Punkhas-2

Here is one more variety of hand held fans:

This one is made of Palm leaf-dried. You can see how efficiently the leaf and its stalk have been used to create this. The stalk has been used as a handle and the leaf as fan.

Here is a closer look. You can see that a small strip of the stalk has been used on the edge to keep the leaf in place tightly avoiding flip-flop when used. The thin string used to tie down this strip is also derived from the palm tree.

This type has been in use since ancient times. It is so simple to make from locally available materials which don't harm environment. In fact this is one way of using a dry leaf instead of throwing away or burning it. It means reducing the waste and utilising it for some purpose. More over the rural folk don't have money, material or time to waste. They extract maximum out of everything. After all they work very hard.

These fans are actually dipped in water and used for fanning. They give cool air. I don't know whether this is true or not. But we used to use it like that as children and still do. 

These fans along with mangoes are distributed in this month of Vaisakha as it is believed that distributing them in summer will not only benefit others but we will also gain lot of good blessings. It is a tradition in our region.

I have bought around 101 fans this year to give away sometime during this month....hope you do too at least some what ever you can afford....

Keep watching my blog for more.....

Punkhas From India

India is a country where summers are very hot and humid. If  it is near a river or sea the humidity is still more. In order to combat this humid climate, one used fans known as "Pankhas" in Hindi and "Visenakarralu" in Telugu.

Pankhas were of two types. The huge ones, rectangular in shape, made of wood and cloth were hung from the roofs. It was operated by a servant by pulling the rope or cord attached to it. These were used by the Royals and rich. It required a man/woman to operate it.

The other type were hand held fans. These were made of natural materials like, bamboo, palm leaves, Vattiveru (Telugu) (khas in Hindi) a fragrant root, cane and cloth etc. Every house had them. Right from a simple model to those decorated with embroidery, painting zari etc were used. Even today we do use them as there are frequent poser cuts and also while travelling. These days fans made of plastic are also available but the traditional ones are still in use in towns and rural areas.

Giving away, an umbrella, a hand held fan, a pair of slippers along with ripe mangoes to  brahmans as well as our relatives, friends and well wishers in the month of "Vaisakham" is considered as good. Those who cannot donate all these do donate, a hand held fan and some mangoes.

Here have a look at some of the Pankhas:

http://www.siddharthadas.com/museum_1_1.asp

Here is one from my collections:

This is from North East, made of Bamboo and foldable. Above you can see the folded one. below is the unfolded one.

This is a simple one. Painted ones are also available. I have preserved this carefully. we do use them in summers.


Keep a watch on my blog, more to come.......

Learn With Me -Quilling

Basics

I want to share with you my experiments and experiences with Quilling Craft. I want to share with you the techniques, designs patterns and how I did them. I will post tutorials, links and my creations.

So come Learn With Me Quilling.....

A Little about Quilling:

Quilling- is the art of rolling strips of paper, shaping, sticking together and on some back ground. In case of 3D shapes no back ground is used.

Since the Quill or feather was used for rolling the paper strips, this art got its name Quilling.

There is lot of uncertainty as to the origin of Quilling or Paper Filigree as also known as. Some say the French and Italian nuns and monks used this art. Some say this is an old art form and originated after the invention of paper and hence may be in China. 

Metal filigree-filigree in gold, silver etc was much in vogue since ancient times in making of jewellery and other things. This was and still is popular in India where we have silver nd other filigree works. But this was restricted to rich and royal because of its cost. Subsequently filigree in other metals like iron etc came into existence. So some believe that paper was used as an inexpensive material for creating filigree items and this became popular as Quilling Craft.

During the 18th century quilling was popular with elite European ladies and from there it spread to America. Furniture, purses etc were decorated with quilling. But it lost its popularity over a period of time. 

Any way today this craft has become popular across the world and there have been changes in the art form, materials and styles/techniques used. At present dimensional or 3D quilling is also popular.

Materials Required:

Paper: Quilling paper is (acid free) available in solid colours, two toned, graduated etc. solid means one colour through out, two toned is solid colour one side and a softer shade on the other side and graduated means the colour starts with darker shade and slowly fades away into lighter shade or white. Apart from this today we have metallic and jewel shades too.

We can get sheets and cut into desired width. But it is better to buy the strips available in the market. These are available in 2mm, 3mm, 5mm, 8mm and 10mm strips in Indian markets. They are available in bunches(packs) of single colours or rainbow colours.

Quilling Tool: This is of two types, needle type and one with a slot. Both have handles made of plastic for easy holding. The slot type has a small slit in the needle through which the paper is passed. This helps to grip the paper strip and thus easy to roll. One can always use a tooth picks, pins or hat pins etc too for rolling.

Quilling Circle Template Board: This is an useful tool for creating rolls or circles of various sizes. This is available in many sizes.

Quilling Comb: Is useful for some techniques. But one can manage using ordinary hair comb or pins too.

Pins: long pins with pearl or bead head are ideal for holding the work in place while coiling or making the desired shape.

Scissors: Small one with sharp point is good. Use any simple scissors used for paper cutting or in crafts.

Tweezers: Quilling tweezers with pointed or fine tips are useful in handling small rolls or when working on rolls, soils etc.

Ruler: This comes in handy for measuring.

Glue: Any craft glue is enough.

Crimper, Fringer are other tools which come in handy while creating designs. Crimper helps in crimping the paper strips where as fringer helps in cutting the fringes.

But the basic tools required are paper strips, needle or toothpick, pins, scissors and glue to start with.

    My tools

  Quilling Papers

In the next post we will learn the basic shapes and how to make them...So keep an eye on my blog...