More polymer clay in Birtamod? Local fame!

The other day a couple of us were at the Jagadamba fabric store trying to buy some of Nepal’s national fabric, dakka, which we use to make aprons, potholders and oven mitts. It is used for the hill ladies’ blouses and most recognisably, for men’s topis, the quintessential Nepali cap.As it turned out, we were a bit early in the season for the winter weight dakka. “The man will come tomorrow from Kathmandu.” In my experience tomorrow is a loose term used to mean anytime in the next few months so we took our leave. As we left, the shop owner asked us more about Samunnat and what else we made. Kopila fished one of the ladies’ fabulous keyrings out of her pocket and showed him.“This is polymer clay” she said. “The ladies make beautiful jewellery that they then sell outside and in Kathmandu.” “Yes,” he replied. “I know polymer clay”We were gobsmacked. “There is another group in Birtamod using this,” he told us. Luckily we were sitting on a mattress! Who? What?“They work from a really small office on the highway. They also teach women to make jewellery and I read about them on my computer,” he continued. A few seconds of puzzlement was resolved. “You read about us!” This man had been googling his home town of Birtamod and up we’d popped!So this entry is really an excuse to put a photo of his shop (he does usually have a good range of dakka and is very helpful!) in our blog in case he checks us out again!