Rangoli-9

The beauty of this art lies in the placement of the dots, drawing of even and thin lines, choosing the right colours to fill up and last but not least lots of patience. 

Care should be taken to clean and wash/wipe the area first. In our villages and town, cow dung mixed with water is sprinkled and allowed to dry. This not only helps in preventing the dust or loose soil to blow out into the house, but also gives a thick olive green back drop for the design. The design drawn with the white lime stone powder or the rice powder stands out beautifully on the surface.

The basic requirement for a beautiful Rangoli is the placement of dots. They should be evenly placed in each row and rows should also be spaced evenly. The main row; the row which contains the maximum number of dots forms the central lines. The dots in this row are placed first and in the center of the area where the design needs to be drawn. Then the  subsequent rows of dots are placed on either side of the main row.

Here are some more designs for you...

 

 
 

  

 Hope you like them. Some more designs next time.....

Visitor in my garden

Friends today early in the morning I had a beautiful visitor in my garden. A pretty little Butterfly. It was sunning its wings and then drinking water. So I clicked.....

 

  

  

 I love it when these pretty ones visit my garden. At least me garden is providing food and shelter to some lives.....

My Embroideries

I wanted to share with you one of my works, hand embroidery on a sari.The sari is Bengal cotton cream (off white) with a red border. This is the traditional one from Bengal. I love the combination and every few years replenish my wardrobe with at least two three saris with the same combination but different designs.

This sari I brought it at least five years ago and my hands itched after looking at the plain sari. LOL!. I started with the pallu. I used feather stitch with detached chain. I used to stitch only for a few minutes every night after a very hectic schedule. I used to be so very tired after long hours at the computer. So it took long to finish this simple design. I wanted to do the design in slant stripes through out the sari. But did not have the guts to take it up.

Any way here are the pictures. Well its not a master piece. I know. But it filled all my lonely and agonised moments when I was living away from my family all alone, counting days, hours minutes and seconds to come back. I could some what divert myself from the loneliness.

This was how the pallu was embroidered. I always start with the pallu, so that if I complete the design at least I have the pallu with the embroidery. The rest I may or may not embroider.

 

I have used the same colours of cream and red. But God! it was very difficult to obtain the correct shades which match the colours on the sari. I used feather stitch with detached chain. I used the colours alternately. That is cream coloured feather stitches with red detached chain and vice verse. I was inspired by the wheat fields fully ripe which I happened to see on my outings, before I started my embroidery.

 

 

 Here is a close shot. I used the Holbein stitch at the center.

 

 Close shots of my work on the pallu

 

 

 

 

The rest of sari looks like this.I could not embroider it further. I just wanted to do a slanting stripes all over.

 Hope you like it.....

Rangoli-8

In this post I am going to talk about those designs which are drawn using dots, but here the lines are drawn in such a way that when the design is completed, the dots cannot be made out. That is when lines are drawn connecting these dots, they merge into the lines and one cannot make out the dots. However for your convenience I am drawing the designs in such a manner that you can make out the dots.

Before showing you the designs, let us first know the different ways dots are placed. There are three types;


This is nXn ie like a square

This is called dots placed opposite to each other. At each line one on each side is left out in the next row-say 7, 5,3,1 etc. The row with maximum dots is called the main row and the dots are placed similarly on either side.

This is called in between or center dots, ie, in each row the dots are placed in the center of the two dots of the above row; say, 5,4,3,2,,1 etc. The row with maximum dots is called the main row and the dots are placed similarly on either side.

Now here are the designs.
























Now I have completed the explanation part regarding the Basics of Rangoli. From now on I will be posting the designs. Hope these tutorials are clear enough to understand.

I would like to know if any one wants to know more on this subject. Please let me know. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. So long...

 

Republic Day

Today we Indians celebrated 61st Republic Day. I have always enjoyed these national celebrations. Every time on these days, I become nostalgic, remembering my school days. On the eve of the Independence Day (15th of August) or Republic Day, we all used to decorate our class rooms, with streamers, balloons, pictures of national leaders, charts relating to our curriculum and so on but in Indian tri-colours. When we got prize for best decorated class rooms we used to feel so happy and proud.

Anyways, I love watching the live telecast of Parade at Delhi. Its nice to see our Prez a Lady, and we do feel proud. We also celebrate these occasions in our areas. Competitions in sports and other activities are conducted, flag hoisting, cultural programmes by the residents, especially children bring us all together and also unveil the hidden talents in the people.

Ohh by the way, the three clolours of Indian flag stand for: Green--- Prosperity or relation to the soil, India being a country of villages, White-Peace, purity, light, truth, right path, conduct, Saffron-detachment (from material gains) steadfastness to the chosen path (welfare of the country) and the blue wheel in the center is the Ashoka Chakra denoting Dharma or Virtue

Hmmm today after a long time I got a holiday. But I had lots to do. Could only complete a few tasks. Here are the pics of the Rangoli I made. I have not made elaborate colourful one which I usually do every year.

This was the Rangoli I made using the Indian Tri colours.

Here is a closer look at the design in the center

Now this is the tri coloured rice I prepared.

I pickled some garlic, which I wanted to experiment with since long.

Here are the dates, (dry ones) from which I make the chat pata Mukhwas every year. Its very tasty, and acts as a digestive aid.

The recipes of these three I will be sharing in my other blog...

Rangoli-7

Here are some more designs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roses N Roses

Here I am back with some more beautiful prints-this time Roses. Who doesn't love Roses?  I love this cotton fabric, with print of roses that looks like painted. The cotton is very fine satin cotton, quite soft to touch. I made bed linen out of this

 

 

 

 

 I hope you like them too. One of these days I will practice painting these roses. I have an excellent motifs before me.....

Rangoli-6

Here are some more of the intricate Rangoli designs. You can easily make out the dots and the patterns. I dont think any explanation is necessary. But if you still feel difficulty you can leave your suggestions or questions here so that I can respond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So how do you like them....?