Truck Tape

... Is a bit more special than it sounds if we are talking Pakistani trucks. Out there truck owners lavish vast sums on the decoration of their chariots before they are deemed worthy of the road. In the image below we see a modest example crawling its way up the Karakoram Highway (from a scan of a postcard bought in Lahore). A principal element in the truck decorator's pallet is special reflective tape covered in cut-out designs. In a previous trip to Pakistan I bought a roll of this tape and put it on my bike, it has lasted pretty well over the past couple of years, so I think I might start to import the tape and sell it under Hindu Kush.

A Booklet to go With the Coats

I have been working on a booklet to go with each coat I sell. I posted the text for it on the Hindu Kush Facebook page, but I have also been refining the look of it. Below are photos of two versions. Both consist of a book of high gsm white paper and a cover of tracing paper. One has images printed directly onto the tracing paper, whilst the other has a snow fall pattern printed onto the tracing paper and images printed onto the paper booklet which can be seen through the trace. The closer the tracing paper gets to the image behind it the clearer that image becomes. If you move the tracing paper away from the image the focus blurs until all you can see is the surface of the trace. It's like focusing a lens.

Booklet 1: Images printed directly onto the tracing paper with blank paper behind.

Booklet 2: the tracing paper has snowfall printed on it and behind the card is also printed.

The reverse of booklet two with a window through the tracing paper to see the map. 

Heavy Snow in the Hills

I got a text from a friend in Chitral earlier this week reporting four to five feet of snowfall.  When the snow gets this deep there is not much you can do except muck about in it. In the Kalasha Valleys clan lines up against clan to play the came of 'chitk gal' a sort of turbo-golf, where the ball keeps on getting lost in the snow, fights break out and the losers have to kill an oxen to feed the winners.

 

Images with kind permission of Matan Rochlitz.

More Maps

I have finished a map for the booklet which I plan to accompany each item of Hindu Kush clothing sold. It shows where the wool is produced in respect to South Asia and the Hindu Kush mountain range. I have posted before about Tirich Mir and Chitral.

Map of Chitral Lining

After the floral exuberance of my previous lining, I have been experimenting with a more prosaic lining. My new lining takes the highest peaks and passes of Chitral and lays them out in a design which is reminiscent of a star chart. I have produced a dark and a pale version...