Saree with Peacock Design in Glitter Painting

On this saree I've used Glitter painting. Attached an off Gold color lace on the border, used peacock shaped kundans and Peacock Design on the Pallu.

Closer view of the border:

Peacock shaped Kundan and extended the peacock feather design with Blue and Gold color glitter paints.

I liked the Peacock shaped Kundans. Aren't they pretty?

 

The pallu  with big Peacock Design

I  got this design from Screen printing class. Got it enlarged. It was really very tedious task to transfer the design.

Now, not able to decide on color of the blouse, Peacock blue or Off Gold? 

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Introducing a Cute little artist this time

Introducing one more artist in this post. Few days ago when I visited her house at 9 AM, she was still on her bed , in deep sleep. I thought she was ill, so sleeping. When I asked her mother, she told till late night she was busy drawing and painting. I was curious to see her drawings and paintings. Her mother gave me 25-30 drawings and paintings. I was surprised to see her drawings, paintings and crafts, because I never knew that she drew so nicely. 

Few are here:

Horse rider

Bird's nest

Girls waiting at bus stop

Mehandi designs 

Drawings about different  subjects and themes. By this time you must be curious to know about the artist.  Here she is , my cute little niece "Samartha"  

 As beautiful as her drawings!.  

This is her self portrait:-)

Some more drawings are here: Her Favourite Cartoon Character Shin Chan

Her Ajja and Ajji(Grand father and Grand mother)

I was happy to see my parents so young.:-)
Dress design sketches. She is interested in dress design too :-)

Not only in drawing , she is good in crafts also:

                                             Lion , elephant paper dolls

 Spider doll

Disney Princess 

Many more like these. The below one is very interesting, painting of the Sun with long beard.

I asked her , why she had drawn the beard to the Sun in this painting. She answered "The Sun has become very old and he doesn't shave at all " . What an imagination !:-)

By seeing her paintings and crafts , I thought, "Is it inheritance ?" (You can read another post about Inheritance here). Yes it is inheritance :-).

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Some more Kumkuma Bharanis

I have shared about my collection of Kumkuma Bharanis( container to keepVermilion) in one of the posts. In this post sharing about some more Kumkuma Bharanis, I have.

The below one is a small container, with a pink color crystal on it. You can see it has little flowers carved on the sides.

Crystal on the lid and flower carved on the sides

The next one is also similar, but has red and blue beads on the lid. Both  are made of oxidised metal

Here it is:

The carvings resemble the stone carvings in ancient temples.

The below one is a made of Brass.Its very special, as it has a small tray to hold it.

I like this very much. It looks very cute. Isn't it?

Here is a Kumkuma Bharani in heart shape. It has a  stone on the lid. Look at the design on the stone. Isn't it beautiful?

Thats all for now! Rest in the next posts. 

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Gold Color prints on Red Saree- Screen printing

This is my friend's saree- which she had given for screen printing. Tried Gold color motifs along the border.

And small motifs on the Pallu

Attached small Kundans on the motif

It had self color blouse, but I'm feeling the contrast color blouse looks better. So here it is,the saree with contrast  color blouse

I always like Red and Gold color combination. It looks very traditional and elegant. Do you agree with me?

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

My collection of Kumkuma Baharanis

Collecting things is one of the very old hobbies. Collectibles vary; stamps, coins,idols, paintings, magazines, movies... the list is endless. I think , stamp collection is the popular one. I remember, my elder brother used to collect stamps. He had ordered that if we found a stamp, we should give to him. We obeyed his order as if it was an order from an emperor:-).Not only that, we (me & my sister) used to compete with each other to collect maximum number of stamps . To accomplish this mission of collecting stamps,everyday we used to eagerly wait for the postman. We were not at all interested about the letters the postman was giving, our eyes used to look for the stamps first:-). In this era of SMS, emails, social networks etc rarely we see postman, and no letters at all. Courier guys are there, but most of the time they deliver heart breaking credit card bills :-).  Good old days...Really miss those days. Do you remember telegram? I think , even the people working in postal department ,must have forgotten about "Telegram":-). Most of the Kannada movies (I think Hindi also) had the  most common scene; hero or heroine receiving the telegram  with message,"Mother/Father serious, start immediately":-).
OK, I think I'm going away from the subject, by remembering old days.

I have collected some Kumkuma Bharanis-A small container to store  Vermilion . (You can read details about Vermilion here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindoor

Vermilion with Turmeric powder, as a dot on forehead between eyebrows 

 I don't know much about how the usage of Vermilion started, but when I asked some scholars in Sanskrit and Vedas,I got the answer as, Vermilion usage started as an Alankara ( Alankara in Sanskrit means-means to increase beauty of face or ornamentation).And according to some Cosmic practitioner/ Yoga practitioner , Ajna Chakra(situated in between eye brows) will retain the energy by this practice.

 Vermilion is significant in Hindus. With Vermilion, Turmeric powder is also used to worship God. Women in North India wear it as Sindhoor along the hair parting line. And women in South India apply  Vermilion with Turmeric powder, as a dot on forehead between eyebrows.
Nowadays, though vermilion is replaced by Bindis, its part of Hindu religious festivals.

Bindis in different color

In South India, whenever a woman visits house,  it is custom to offer Vermilion and Turmeric powder,when she is leaving . All (Hindu) houses will have a small container to keep Vermilion. In Kannada( my mother tongue) its called "Kumkuma(means- Vermilion) Baharani (means- container).
Coming back to my hobby- collecting Kumkuma Bharani; I don't know how and when it started. But now I've nearly 90-100 different varieties of Kumkuma Bharanis. Some in wood, some in Silver, some made using Shells etc. I will share the details of all the Kumkuma Bharanis I have, in the coming posts.
Let me start with this  today:

With lid closed                           With lid open

This Kumkuma Bharani is made of brass, and the lid has face of woman carved on it. What else can be better than this design! Vermilion which is used as Alankara,to increase beauty of a woman's face ,in a container designed like woman's face. I think you agree with this. 

I will share about the rest of the Kumkuma Bharanis in the coming posts,

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

TAST Challenge week 11-Whipped Wheel Stitch

This week's TAST challenge is Whipped Wheel stitch. You can view about TAST challenge here.
I enjoyed working with this stitch. I tried the combination of Shisha(Mirror) work and  running stitch with Whipped wheel stitch on a Salwar neck.
 Here it is:

Closer view:

Shisha(Mirror)work, Whipped wheel and running stitch

Made a big motif with Shisha (Mirror) work and Whipped wheel stitch

Visited other's works also. Really stunning works by all of them.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts also, I'm slowly getting back to hand embroidery. Its making me very busy and of course happy.  So you will see lots of work here.

So keep watching ....

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Dress with Embroidered yoke

Few months back,I had bought a yoke which has, Gujarati embroidery on it. It was lying in my stash waiting for its turn:-) . I was searching for right cloth for the elegant yoke. At last got a Batik cloth. Made it the salwar top attaching the the embroidered yoke.

 






The Golden Yellow is prominent so matched with Golden Yellow Salwar.Searched for Golden Yellow colored Batik cloth, for salwar. But could not get :-(

And matched with a Bandini Duppatta.

 I like Gujarati Embroidery, its colorful. Especially I like the Shisha  embroidery (mirror work). That reminds me, I had designed a saree with mirror work,( 15 years ago). I don't have the saree now :-(.

Now again getting back to hand embroidery. So soon I will try mirror work also.

 So wait for the post,

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Amruteshwara Temple-Rich heritage of Karnataka(India)

Summer has started, few days , summer vacation will start for kids. Every year we go to our native place. Its really fun. So planning for this year also. That reminds me our trip to native place in the year 2010, we visited a beautiful temple near Tarikere.
We were travelling by car. We have a religious  driver,who is fond of visiting temples.Temples attract him as saree shops attract women :-). I think he must have seen most of the temples in South India. He is very enthusiastic to show the temples whichever he has visited to others also. Every-time before starting the trip, we warn him not to stop near any temple. In spite of our warning he stops near temples :-).
(I also like to visit temples, but ancient temples which represent our rich heritage. )As a result of his enthusiasm last time,we could visit Amrutheshwara temple. Amrutapura a small village is near Tarikere, which is situated 4 kms from the highway.

Route map- On Bangalore-Honavar Highway

Though the driver was telling about this temple, we said no to visit the temple . But the driver turned the vehicle to right near Tarikere. When we shouted at him, he said its only 4 kilometers. We were very angry, because if we stopped anywhere it would be late to reach our native place. But when I reached the temple my anger reduced little bit looking at the beautiful Dancing Ganesha sclupture near the entrance.

When we stepped in , looking at the beautiful temple   built in Hoysala Style (well maintianed by the Archaeological department)all our anger towards our driver vanished.  

 

The circular carvings on the ceiling are very attractive. 

 

I think the design can be used as embroidery design . :-) Let me try this out sometime.

Magnificently carved sculptures on the walls of the temple.

                          

Complete story of Ramayana is carved around the temple walls in anti clockwise direction.Some of the sclupture depicting story of Ramayana

Crowning ceremony of Sugreeva 

Rama in the battlefield

 Not an inch is missed on the walls of the temple, everywhere the sculptures! This is really feast to eyes.

We thanked our driver , who made us to visit this place. This summer also while going to native place, I want to visit this temple. And I'm sure, already you have made your mind to visit this temple. Haven't you?

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

I could not post all the photos. Some of the photos you can view here.  And also if you want to know more about this temple here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrutesvara_Temple,_Amruthapura

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