Exhibition in School-This time model of houses

Again, exhibition in my son's school. This time teacher told him to make model of different types of houses. Though I like making the models, this time, I was reluctant, because of two reasons. First one was, we had planned to visit our native, to attend a marriage, second, this model making requires lots of my time always :-). I informed his teacher, that he could not take part in exhibition this time, due to first reason.( Anyhow, any parent cannot tell the second reason  :-) But she didn't agree and told us at least to keep the model in the exhibition.
So went ahead making this model. 3-4 days of work, finally resulted something like this:













I made models of different types of houses, something to depict evolution of house and some special kinds of houses.
It starts from cave; I made this using Plaster Of Paris.

Then a mud house; again made with Plaster Of Paris

Then Villa, Bungalow and Apartments:

(Here I used , some readymade plastic models.)

And some special types of houses ;

Igloo:

Tent house

Boat house

This time my son helped me lot. Next time, he might not need my help, I think.

How fast the kids grow up! :-)

But as I said, he could not attend the exhibition to present this. We just kept the model in exhibition with his name plate on that: PRATARDAN   :-)

Inheritance

This is the best cross stitch work I have seen. No, I have not made this. To make this kind of piece, will take at least 10 years for me. :-). My mother made this. Few years back, she had been to Chandigarh, to stay few months with my sister. She got this design from neighbor and started this work. She worked at least 2-3 years on this. This is really a large design, measuring 1 meter X 3/4 meter.
She gifted this to her sister (my aunt).
This is a complete cross stitch work, means even the red background is filled with cross stitch. So you can imagine the amount of work involved.
I had seen her working on this. Though she used to have , household work, she never got bored of this work. After finishing her household work, she was to open the materials  and start working. Whenever she used to travel, she was to carry this with her :-). I always used to tease her saying she would never finish this work. :-). Hundreds of Anchor embroidery skeins are used for this. Once she fell short of the red skeins and  asked  me to send some skeins. I forgot the number of the color and I thought its red so, sent some red color skeins. She filled some part of the design with the skeins I sent. After some filling was done, she realized that was not the exact color. The difference was negligible. But she removed all those, and again filled with the exact color skein. Perfection! She always used to tell us, "If you start any work, do it properly and complete it, never leave it unfinished". And also "If you are giving food to anybody, take care that the person's hunger is satiated, otherwise don't give".

One more view of the cross stitch work:

Since many days I wanted to share about this. But,I didn't have the photos of this. This is in my Aunt's house, so I requested my cousin to send the photos. I think these photos have not done justification to  the work. It looks too good, like a painting. That’s why I say this is the best cross stitch work I have seen.

She is making one more like this to give to my brother. Hats off, to her enthusiasm. I always think my passion towards arts and craft is inherited from her. Isn't it?

Decoupage

Decoupage is an art of gluing pictures to an object. After gluing the picture, it is decorated with colors. Decoupage is done on many things, such as boxes, furniture,pots ,photo frame ,bangles etc. Decoupage jewelries are also made.

I've tried this on an aluminium plate. I used a poster for this. This art needs little bit of oil painting skills.
Here is the one I made on aluminium plate:

The central picture is glued and the rest of the part of the plate, is painted with oil paint. While painting,we should be careful to match the colors of the picture glued.

I have tried this on pots also. Have a look:

I found this picture in a daily news paper. It was black and white picture. I have used ceramic also to make the window and the curtain. This gives the effect that the lady is waiting for someone.

Another pot :

 Here also I've glued a poster. This has the picture of a princess Alankara(decorating herself with ornaments and make up) and her  Sakhis(friends) helping her. Is the Sakhi jealous of her ? Can you see it from her expressions? :-)

And its compared with the Darpana Sundari sculpture. Nice pictures. I cut the pictures from the poster and glued those on the pot. Rest all done with oil painting. Of course 2-3 coat of varnish shall be applied.

Now I'm planning do decoupage on a pot. The picture is deep sea scene. Very exciting.Isn't it? Lots of colors to play with and quite challenging to me. Lets see how it goes.

Tit for tat

Everyone was waiting for her arrival.  My son could not wait, he went to airport to receive her . He was the one who was missing her a lot. We all too.
She arrived , brought lots of happiness, joy and lots of gifts to everyone. How fast the 15 days passed! We roamed, shopped, chatted ,giggled and also enjoyed gossips.

  Who  is this? I'm telling about my sister in law, who stays in Delhi. She came here after 2 years. Rather than  sister in law, she is my friend. We had lovely moments together. I loved all the gifts she brought for me.
 Who doesn't like these lovely gifts?
A chocolate box, I liked the chocolates as well as the decoration of the box.

And this dress, I liked the neck design, with crystals attached.

Some kurtis( tops) and a saree

I liked this one the most , a shawl with embroidery on it.

 She always likes the dresses I design. I thought this time, I will design something unique for her. As Tit for tat, whatever she has brought for me :-). She had seen the photos of sarees, which I had screen printed. So thought, design a dress with screen printing. My first choice is always blue. This time selected light blue and dark blue combination. Attached a lace,and printed floral vine motifs on the border and floral motifs inside. Attached the kunadan too. She liked this color combination. 

This is another top I designed.

  

 

Selected, Khadi silk in Green color.  Used, emboss painting for screen printing. She liked the big Peacock motif. She also suggested me to use this peacock motif to design my sister's saree. Soon I will share that also.

 This is the one I liked the most. This is again on Khadi silk, I did not use screen printing. I had a lace, which had bought from an exhibition.The lace has Dandiya dance design, embroidered on it. I attached that on the border. Luckily , I had, similar motifs to match the lace. So here is the dress.

 I have some more lace left over, so planning to design a dress for myself.
When can I complete that? Don't know :-(

I liked the Orange dress the most. Even my sister in law liked it.

Which is the one, do you like the most?

Deepotsava- Exhibition of lamps

Now it is Kartika maasa( month of Kartika).  In many temples the Deepotsava is celebrated. Thousands of lamps are lit in temples. Lamps are lit in house also.

Few days back, while returning from office, I saw a board  written "Deepotsava",  in front of a shop. Out of curiosity, I entered the shop. I could see lamps everywhere,- terracotta lamps, brass lamps, silver lamps. Terracotta lamps were painted with nice designs.

Here are various types of terracotta lamps:

 

Here are the lamps arranged in a thali (Plate). The colors like red, yellow,green and gold are used to give the traditional look.  

Here are the multilevel lamps, which are not painted. But still look beautiful.

  

This has very nice design. A painted fish design behind, with small idols of Ganesha and Laxmi. 

 And here are some lamps made of brass.

Mouse holding the lamps.Right choice to light in front of Ganesha. :-).

 Don't you feel like grabbing at least one for you?

Lakshmi sculpture - Somanathapura Temple

I wanted to post this on the day of Lakshmi Puja (Deepavali). But could not, due to several reasons. We will have several reasons "not to do a work" , but not a single reason to complete a work. :-).

Lakshmi, Hindu Goddess of Wealth , is worshiped, on the second day of Deepavali. Not only on Deepavali, everyday Lakshmi is worshipped, because she is the one who gives wealth, money :-).

OK , Jokes apart. Few months back, we visited Talakadu and Somanathpura. It was really nice trip.Somanathpura has lovely temple, which is built in Hoysala style. The main idols inside the temple are broken, hence not being worshipped. I had clicked lots of photos of the temple and the sculptures, which I will share in coming posts. All sculptures are very beautiful, each tells a story. I found , the following sculpture   very interesting.
Here is the photo:

 Lakshmi is sitting on Vishnu's lap and her right foot is on a lotus.

Here is the closer view.

You can see, an elephant is giving support to the lotus. When I asked the guide about this, he explained, the imagination of the craftsman behind this. His explanation was "Due to the tremendous energy of Lakshmi, the Lotus is bending. So the elephant is supporting, the Lotus". I was really stunned. What a wonderful imagination!. Don't know whether the craftsman imagined this or someone else had explained his/her imagination to the craftsman. As I understand,for any artist, its very difficult to put some one's imagination in any form of art/craft. Was the person , who shared the imagination  satisfied with the creation? I had lots of questions, but no one to answer. Do you know the answer?

Happy Deepavali

Deepavali , the festival of light, is being celebrated across the country. Depavali- means row of light. Almost all know about significance of each day of Deepavali. People celebrate this , by lighting lamps. In south it continues till end of Kartika Maasa . In Hindu culture Deepa (Lamp ) has lot of significance. Deepa is lit always in front of idols of Gods, in temple as well as in homes.

Everybody knows how and why Deepavali is celebrated. I thought this is the right occasion, to share the collection of lamps I have. Every year, I buy a new lamp and add to my collection.

Here are the lamps I have.

This is made of brass, the peacock, holding the lamp, in the beak. 










The below two are of same design, lady holding the lamp, but made of different materials. This is the new lamp added to my collection, this year.

Few more are here :

Also I painted these terracotta lamps to give it as a gift to my sister. Have a look:

Hope you liked them all. Do share your comments.
"Wishing you all very happy Deepavali. May this Deepavali bring brightness in your life."

Two more sarees-screen printed

I  bought a cotton  Saree for my mother in law, as she always likes to wear cotton sarees, when she is at home. It is a hand loom Saree in Maroon color with copper color border and pallu. I had some left over paint, so thought of screen printing this Saree. Chose the elephant design for the borders and paisley designs for the body. Printed both in green and copper color. Copper color doesn't look bright. This happens sometimes. Some colors do not come out bright on some clothes. Or may be because  the copper powder concentration was less. Don't know. Anyhow , next time I will keep these things in mind. Always Practise makes us perfect.

Here is the saree:

This is the closer look of the elephant design. Isn't it very cute?

The below saree is my Attige's ( sister in law). This is an old cotton saree, for which she wanted a make over. I thought screen printing is the quickest way to make over a saree. This is again maroon saree with, golden color border.



Before



Selected peacock design for this. Printed small and big peacock motifs on the border and attached kundan. On the pallu, printed, simple straight vine design. On the shoulder, you can see, three peacock
 motifs around a circular motif.

 

After

I think peacock has inspired almost all form of visual arts. I've some good peacock designs , which I will share in the coming days. Now have a closer look of the peacock motif:

Also , my friend , from Australia, has sent , threads, which will be used for Brazilian Embroidery and a packet of beads.

I was thinking of learning Brazilian embroidery, but stuck, because the threads are not easily available in India. Knowing this, she has taken strain to send it to me. Thanks to her. I will start learning Brazilian Embroidery. Look at the beads, different shapes and nice colors. 

So many Craft work and materials! Isn't it a crafty week?