuradha Nambiar, Sushma S Shetty, Paulomi Das, Priyanka Bhattacharya, Vinutha Mallya, Archana Vidwans, Diana Romany, Sushmita De

Proof Reading: Diana Romany, Vinutha Mallya

Book Design — Zenobia Zamindar, Girish Arora
Book Design Feedback: Subrato Bhowmick, Siddhartha Ghosh, Mookesh Patel, Mahendra Patel, S M Shah, Vikas Satwalekar, Anand Naorem, Uzma Mohsin, Devashish Bhattacharya, Bipin Shah, Paulomi Shah, Rajesh Dahiya

Photography Management: Deepak John Matthew, NID Photography Department, Girish Arora, Zenobia Zamindar, Navrang Panchal, Kinjal Popat, M P Ranjan

Assistance for Book Cover: Mona Gonsai, Neelakash Singh, Aparna Ranjan

Design Assistance: Krupa Kapadia, Kinjal Popat, Navrang Panchal, Keyur Payghode, Umesh Patel, Kajal Savalia, Rajorshi Ghosh, Jhumur Roy, Mehul Ruparel, Kapil Agarwal, Aparna Ranjan, Parinita Purohit, M R Patel, Shirish Shah, Suresh Modia

Proofing Assistance: Pragathi Offset Pvt Ltd., Hyderabad, Patel Printing Press, Ahmdedabad, Repro Scan, Mumbai

Field Research
NORTH:
Chandigarh: Divya Lahoria, Bhavneet Kaur
Delhi: Anuradha Nambiar, Shaurya Kumar, Amit Jain, Jonak Das, Kuntal De, Bhavneet Kaur, P. Alexander
Haryana: Sumit Saini, Ravinder Sirohiya, Bhavneet Kaur
Himachal Pradesh: Sandeep Trichal, Malhar Dhruv,
Shaswaty Nair, Paromita Banerjee
Jammu and Kashmir: Minali Singh, Sucharita Beniwal, Sharon Vellane, V Bhaskar, Mustafa Merchant, Chinar Farooqui, Farah Deba, Sandeep Trichal, Anuradha Nambiar
Punjab: Bhavneet Kaur, Divya Lahoria
Rajasthan: Anuradha Nambiar, Swasti Singh Ghai, Amit Jain, Poorvi Das, Chinar Farooqui, Errol Pires

CENTRE:
Uttar Pradesh: Bhavneet Kaur, Biswajit Hazra, Anupama Srivastava, Shantanu Jena
Uttaranchal: Praveen Nahar, Dhriti Dhoundiyal, Manish Pillewar, Sandeep Paul, Ashish Chaudhary, Bishakha Shome

EAST:
Bihar: Amit Jain, Sandeep Trichal
Jharkhand: Shaurya Kumar, Amit Jain
Orissa: Shaurya Kumar, Kadambari Misra, Amit Jain
Sikkim: Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen, Shweta Jain,
West Bengal: Jonak Das, Anirban Dutta Gupta, Dhrujoti Prasad Bhattacharya, Vydianathan R, Ramu Aravindan

SOUTH:
Andhra Pradesh: Vellachi Ramanathan, Sandeep Sangaru, Munir Vahanvati, Satish Nagendra, Kurma Rao
Karnataka: Hema Mathew, Jogi Panghaal, Mayura Ingle, Shashikala, Accessory Design, NIFT Bangalore: Tanveer Ratti, Vivek Saurabh, Lalan Parikh, Sanskruti Thorat, Sandeep Pradhan, Sanil Dhadwal, Shwetnisha Bansal Swagata Sarkar, Bibin Phillips, Abul Quasim, Saurav Kumar, Kadhambini Majhee, Divya Sanwaiya, Shika Agarwal, Vinay Kumar
Kerala: Anuradha Nambiar, Nikita Mehta, Kritika Malhotra, Ashokan Poduval
Pondicherry: Shankar Natarajan, Vellachi Ramanathan, Subhashree Karthik
Tamil Nadu: Shankar Natarajan, Shriya Sridharan, Hema Mathew, Vellachi Ramanathan, Ambika Sambasivan, Subhashree Karthik, Akhila Krishnan

WEST:
Chhattisgarh: Nityan Unnikrishnan, Rukmini Guha Thakurta
Dadra & Nagar Haveli: Nikita Mehta, Shehzad Irani
Daman & Diu: Nikita Mehta, Shehzad Irani, Vaishnavi Murthy
Goa: Aratrik Devvarman, Minali Singh
Gujarat: Nikita Mehta, Virsingh Kawar Chhatri, Purvi Mehta, Shehzad Irani, Malhar Dhruv, Deepa Varia, Yasoda Ramesh, Jyoti Sharma, Sumita Chaudhary, Rekha Meena, Jigisha Patel, Aratrik Devvarman
Madhya Pradesh: R Umamaheshwaran, Abhinav Baluni, Yasoda Ramesh, Jyoti Sharma, Shruti Phagre
Maharashtra: Nikita Mehta, Nirmal Jain, Milind Risaldar, Komal Khankhoje, Ketna Contractor, Chandrashekhar Bhadve

NORTHEAST:
Arunachal Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya
Assam: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya, Sukanya Sanyal
Manipur: Mriganka Madhukaillya, Sukumar Haobam,
Ramu Aravindan
Meghalaya: Mehul Vadher, Shalini Sahoo
Mizoram: Deborah Zama, Priya Dhar, Rupali Rudra
Nagaland: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya
Tripura: M P Ranjan, Sandeep Sangaru, Dimple Soni, Shimolee Nahar, Nibha Jain, Aratrik Devvarman

Photography Credits
NORTH:
Delhi: Shailen Parker, Sudeep Chaudhury, Amit Jain, M F Jadliwala
Haryana: Ravinder Sirohiya
Himachal Pradesh: Malhar Dhruv, Shaswaty Nair, Paromita Banerjee
Jammu and Kashmir: Malhar Dhruv, Chinar Farooqui, Farah Deba, Minali Singh, V Bhaskar, Sharon Vellane, Sucharita Beniwal, Sundeep Sangaru
Punjab: Divya Lahoria
Rajasthan: Amit Jain, Bhagawan Das, Ashok Kumar Suthar, Sohan Lal, Rani Dan Joshi, Sunil Rakecha, Errol Pires, M F Jadliwala, Poorvi Das, Girish Arora, Sandeep Sangaru

CENTRE:
Uttar Pradesh: Biswajit Hajra
Uttranchal: Praveen Nahar, Manish Pillewar, Dhriti Dhaundiyal, Sandeep Paul, Ashish Chaudhary

EAST:
Bihar: Amit Jain, Anil Sinha
Jharkhand: Amit Jain
Orissa: Amit Jain, Kadmabari Misra, Ramu Aravindan
Sikkim: Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen, Shweta Jain, Karma Sonam
West Bengal: Ramu Aravindan, Anirban Dutta Gupta, Jonak Das, Jitendra Arora

SOUTH:
Andhra Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan, Munir Vahanvati, Sandeep Sangaru, Satish Nagendra
Karnataka: Ramu Aravindan, Hema Mathew, Mayura Ingle, M P Ranjan, Jogi Panghaal, Divya Sanwaya, Vinay Kumar, Lalan Parikh, Sandeep Pradhan, Shwetnisha Bansal, Bibin Philips, Saurav Kumar
Kerala: Kritika Malhotra, Ramu Aravindan, Ashokan Poduval, Sushanth C S
Pondicherry: Shankar Natarajan, Subhashree Karthik, Krishna Priya
Tamil Nadu: Ramu Aravindan, Shankar Natarajan, Hema Mathew, S Jayachandran, N Prassana Kumar, Krishna Priya, Akhila Krishnan, Subhashree Karthik, Ambika Sambasivan

WEST:
Chhattisgarh: Rukmini Guja Thakurta, Mushtak Khan, Jogi Panghaal, Rajni Srivastava, Shaila Kunhu
Dadra & Nagar Haveli: Shehzad Irani
Daman & Diu: Shehzad Irani, Vaishnavi Murthy
Goa: Minali Singh
Gujarat: Deepak John Matthew, Shehzad Irani, Malhar Dhruv, Munir Vahanvati, Purvi Mehta, Jigisha Patel, Rekha Meena, Aratrik Devvarman, Shankar Natarajan, Zenobia Zamindar
Madhya Pradesh: Abhinav Baluni, Jyoti Sharma, Yasoda
Ramesh, Mushtak Khan, Pooja Jha
Maharashtra: Chandrashekhar Bhadve, Ketna Contractor, Nirmal Jain, Poorvi Das, Navleen Singh

NORTHEAST:
Arunachal Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan
Assam: Ramu Aravindan, M P Ranjan, Saleem Bhatri, Amogh Chaugule, Deven Jamsandhekar, Kiran Katbamna
Manipur: Ramu Aravindan, Rupali Rudra, Aratrik Dev Varman
Meghalaya: Mehul Vadher, Shalini Sahoo, M P Ranjan
Mizoram: Deborah Zama
Nagaland: Ramu Aravindan
Tripura: M P Ranjan, Sandeep Sangaru, Dimple Soni, Aratrik Devvarman, Shimolee Nahar, Nibha Jain

NID Archives

Photographers
Deepak John Mathew: Architecture, Landscape
Jogi Panghaal: Kantha Textiles
Suranjana Satwalekar: Crafts, Textiles, Varanasi, Arunachal, Cherrapunji, Pithora Painting
Subrato Bhowmick: Prayer Rugs, Nirmal Toys
Nilam Iyer, M P Ranjan, Ghanshyam Pandya: Bamboo and Cane Crafts of Northeast India
P M Dalwadi: Manipur Pavilion
Rajesh Vora: Stucco Work, Madurai
S Balaram and Anuj Sharma: Palm Leaf Craft, Chennai
Padmini Balaram: Kalamkari
Swasti Singh: Meghwal Embroidery

Photographs from student Craft Documentations
Scanning
Bharat Suthar, Rajendra Patel, Umesh Patel, Dhawal Gajjar
Assistance
T S Rajendran, Chirantan Raval, Himanshu Mistry, Jayesh Leuva, Praveen Varia, Jayesh Parmar, Suresh Modia, Cromwel Parmar, Reena Narendran, Gopalan Nambiar, Divya Nair
Knowledge Management Centre:
S D Bodiwala, Swadha Majumdar, Himmat Singh, Anil Patel, Sangeeta Vyas and Staff

NID Project Administration and Financial Management
Darlie O Koshy, Executive Director, NID
Akhil Succena, Chairman Outreach (Former)
Shashank Mehta, Chairman Outreach
Aditi Ranjan, Project Head
Brahmanand Pani, Controller of Accounts
K K Bhaskaran, Project Manager
NID Delhi Centre: N V K Murthy, P Alexander, V A Anthony
NID Bangalore Centre: Shashikala Satyamoorthy, T S Nagarajan and Shaktivel, Hyderabad

Client Project Administration and Financial Management
S B Mohapatra, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles
Tinoo Joshi, IAS, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
V P Thakur, Executive Director, Council of Handicrafts Development Corporation (COHANDS)
Susheel Kumar, IAS, Additional Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
Sandeep Srivastava, IAS, Additional Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
Mushtak Khan, Deputy Director, Crafts Museum, Delhi
Durgesh Shankar, Chairman and Managing Director, CCIC, New Delhi

Credit acknowledgement is also due to the unnamed students and faculty members at the National Institute of Design who have helped in putting this book together through their lively interactions and occasional contributions.

We would like to acknowledge the offices of DC(H) across India, who supported and facilitated the field research. Further Regional Directors and Assistant Directors of Marketing & Extension Centres (named below) and their respective colleagues (too numerous to be listed here) helped put together a comprehensive check list of resources in and around their respective centers in a collective effort called Panorama Series, 2002, which was used as a base document for field work.

Regional Directors & Assistant Directors of Marketing & Extension Centres:
S Bhattacharya, Kolkata
B C Mohapatra, Gangtok, Siliguri
P Sasany, Sambalpur & Bhubaneshwar
R S Yadav, Deogarh
A K Saran, Madhubani
S P Moitra, Ranchi
A K Handoo, Lucknow
S C Bhardwaj, Agra
Amar Chand, Saharanpur
C B Singh, Barabanki
Mangala Singh, Varanasi
S S Gwal, Almora
S K Sinha, Mumbai
S V Deshpande, Indore
V Baskaran, Surat
A T Meshram, Nagpur
I G Kawre, Jagdalpur
T R Gajbhai, Kolhapur
S Z Hussain, Aurangabad
Kali Ram, Gwalior
A C Gangal, Panaji
P Sundramurty, Chennai
S C Deveramani, Mangalore, Mysore
Abdul Kader, Port Blair
G R Thampi, Nagercoil
R Chandran, Salem
S Gurumurty, Pondicherry
I H P Rao, Tirupati, Vijaywada
V Bhaskaran, Trichur
G George, Thiruvananthapuram
S A Razzack, Hyderabad
A K Handoo, New Delhi
V K Mahajan, Hoshiarpur
S L Dangayach, Jaipur
B L Meena, Jodhpur
Jagdish Prasad, Rewari
S K Tikoo, Kullu
Tajumal Hussain, Srinagar & Baramulla
M K Kaw, Leh
T K Kaul, Udhampur & Jammu
A R Chaudhary, Guwahati
S R Masram, Agartala
P C Dutta, Aizawl & Gauripur
S B Singh, Jorhat
S Z Hussain, Imphal
S B Singh, Kohima
S Dkhar, Shillong