I’ve used Kim’s If Only texture and reduced the opacity.
This abandoned Christian church is in the village of Yesilkoy in the Karpaz area of Northrn Cyprus. Northern and Southern Cyprus are still a long way away from unification and feelings run deep on both sides. I used this particular texture with the stitching because it’s a way of healing wounds. If only …..
In Luxembourg there are few signs that Spring is here. It’s still bitterly cold and showers – more like April showers – continue to pour rain and sleet over the sodden landscape. However, the pollen-laden heads of pussy willow buds brighten the landscape, little beacons of light in the gloom.
This photo has been blended with Kim’s Mondays and I’ve reduced the opacity on the texture layer.
In Myanmar (Burma) many of the stupas or pyramids have crowns perched on top of them. These crowns are hung with bells which tinkle delightfully in the slightest breeze. The crowns are made in specialist metal workshops in Mandalay.
Notice how the guys use their feet to hold things in place
crowns at the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar
Nothing automated about these old wooden looms, apparently still in good working order
and the colours of the silk were so vivid.
The fabric being woven will eventually be made into a woman’s longyi, a tube of fabric that acts like a skirt worn by men and women. Men in Sri Lanka also wear them. A woman is supposed to step into hers and a man should put his on over his head. Weaving a length of fabric for a longyi – usually 2 metres long and about 80cm wide – can take a month or longer, especially if the design is particularly complicated. This explains why the silk ones are so expensive.
“Men who cannot read are like the blind; women who cannot weave are like the cripple”
—an old Burmese saying at a time when every household had a handloom and the women wove all the longyis for the family
If you can’t find someone to play with, the next best thing is something ….. in Mingun, Myanmar
texturised with Kim’s ‘gift’
The approach to the Shwe Inn Thein pagoda at In Dein, Lake Inle, Myanmar, is up a long slope of very many steps. Fortunately it’s covered, for in the heat of the day, it would be impossible to climb. It’s lined with stalls selling all sorts of handicrafts but there were also a couple of bric-a-brac stalls.
I wonder if the teapot with the violets on it is a relic from the days of the former British occupation?
this fierce-looking puppet is the Ogre, one of 28 characters in the cast for the marionette plays
a Buddha head on sale in a high class interior decoration store near us. I used Kim’s Simple texture and reduced the opacity.
sharing with Kim and others
The question is not what you look at, but what you see - Thoreau 