Interesting Sculptures -Badami Cave temple

Badami - a place in Karantaka, very famous for cave temples. Last year I had been to Badami and Pattadakallu( a village nearby Badami- I will write about this in coming posts.)
In Badami cave temple, all the sculptures are very beautiful. Among those sculptures, I found two sculptures very interesting.
One is the "Elephant and Bull, with common head" sculpture:

If the left side of the body is covered its a Bull  and right side covered it is elephant.

It is clear in the below cropped images:

Left side-Elephant

Right side-Bull

When I browsed about this sculpture, I found, this kind of sculpture is present in  Airavateshwara temple (Darasuram-near Tanjore, Tamilnadu)and the world famous heritage centre Hampi (Karnataka). Quite interesting! 

Another sculptures is of Shiva and Parvati, on Nandi (Bull)

It may look normal Shiva Parvati , sculpture. If you observe closely, you can see, Parvati sitting in side saddle position. Parvati's one hand is holding Shiva's waist and another is on the shoulder. Something similar to double riding on a Motor bike :-) Isn't it very interesting?

There are many sculptures in Badami cave temple. I will share about those in the coming posts.

-Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Kutchwork on Salwar Top

I had been to Belgaum(a city in Karnataka), in 2009. This is the place,where I studied, stayed  for four years. This city brings me lots of memories-good, bad and ugly.....Sometimes I feel there shall be some technique to wipe out memories, whichever we don't want.... :-).Not possible:-( Right?  Leave it.....
When I had been to Belgaum , I had bought this salwar suit. (Got it stitched, long back. It was waiting for its turn to get embroidered. At last its turn came :-) )

This is plain salwar , so thought of embroidering. First thought to use combination of tatted motifs and hand embroidery. Somehow didn't like, so dropped the idea. Went ahead with Kutch work embroidery. I love Kutchwork embroidery , as it is colorful.
Kutchwork is form of embroidery, which is practised in Kutch region ( Gujarat,India). Mainly consists of interlacing stitch and mirror work. While collecting information about this embroidery, I found its very similar to Armenian embroidery ( Armenia is a country, near Turkey). Very interesting, isn't it?
I embroidered border and motifs, with Black and White colored threads
Here it is:


Closer view of the border



And the motifs:

 

With the Duppatta and the bottom , the final look of the Salwar:

Hope I have made the right choice by selecting Kutchwork for this Salwar. What do you say?

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Kumkuma Bharani- with Peacock design

I've shared about my collection of Kumkuma Bharanis( Container to store Vermilion) in previous posts:
My collection of Kumkuma Baharanis
Some more Kumkuma Bharanis
Paper Mache Kumkuma Bharanis

One of my friends,  gave me a Kumkuma Bharani-made of paper mache , which she bought from Kashmir. My collection is increased :-)
Here it is:

 

I have some Kumkuma Bharanis, with Peacock design. The below one is made of Silver, with Peacock shaped handle on it.

Another Peacock shaped Kumkuma Bharani. This is also made of metal, and painted with blue color.

And it can be opened by sliding the upper part. It has 2 compartments, for Haldi( Turmeric powder) and Kumkuma( Vermilion ).

The below one, I like the most. It has very nice design with Kundan attached . This I had bought from a craftsman from Nagpur( Maharastra)

It has a lid and two compartments.

The next one is wooden , in Peacock shape. 

It has sliding lid and two compartments.

                Aren't these worth collecting?

I have completed Kutch work on salwar top, tatted some motifs , enthusiastic  to take you through a craft street ....so many more to share with you in coming posts. 

-Until then

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana