Rangoli-16

Here is another design 13 to 7 dots....

Below is one more design

Its Spring time in my garden

Its spring time in my garden. Most of my plants are blooming as the veil of winter is slowly sliding away from the face of mother Nature. Its the time for the birds and other little creatures to make most of it as the Sun is warming up for a hot Indian Summer. This is the time when, we have our plants and trees blooming their best and  mango trees flowering. 

I love the tangy smell of flowers filling the air and it brings back my childhood days of lovely leisure. We children gearing up for the final exams and then pure bliss of two and half months holidays. Though the summer time is hot and humid we children were only too happy to let off from the routine, playing, drinking glasses of cool sherbet or spiced buttermilk, eating chunks of palm fruit, tender coconut, mangoes, water melons and musk melons. Sucking the ices of different flavours coated with herbs, sago or vermicelli. Robbing our granny's kitchen of raw mango pieces readied for pickles and eat it with salt and chilly powder. Hmmm..... as we grow older all this magic is lost some where in the tensions and tribulations of daily routines.....

Oh! Here are some of the pictures I want to share with you...I love sitting with my mom in my small garden, early in the morning, sipping a hot cup of coffee and talking to each of my plants and trees...best way to relax...

 

This is the Bay leaf tree. I used its leaves in one of my recipes, instead of the dried ones. It was much better in taste. 

  

Here are the little birds which visit me morning and evening when I water my plants. They are very active and keep on jumping from one leaf to another chirping incessantly calling to their buddies and wetting themselves in the droplets of water . They don't seem to like using the water I keep for the birds in a bowl.

  

Here is another one of the birds. It was very difficult to photograph them, as they don't keep still even for a minute.

  

Here is the bird feed i keep out in my garden. I try to feed a variety of grains one on each day like rice, wheat, millet, lentils, sometimes bread crumb etc. Pegions, crows, sparrows and other birds whose name I don't know visit it. Ants also have their fill here, carrying grain by grain and hoarding them for the Monsoons which follow the summers. How hard they work..I love to watch those tiny creatures.

  

These are yellow chrysanthemums flowering in bunches.

  

 Here is my Bougainvillea in bloom. This is being trained as a Bonsai and is forming very beautifully.

  

 Here are the bunches of flowers of the same.

  

These are the first buds of Jasmine, which flower only in summer. I love them. Their scent is something which can be enjoyed under a night sky with full moon...I need to work on these creepers. lot of pinching of leaves and pruning is required to make it bloom in bunches. There single and multi petaled varieties. .It is the Queen of all flowers....

  

 Here are the flowers of Night Queen. Their smell is so heady, it fills my home when ever there is a breeze.

  

A close look at one of the bunches of the flowers. They are small star shaped and white in colour.

 

Here is the queen of all the Magnolia flowers...White Magnolia.... hmmmm its smell is so divine. The plant is very young and flowers very rarely. But when it does its a beauty...

I will share some more next time... Hope you have enjoyed them as much as I do..

Torans-1

Beads Toran


Torans (in Hindi) and Toranalau (in Telugu) are valences that are hung across the door ways. We Indians decorate our door ways with Torans. Torans are valences. They are usually made of Mango leaves and marigold flowers for festivals and auspicious occasions. The colour green denotes prosperity and the orange or yellow of the marigolds stand for happiness.

Apart from the above traditional ones, people use torans made of other  real and fresh flowers and artificial things. It could be torans made of plastic flowers, papers, wool or silk threads, fabrics like silk, velvet, cotton, embroidered with zari, mirrors, stones, pictures of Gods, goddesses, animals like the elephants, horses, birds, like peacocks etc. They could also be made of various beads, cowrie shells, coins etc. there are also crocheted ones. I am going to introduce to you various torans made from a variety of materials as the time permits.

So here I share one from my collections.....

 

Here you can see the one made by my aunt very long ago. Its made of plastic and glass beads. You can see the peacocks and parrots. I was privy to the making of this one. The design was first drawn by my aunt on a paper. Then this was drawn on graph papers, marking each bead, colour by colour to get the desired shape. Then this was actually executed. It was a long and tiring process. Any small mistake, it had to be corrected before proceeding further. But the end result is very beautiful. as you can see it decorates one of our door ways.

So, What do you think of it? Please leave your comments....

Rangoli-15

Here are two more designs from our traditional ones...

 This one is 15 to 7 but can be drawn using 15 to 8 dots.

This is also 15 to 8 dots. Hope you have liked these.

Coconut Crafts

I love attending various exhibitions being conducted in my city. Specially if they are related to arts n crafts, textiles, horticulture etc. Recently I visited one. I just want to share with you the products made from coconut. 

Coconut you know is widely grown and used in the coastal areas more so in South India. The fruit is offered as a token of respect to gods. Its used in our cuisine widely. The water of tender coconuts is very tasty, refreshing and highly nutritious, so is the tender flesh. Summertime is the best time to enjoy them. Coconut oil is used as medium of cooking and is very good for our tresses. 

All the parts of the tree are useful. The trunk is used for various purposes like making small boats, as timber,etc, coir is used for mattresses, carpets, ropes, and  so on. The sap from the flowers is drunk known as neera and is very good for health. The same is fermented to get wine known as toddy. Grated coconut mixed with water and boiled gives the milk which is used in various dishes, especially by the South East Asian countries. Coconut is basically good for our hair.

The shell of the fruit is hard and is used for making various crafts and utility items. I could get a glimpse of them only. Here they are:

Here are the fruit. They come in bunches, green, yellow and orange colour. The tender ones have more water and less flesh or is it meat they call it? But once it matures, there is less water and the flesh is hard.

 

 Aren't these faces cute? They are made from the coconuts.

 

Here are the vases, cups and other things made out of the shells. Aren't these artists really good and skilled?

Hope you like them......

Painted Sari

This is a sari which I painted long back. I loved the combination of  off-white and orange. Its pure cotton very fine quality, hand woven and had a light silk yarn border border. It looked bright yet not too loud. There was not much choice for me in the colours that could be used for painting on this sari. So it was orange, olive green, brown and white. I dint want an elaborate design as I wanted to finish it off early.  Just used a few strokes to create a floral spray.

 

 This is how it looks the Pallu half orange and half off-white with floral bunches.

  

 The sari had an orange border  on both top and bottom edges.

  

 A closer look at the pallu.

  

 The floral bunches all over the sari at regular intervals.

  

 A closer look at one of the bunches.

Hmmm not quite a master piece. I know. But the colour combination of the sari made it stand out among the crowds.

Rangoli-14

Here is a simple design and small one too.

 

  

 

  

 

Hope you liked it......

Rangoli-13

Here is one of our traditional Rangoli. It is known as Shiv's three eyes. Shivuni kallu in Telugu and also Leaves of  Bael -Maredu dalam or Bilwa patralu  in Telugu.

 

 

I have just given the pattern of the dots and how to draw one part in first picture. Any way you can see the dots in the second one too.

Rangoli-12

Here is one design 5X4...

 

 

Just try this and may be you can create some new one? Let me know.

Rangoli-11

Some more simple designs 5X5....

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

Rangoli-10

Here are some more designs, very simple to draw....

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 See how easy these designs are. Some more next time.