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?