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The Spice Pack
The Daily Practice:
My daily practice was threefold. After I had chosen a spice for the day, I would begin thoroughly researching it. I would research into the plant that the spice came from, where it is cultivated and which countries it is being traded to. I would then look into the facts about the spice and all of its benefits and detriments; along with the non-culinary uses of the spice, for example, Turmeric is used in a holy bath ritual known as pithi ceremony, which is a pre-wedding ceremony in India.
I then went on to experiment with the spice itself. On a sheet, I played around with its texture, colour and even taste (I would taste the spice and with a pencil, I would create a line of what I could taste). I would create audio clippings of the sound made as I was experimenting, for example when pealing garlic or cutting into chillies. I then would use these cuttings to create patterns and textures on the sheet.
(1) Impressions with spice & acrylic paint. (2) Powdered chilli. (3) Pieces of the chilli. (4) Playing with different forms of the chilli. (5) paint-like texture created with powdered spice & water. (6) Recorded reaction of the taste of the spice. (7) A dried solid chilli
The final step was finding a recipe in which my spice of the day was the hero. Many recipes were those I have grown up eating/drinking in my hometown Pakistan or recipes passed down from generation to generation in my family
The Synthesis:
After collecting all this information and experimentation over a week, I decided to create the Spice Pack. Each Pack contained information about a single spice. I used an accordion-style fold, to divide each section of information on the spice.
 Step 1: Staining the paper with a mixture of water and the powdered version of the spice. |  Step 2: A detailed outline drawing of the spice in its plant form. |  Step 3: Mapping the locations the spice is grown, |
|---|---|---|
 and traded |  Step 4: A recipe with the hero spice. |  Step 5: Textural Exploration of the spice. |
The Spice Pack:
Each Spice pack has its own translucent slip which contains it.
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