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

Terracotta of Phokaran(Jaisalmer- Rajasthan)

Phokaran is a small village in Jaisalmer. I know you remembered the Nuclear test. In this craft blog I'm not posting about the Nuclear test :). This small village is also famous for the very special type of pottery work(terracotta work). I would love to visit this place and see the process of making of the potteries. Hope this wish will be fulfilled soon :-).  I have tried my hands in making terracotta jeweleries and share about that in this post.
I had an opportunity to see these potteries in a craft exhibition. These are really attractive and in different shapes:

 

Earlier potters were to make only pots and household utensils. But now they have extended their skills to make variety of decorative items too like Pen stands:

 

Many decorative items :

Wall hangings:

Cute dolls : 

The specialty of Pokaran terracotta is, these are decorated with beautiful motifs, lines and dots.

Don't you feel grab some of these to add to your collection. I felt the same. I bought a  small hut , so that I can paint this: 

Eager to paint it and share the same with you. 

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Terracotta - An earthy experience

Terracotta- its an earthy craft. This connects with mother earth and nature. I think this is the most ancient craft in the  world. Archaeologists have found terracotta artifacts in many excavations.This craft dates back to the time of  Harappa Civilization . During excavation near Indus valley , many  terracotta artifacts were found:

Image Courtesy - Google Images

Recently in China also a huge collection terracotta Army dolls  was found, which is called "Terracotta Army" . You can read it about this Terracotta Army in this link.

Image Courtesy - Wikipedia

In India Bishnupura ( of West Bengal ) is famous for terracotta craft. Many temples are built using terracotta. Bishnupura is one of my dream destinations :-). You can find details about Bishnupura here . Even in Andhra Pradesh  terracotta is practiced as one of the major crafts. This is widely known craft, may be because the major resource for this craft is Mud, which is abundantly available.

I was eager to learn this craft. One fine day I found opportunity to learn this in a 2 days' workshop conducted by an art  institute. I always rejoice the experience. 

When I entered the place I could see all the terracotta artifacts displayed :

 

There were 15-20 people , who were enthusiastic learn this art. 

To start with we were given a ball of soft mud, with which we started playing :-). I remembered our childhood days, where we used to play with mud making different statues :-)

You can see here , how we were enjoying playing with the mud. People were not bothered about their mobile handsets also :-)

These are the small items I made , after playing with the mud for nearly for hours!

The  tray made by our   instructor.Isn't this beautiful!

The terracotta items shall be baked in the ovens at very high temperature. This baking gives hardness as well as the beautiful red color. We had to wait for a week to get it baked, since the oven was available only with our instructor . After baking the items I made had got beautiful red color , here they are:

The hand holding rose :

 

Some jewelry

A small Ganesha :

Overall the workshop was a great Earthy experience! 

Recently learning Batik painting , soon I will share about that experience also.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

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?