Five years of blogging

I have completed five years in blogosphere. Time just flies. Started this blog to share about my experiences and experiments in arts and crafts. Another wonderful year completed , with 30 more posts about different arts and crafts.
Last year , my blog was neglected by me a  bit. I was busy with my other commitments. This year I'm confident  that I will share many posts about different forms of arts and crafts, write about many artists whom I have met and their works, and of course about my projects too.
This blog started with a post about qulling. And , it just went on. This blog is nearing 200 posts. The year 2015 was fantastic year for me as I had learnt many crafts, including siporex mural carving. Year of fulfillment, as I visited many events happening in arts and crafts world including Chitrasante -2016  . I worked on many forms of crafts , like decoupage, card making and punch craft. 
I converted a small space in my house to a craft room, with a small table decoupaged , and decorated it with a little  idol  of Buddha I bought from Bodhgaya . 
Here is the glimpse of Buddha in  my craft room. About my crft room which I will  share in the coming posts, as still it has to be organised. Otherwise my time was wasted in searching materials :)

Small Buddha idol in my craft room

Buddha idol

After I have craft space , all the materials are organized properly and I'm able to work on more projects.

Last year I could not work on saree designing. Hardly  2-3 sarees I designed, but very happy with the sarees I have designed. My favourite is the saree which I designed with printings of Jaimini Roy's paintings.
This year planning to share more about saree designing and also include video tutorials about school craft projects.
Five years of blogging has given me pleasure, learning and wonderful friends in the blogosphere. The journey will continue with you all. 
Thank you for being part of my life in this blogosphere.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Its already four years in Blogosphere

Time just flies! Its already four years completed in blogosphere .  Have written about 167  posts about my experiences and experiments with different kinds of arts and crafts. Tried to introduce some artists and their works.
 Just love this way of following my passion. Above all have got some very good friends in this blogosphere !
2014 was the year of many ups and downs , quit the IT job to become a full time tutor. Started a new venture of making handcrafted fashion jewels. Because of the major decisions in life , life was bit imbalanced, that impacted number of posts too.This year has a good start. Travelled a bit and collected information about different arts and crafts of India. Also equipped with many sources of knowledge about different kinds of craft, like books and articles.
Some are here, the encyclopedia of handicrafts of India: 

 

A narrative book on sarees of India:

Soon will start posts about crafts of the World. Also, will share many tutorials , which will help craft learners like me.
Thank you all for your support, will continue this journey of sharing about arts and craft, through each post.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Radha Krishna -Unbounded Love !

I always wished to draw pencil sketches of Radha Krishna. But as I'm not trained properly in pencil sketching was bit hesitant, thinking that something might go wrong.
Before working on these pencil sketches I studied stories about Radha Krishana, from different sources. There are different opinions about Radha Krishna, from various scholars.

Some opine Radha and Krishna married as per Gandharva Vivaha( a kind of Hindu marriage type) Almost all stories stress that , the Radha Krishna love story signifies, union of Atma (soul) with Paramatma( Supreme soul). The love was bond less, knew no bonds and bounds.
Radha and Krishna could not separate from each other, as they were always united.The following sketch is based on unity of Radha and Krishna.

 
Some opine Radha was already married and she was elder to Krishna. Krishna because of responsibilities  could not marry Radha etc.While leaving from Brindavan to Mathura, Krishna gave his flute to Radha and   he never met Radha again.

Radha was left with memories of Krishna and the flute given by him.
The below sketch is of Radha, lost in memories of Krishna. She is chuckling. And she is wearing Peacock feather, which was one of Krishna's favourites.

 

And the below one with Radha with the flute given by Krishna. She was eagerly waiting for Krishna, looking at the horizon for the Krishna's arrival.

 

I know these sketches are not perfect. I will try to improve in the next sketches. But happy to share it on the occasion of  second anniversary of my blog! Thanks to all the readers. Wish this journey of togetherness continues.

Many more to share in the coming posts,

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

My blog completes one year!

Today my blog completes one year!

    Before I started this blog, I was not much aware of blogging. Whenever , I used to browse for new designs in embroidery or paintings etc, I used to come across some blogs. That's all.
Simply registered this blog , and  for 2 months I had forgotten about this. One day(on 20th Jan 2011),suddenly remembered about my blog registration, but confused about what to post. I'm always passionate about arts and crafts. I forget everything whenever , I work on any form of arts/crafts.  Whenever I was unhappy , this hobby has soothed me. In my happy moments , this added more joy to my happiness. So thought of blogging about arts and crafts, my works, my paintings, dress design etc,etc.
(Apart from the above mentioned reason, I thought, if I write ,hardly anybody would read. If I post some pictures and write one or two lines, atleast some people would come across my blog while searching for images :-))
   I wanted to keep this blog very simple, so name is also straight forward, "Ranjana's Craft Blog". I thought, it would be difficult for me to maintain this blog, so I would forget about this blog , after one or two posts. So whatever, let me start. So started this with a post about "Quilled card ", which I made for my sister in law. And after a week, I learnt screen printing on fabrics, excited to share about that. So posted some of my works in screen printing, so it went on...Now, 33 posts about different forms of arts and crafts, my experiences with arts, artists etc and 23 amazing members(Sorry 22, I'm one of the members. Thought, if this blog didn't get any reader, at least one follower will be shown in the followers list :-)), many lovely comments from many readers, visitors, more than 13000 page views! Thank you for all the support and encouragement!
Some readers, have suggested me to improve the look and feel of this blog. I'm working on that. Soon this blog will have a little bit makeover (Not too much! I want to keep the blog simple)
.
I had started the blog with a post about a quilled card. Here is one more quilled card, I made to send to my sister in law. My son insisted, to send  bouquet of flowers, so made this card with bouquet design. I've taken this design from a pattern book.
Here it is

Hope she likes this.
      
  I will share a lot about different forms of arts and crafts, and of course about my favourite things, my hobbies, my experiences, about many artists whom I've met and learnt from them, about my embroideries, my paintings , my skteches ... I'm not a good writer, but trying to share my experiences with arts and crafts...because for me its easy to express in the form of arts/crafts rather than words.

Working on some sketches.In my next posts, I will share about those.

Love, laugh and live the life to the fullest.
-Ranjana