Stupas in Mahabodhi temple- Bodhgaya

The Mohabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, is not only spiritual place for Buddhist , also an evidence of architecture wonder of Mourya dynasty. Its recognized as World Heritage Monuments in India. Stupas play very important role in Buddhism practice. Stupa in Sanskrit means heap. Some of the  major Stupas in India include, Sanchi Stupa, Mabodhi Stupa of Bodhgaya and  Dhamek Stupa of Sarnat. You can read about the details of Stupa here. The stupas are very significant in Buddhism. Its believed building a stupa is considered extremely beneficial in Buddhism.

 

   The main stupa has a beautiful idol of Buddha, and surrounding the main stupa there are many small stupas. If one goes round the main stupa, can find many devotees  engaged in meditation.

The different kind of the carvings on the stupas, attracted me the most.All the stupas have dome shaped structure with carved idols of Buddha.

This one was near the entrance , you can notice Buddha idols of different shapes on the Stupa.

 This is the closer view of the carvings. Some had carvings of very small idols of Buddha in many rows:

This stupa is in front of the Mahabodhi temple, this is small stupa with Buddha idol carved on it.

There are many such stupas in Mahabodhi temple , each telling story of Buddha and leading his devotees towards peace.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

each telling a story about the great Buddha

each telling a story about the great Buddha

Screen printing on saree after years

Always its fun with screen printing. When I learnt how to do screen printing, I had used it for makeover of sarees. With screen printing and embroidery an ordinary saree looks like a designer saree. As I was busy with jewelry designing last year so could not work with screen printing.
 This is my friend's saree, which she had given to design quite  sometime back. She wanted screen printing on this saree:

This is a simple hand-loom cotton saree in mehandi color, with zari border. The border has small paisley designs, so I selected paisley motifs to print on this.

This design is not the traditional paisley, little modified to give a trendy look. I printed these paisley designs along the border of the saree with dull gold color. First I thought of using bright gold color, dropped the idea, since it would have looked very bright.

All along the border and near the pallu I screen printed these motifs. The pallu is green with gold color lines, so left it as it is:

Hope this is come out good and my friend likes it. Planning to work on another saree with screen printing. I will share about the same in my next post.
Till then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Dhakai Jamdani Sarees- Flowers and vases designs on fine cotton

I have already written some posts under the section Indian Sarees. When it comes to sarees, West Bengal weavers stand apart by their contribution to the weaving of very fine cotton sarees. I love all type of Bengal sarees , may it be simple Bengal cotton or heavily embroidered Kantha sarees . We learn from history that, West Bengal was always famous for its muslin cloth weaving. Dakhai Jamdani sarees is the variation of muslin weaving.The exceptionally skilled weaving and the the blend of dark and light color combination make the dhakai sarees attract saree loving woman. Here is a saree with Blue and White combination:

Origin of Dhakai Saree: 

The name Dhakai comes from the Dhaka city of Bangladesh. The weaving technique is inhibited  from from Bangladeshi weavers , but the design and motifs have the influence of Persian designs. Jam- means flowers and dani means vases. Due to its appeal, this technique of weaving is widely explored by weavers of West Bengal , as the result of this, now we can see many varieties of  Dhakai Jamdani Sarees.

Motifs and designs in Dhakai Jamdani sarees:

Jamdani sarees have floral motifs in Geometrical shapes. Here you can see the red floral motifs woven on white dhakai jamdani saree:

Closer view of motif:

The special technique of interlacing the threads , is used in weaving motifs of Jamdani sarees. Though Jamdani sarees were weaved using cottons, in the Mughal era, weavers started using zari to weave the Dhakai Jamdani sarees.Here is a saree with Zari weaving :

To meet the current fashion trends, jamdani weavers are using new designs and innovation. This effort of the weavers , is making the Jamdani saree, a designer saree, that every saree loving woman wants to have  in her saree collection.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Bamboo craft of Chattisgarh

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Bamboo  is a plant which has large diversity in species. From ages , bamboo is used for craft work.

Bamboo craft in India:

Wide range of species of bamboo are found in India. Its majorly grown in North-East  states of India and in Western ghats too. Bamboo craft might have started with making household items like mats, baskets, hand fan etc. Now the bamboo craft covers wide varieties of  household as well as decorative items including furniture. 

Bamboo  craft of Chhattisgarh :

Chattisgarh is a North-Eastern state of  India. Due to its forest cover and availability of bamboo, make this state major producer of bamboo products. The tribal regions of Chattisgarh are main centres for production of bamboo craft. The tribal craftsmen here make many kinds of bamboo items. 

Different items made using  bamboo:

 Recently I could visit one such shop in  a craft fest.    Traditional bamboo baskets have evolved through centuries. Now we can get different kinds of baskets , purses and bags.

Purses and bags made of bamboo

And also many decorative items: 

Bamboo furniture is nowadays very popular , because of their affordability and also beauty. Chattisgarh bamboo craft includes furniture to cater to different needs, from small chair to sofas :

Chattisgarh's traditional craft include other crafts like , dhokra- bell metals work, loha shilpa- wrought iron craft,ghodna painting etc, about which I will be sharing in coming posts.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

How to make Street light- for kid's school project

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I often get requests and emails to share tutorials about making models for school projects. I had made models of forest and houses for  exhibitions in my son's school. Those you can go through these links :   

Model of Houses for school project    

 Forest model 

 These two posts are still having maximum hits. By this I can understand the struggle of a mom while making a model for school project :-). I get mails from such moms requesting to share about different tutorials which will help them to make school projects. One such mom had requested to share about making street light for making a model. 

Here is the procedure to make the street light.

You need the following materials: 

1. Empty toothpaste tube

2.Straws

3. Color papers (optional)

4. A small bulb

5.Fevicol gum

6.Wires and Battery cells

7. Of course scissors :-).

 First cut the empty toothpaste tube like shown:

 The top portion should be cut neatly as shown in the below image:

Fix this part of the toothpaste tube to the straw and bend the straw:

 Then fix the small bulb with the help of fevicol:

 The street light model is ready . This can be used for making many models and school projects like a street, a model of town etc.

To change the color of the pole to your desired color, you can roll the color paper on the straw. This street light can be made into a working model by passing the wires through straw and connecting the bulb to a battery cell.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana