HI

I have been busy for the past three weeks or so with my mom's surgery. She was recovering but again had some infection. Any way now she is recovering but needs to be looked after another eight weeks or so to fully recover. I have to take care of her take her for her check ups and all. With the temperatures reaching unbearable levels, I just am barely coping with all my responsibilities.

I could not post much. I am sorry that I could not post my Free Pattern this week. I will try to post if possible because all my stuff is in a muddle and I need to sort out.

Hmm by the way, these days I have a Tom cat- a stray gold coloured one who has made my  home as his adda (hangout). he tries his best to steal a drink of milk or curd. But till now we have out witted him. He is always snoozing around. So lazy, I don't know when he gets to have his food. 

His favourite place is under the diwan (a wooden cot) in my back yard. Its cool there because of the shade of the trees. Hmmm he is lucky. I wish I could also sleep like him  with out a care in the world.

I have my hands full right now with my mom. but still I am trying out various new crafts. Keep a watch on my blog... I will post some soon....

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.......