Surpur miniature paintings- extinct art of Karnataka

I was aware of Rajasthan miniature paintings and Mysore miniature painting. Recently in an exhibition I came to know about another finest art of Karnataka - Surpur miniature paintings. I met an artist, who is practising painting forms , influenced by Surpur miniature.

No doubt, Surpur miniature is one of the finest art contribution from Karnataka, but it is disappearing. The artists who have learnt Surpur miniature art are shifting to other forms.Government arts academy are not supporting enough to keep the art form alive.

Here are some paintings which are influenced by Surpur miniature paintings. I could not collect enough information from the artist, as he was busy in attending the customers. 

The above paintings are by Artist Krishna Vasant. You can view his works here:

https://www.facebook.com/Krishnaprakashvasant/

Surpur miniature art was practised in Yadgir district of Karnataka.The artists have migrated from Andhra Pradesh. It flourished during the period of ruler Raja Venkatappa Naik. I don't have any pictures of original Surpur miniature painting :( . It is really sad that nothing is made to support this art form.

Original Surpur miniature is found in Salarjung Museum of Hyderabad. Hope this art form will  flourish again.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Work In Progress on Wednesday- Cross stitch

This week sharing about, cross stitch work, which I have started long back. This has taken too much of time. My sister is also helping me to complete this project. My mother has made same design and she gifted it to her friend. About her work I had shared in one of my posts- Inheritance . 

Here is the work we started:

Cross stitch on 1meter X 1 meter cloth

 We have completed working on the main design, the two horses. Now we need to fill it with maroon threads.It won't be completed so soon, cross stitch is always time consuming and this one is nearly 1meter X 1 meter cloth.
The close view of the work:

Closer view of Cross stitch work

Hope with the help of my sister , it will be completed soon :)

The WIP , I posted two weeks' back is completed. Here is the saree I designed:

Saree with Kalamkari patch work

I have attached the Kalamkari border with brown raw silk border . Attached a  antique gold color lace along, the border.

The border- combination of Kalamkari, raw silk and antique gold lace

Loved the combination, couldn't resist designing jewelry- a simple neck piece with hand-painted pendant and  Rudraksh beads.The Durga pendant, Rudraksh and the Kalamkari border are going well with one another. What do you say?

Jewelry designed for the saree

Will keep sharing about different arts and crafts forms , in coming posts,

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Papier Mache craft of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir, which is known for its natural beauty, is also known for many handicrafts. Who doesn't know about Kashmiri embroidery? Most of us wish to own a Kasmiri carpet. If we observe all the handicrafts of Kashmir, they are  done , using very delicate designs. Another such handicraft of India, is Papier Mache work.

I could collect some pictures of papier mache work , when I visited a handicrafts exhibition.The manufacturer explained about how they make  different products using papier mache. 

Different products of Papier Mache

The process of making Papier Mache:

Normally they use fine sheets of wood, from a kind of pine tree. And some use old papers too. These are made into pulp, by soaking in water and some chemicals for 4-5 days and grinding it. The pulp is molded into different shapes. And painted with natural colors . Earlier days, the golden color was made with real gold powder. Now they use acrylic and natural colors.

Here are two kinds of paintings. One with single color and another with different colors. The paintings which made with different color is very difficult to make and looks beautiful too.

Papier mache in single color and different colors.

Though papier mache was used to make boxes and pen stands, now the manufacturers make different decorative products. I could click photos of some :

Different products of papier mache

Small house boat model made of papier mache

pen stand and a box 

As any other handicrafts of Kashmir, papier mache also has very intricate work and design. I wish to see the complete process of making this , whenever I visit Kashmir.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Work In Progress on Wednesday- Saree design

This week was little hectic. Could not write any posts. Could not complete whatever projects I have started. Last week had shared about kutch work design , which I started, last week , is not completed. Many are giving suggestion to use cotton thread on that. So I have decided to follow same.

Here is the sneak peek of this week's project- designing a saree, with Kalamkari border.

Planning to complete this by next week, and share with you.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Work In Progress On Wednesday - Kutchwork on a Kurta

My work in progress series is stepping to third week. I started this with the post of Dress design .
This week sharing about the Kutchwork on a Kurta. I have shared How to trace design on stitched Kurta in my previous post. On the same Kurta I am starting to embroider Kutch work design.
Here is the Kurta with design traced on it:

The design traced

There are some mistakes, I can correct those as it is a geometrical design. The Kurta is in wine color, choosing between pink and light purple for the embroidery. Normally Kutch work looks good with bright color, hope this color look good because of the combination.

The threads selected- Which is better?

The last week's Work in Progress- Kerala Mural on Bamboo , is done.
Last week's work:

Kerala Mural on Bamboo

Here is the completed work:

Kerala Mural on Bamboo

A closer view:

Closer view of Kerala Mural on bamboo

I have completed a Kerala Mural on canvas too. Will share in the coming post.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Work In Progress on Wednesday - Kerala Mural Painting on Bamboo

This week in WIP series, sharing about the Kerala Mural. Most of the artists and crafters now know about Kerala Murala. Though these are mural painting, now many artists paint this on canvas, terracotta pots , cloth , bamboo etc. I'm  learning Kerala Mural painting. I have already learnt painting Kerala Mural on canvas, about which I will share in future. Now learning to paint it on Bamboo.

 WIP of this week, three days back I started. Here it is with outlines:

Kerala Mural on Bamboo-Work in Progress

This is the progress today :

Kerala Mural on Bamboo-Work in Progress

Hope to share finished work in coming week.

By the way,last week's work, was  designing a dress with Madhubani printed cloth. I have completed that work. Here is the dress I have designed:

Last week's WIP

Many suggested go with off white as top. As I have the Duppata in off-white, decided to make the pink  fabric as top. Hope you liked it.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

How to transfer design on stitched dress-Tutorial

This is the query I often get from most my readers. For embroidery projects, transferring the design on fabric is the tedious task. One method is to use charcoal powder. Another is using white carbon paper. Though this method is easy, but for large designs,even this is time consuming.

Whatever the technique we use, transferring design on stitched garment is quite difficult , especially around neck area.

How to transfer the design:

My suggestion for embroidery on stitched fabric, avoid large or complex  designs.

This is the stitched salwar top I selected for embroidery:

The stitched dress I chose

I chose , simple Kutchwork design . I have these two designs in Kutchwark. Kutchwork designs are geometrical, something goes wrong with the design, that can be corrected. Both the designs I have are similar , I chose the first one:

Kutch design sheet

Place a book below the fabric where the design to be transferred.

Keep a book for support

 Now , place the carbon and the design , trace with a pencil or pen. Here is the design transferred on the fabric. There are some mistakes, which I can correct.

Kutchwork design transferred

Hope to complete the embroidery on this dress. I was away from hand embroidery for few months. Starting it again with this Kutch embroidery. You can view other Kutch embroidery I had worked earlier , shared in this post: Kutchwork on Salwar Top .

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Work In Progress on Wednesday - Dress design

Starting a new series on my blog. As the title says, I will be sharing about the arts and crafts projects, on which I'm working on. It can be anything , sewing, embroidery , crochet, tatting, or paper-craft etc.

Why I started this series (WIP) ?

There are two reasons , why I started this series. I can get some suggestions about the work from my readers, like about color combination, technique etc. Second is, I can post the completed work as soon as possible :)

Today , starting this series with a dress design. I had bought a hand-block printed Madhubani cloth from an exhibition. Madhubani is an ancient art , about which I have written in one of my posts. Also I have tried painting it on a wooden box. 

Madhubani paintings are also used on sarees and dresses nowadays. The clothes with hand painted Madhubani paintings are very expensive. We can also get hand block painted ones in the market now. Though these hand block printed cloths do not match the elegance of hand painted cloths, if we use it properly in designing dresses and sarees, these look very nice.

Here is the hand block printed cloth I bought:

Hand-block printed Madhubani design on cloth

Hand-block printed Madhubani design on cloth

For Madubani hand-clock printed cloth,  I have chosen hand-woven cloth in pink and off-white. The hand-block printed cloth , I want to attach as border. Here is how the combination look:

The combination for the top

Both look good. But I have chosen to make the pink cloth as top, as the duppata is off-white with Madhubani prints. What do you suggest?

Once it is stitched, will share in coming post.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Painting a Deepa (Diya) for Deepavali

Deepavali celebration is going on. Today is second day of Deepavali. Hindu's celebrate this by performing Laxmi pooja(worshipping Laxmi- the Goddess of Prosperity) The other tradition like lighting the lamps and bursting crackers are going on.

Deepavali means row of Deepa ( lamps). In all the houses lamps are lit. It is wonderful and colorful to see the view. I have collection of different types of lamps. In some places there are exhibition of different kinds of lamps(Deepa). I also  prefer to gift Deepas(lamps) to my friends and loved ones. This year also continued the same tradition. I had some terracotta lamps with peacock design , which I had bought last year. Decided  to paint these lamps  and gift those to my friends.
Here is the terracotta lamp:

Terracotta lamp  

As a first step, painted it with primer.

After applying primer

Painted with different colors:

Applied color

And shaded with copper color. Here is the painted lamp:

Hand painted Terracotta lamp  

For Deepavali, what else can be better gift than a hand painted Deepa(lamp) ? :)

Happy and safe Deepavali.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Converting an old saree to frocks

Deepavali, the festival of lights started. All are in festive mood. Deepavali is not only festival of lights, I consider this as festival of shopping :) and festival of gifts. This year I have planned to give all handmade gifts to all. To gift, twin babies I stitched two frocks from an old silk saree.

This saree was gifted to me by their grand mother, who was very talented. I have written about her works and talents in my previous posts.  The saree she gifted me is here, a beautiful blue Banaras saree with silver zari border:

Many times, thought not to cut this saree, but this is the best gifts I can give to the kids. So decided stitching frocks for her grand children.

How to stitch a frock:

Though I used to stitch , my dresses earlier, recently had not stitched anything. I was out of touch of stitching dresses. I had forgotten , how to cut pattern for a frock. My old books helped me and also my sister who is an expert helped me to recollect. Here are the cuttings of the frock:

Front and back of the frock

Stitched the cuttings, and here is the top part of the frocks:

Top part of the frock

While stitching a frock , the difficult part is to stitch the top part. Once this is done, attaching the frills is very easy. So I could finish the frock within few hours. Here is the finished frock:

Frock

The twins were looking very pretty wearing the frocks.

I have the border of the saree left out. Planning to design a saree with that. Hope to share about that soon.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

 

A journal making to store design papers

I have many designs on papers, like embroidery designs, dress designs etc. I had kept those in a normal paper folder. Artist in me was not satisfied with the plain paper folder. To make it interesting , I thought of decorating the folder to keep all the designs. I haven't used any special technique, just went on doing whatever came in my mind. :)
 It is a folder made of cardboard, I stuck cloth all over the folder. On the cloth, glues some wet tissue.

Folder with wet tissue glued on it

Once the tissue dried applied , light blue and dark blue paint on it.

After application of paint

On the front attached wooden embellishment and painted it with golden color:

With wooden embellishment 

Back of the folder with a lock embellishment :

The folder looks better rather than plain folder to store my designs.

Coming up with embroidery projects soon. Keep an eye on my blog:)

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Some unique dolls during my visit to judge Gombehabba

In my previous post I have already shared about judging the Gombehabba competition . I visited 10 houses to judge the competition. In each house , the arrangement of dolls was amazing. In some houses the themes were very attractive, and in some the creativity was dominating and in some houses I could see wonderful collection of dolls, which were bought from different parts of the world. Sharing about some of the unique dolls I saw.
Let me start with the Buddha doll meditating in a garden:

Buddha in a garden

In another house, a plastic doll was decorated as Kittoora Rani Chennamma:

A doll made as Kittur Rani Chennamma

Here is a model of Mysuru Palace. Here you can see the creativity of the lady who arranged this. Most of the dolls are handmade:

Model of Mysuru city

This is the most beautiful doll I saw this year. A lady dancing. You can see the charm on her face and the dancing posture looks awesome. It looks real.

Dancing lady doll

Here you can see the route between Bangalore and Mysuru. The important places on the route were depicted using dolls:

Route from Bengaluru to Mysuru

The below one is doll of sleeping Shiva and Parvati is near his head. This is the replica of idol at  Kondeshwara temple Suruta palli, near Tirupati.( You can read more about this temple here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palli_Kondeswarar_Temple,_Surutapalli)

The below one is about the current issue between Karnataka and Tamilnadu. You guessed it right, dolls depicting Kaveri issue. The supreme court judges are relpaced by Ganesha here, and also   CMs of both the states in the court :). I laughed a lot looking at this doll arrangement :)

Another one is a beautiful Lakshmi doll. This doll is from Pune and its Gowri(Parvati) doll. The lady's creativity has changed this doll to look like Goddess Lakshmi. Isn't it adorable?

 In many houses this custom is celebrated from past 100 years. So I could see some very old dolls. The below one is a doll , which more than 100 years old. You can see the difference in the color:

And this is collection of utensil sets. Most of us had these kind of sets during our childhood. Nowadays these are replaced by plastic ones:

Visiting all these houses to view and judge the arrangement was a wonderful experience.This tradition makes us kids. All of us enjoyed like kids, in the world of dolls.I was feeling, for those dolls we must have looked like giants :-)

Many sarees are designed, have worked on some hand embroidered projects. Soon share those with you.

 Until then, 

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana