Threshold Art-1

Threshold means an entrance or door way. Threshold (door frame) for us Indians has lot of significance. Especially the threshold of main door. In olden days, houses of rich and royalty or those houses which were very big, temples and forts had huge doors and huge thresholds ie., the main doors leading into the house. I remember in my child hood, all the houses had thresholds (the main one) that were one foot wide and one foot high at the bottom. Even the rooms inside the house had thresholds but were in smaller size.The doors and thresholds were generally made of fine quality teak wood. 

Decorating the upper portion of the doorways with torans, I am already covering that  under the head "Torans". Here I am talking about the bottom portion of the door ways. Here after when I mention threshold, it refers to the bottom portion of the door frame. This is known as Chaukhat in Hindi and Gadapa in Telugu.

The threshold (bottom portion) is considered as a place where Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) resides. 

Threshold art is the art of decorating the threshold with turmeric and vermilion. Since my child hood I have been fascinated by this art. Each household or rather lady of the household has its/her own way of decorating the threshold which has been handed down over generations.

How to apply turmeric and vermilion:

First of all the bottom portion and the sides of the frame (upto 1-2 feet) are washed with water to clean dirt and also to wet the wood. Turmeric is mixed with water or with sour curds (this gives a beautiful colour) into a paste and applied. Then it is decorated using red coloured vermilion and rice flour.

Here is one of the ways:

Side bottom of threshhold

Bottom of the threshold.


Watch out for more...in my next post....

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Designer Diyas

Diwali the festival of lights brings happiness across the country irrespective of regions, languages, states. It is celebrated by all. It is the time for bonding, enjoying, remembering departed souls and lots more. 

This is the time to give gifts to near and dear ones, friends relatives, employees - in short to one and all we want to say thank you. There are so many gifts to choose from. Candles and lamps are one of the most chosen gifts and also most appropriate for the occasion. How about some designer Diyas that to lovingly made by us? Our love and affection for the persons whom we gift these shines through our efforts of creation.

Oh by the way down South we light lamps every day in the month of Kartik. We celebrate the Purnima (Full Moon) of Kartika as an auspicious occasion, fasting, decorating our homes with earthen ware lamps like we do on Diwali. Finally on the new moon day we float the lighted lamps in rivers, lakes or such water bodies as culmination of our month long prayers. It is considered as very pious to give a lighted lamp (silver, gold or clay) to a Brahmin any time during this month. 

So learn with me in creating some simple designer diyas.

Require:

Terracotta or earthen ware lamps

Paints and brushes

Water

An old news paper

First of all buy some terracotta or earthen ware lamps (Diyas) available in different sizes and shapes. These days you get so much variety. 

You can use enamel paints. But the variety in acrylic or fabric paint colours is very wide. You can choose from ordinary, pearl, metallic, glitters etc. You can also use glitter powders, 3D tubes or cones for decoration. These colours are also easy to handle. You can just add a few drops of water (or medium). 

Put all the lamps in a tub and pour water enough to cover them by good few inches. It is better to soak them over night. This soaking has to be done whether these lamps or painted or not. If not they soak away all the oil poured into them. Similarly if soaked we can paint them nicely and evenly.

If not 5-6 hours. Then remove them and put them face down for an hour or so and then stand them right for an hour. Now they are ready to paint. Paint them in colours of your choice  Add dots, stripes after the paint dries off or dust them with glitter powders (when the paint is still damp). For decorations of 3D effect, use 3D paints which are available tubes of plain, metallic and glitters.

Red Yellow and Green are considered as auspicious colours. You can use other colours too except black. Don't use Black. Gold Silver, Bronze and other metallic colours give a nice affect. 

Let them dry out completely. Wrap them in colourful gift wrappers.

Here are some I am working on.

These need a few more touches. I have to paint the outer sides (or under sides). I don't paint the bottom as it cannot be seen. I have used pearl and metallic shades.   Actually I had made so many, which were packed and gifted. I could not photograph them.

Will post more in my next post...so keep watching....

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Left Over Threads

Friends, those who sew and embroider or crochet or knit what ever we do with threads, yarns and floss, we all face one problem. Over a period of time we have lots of left over threads of different colours, weights and so on. So what to do with them?

What I do is wrap them on unused visiting cards, or sari fall cards, or the empty spools left over after using the threads or just wind them up and tie them. I use them for:


1. Small projects like embroidering handkerchiefs or napkins etc 
2. For making jewellery, friendship bracelets 
3. For making tassels and other such projects
4. For doodling my ideas on embroidery for creating any new projects 
5. For remembering and practising old stitches till I get them perfectly right 
6. For learning new stitches 
7. For getting the rhythm of a stitch or stitches before I take up my actual project 
8. For colour reference- I keep small quantities with numbers noted on the cards 
9. I give them away to my friends who have run out of some particular colour(s), who are beginners or learn stitches from me.

But here is one site where the author Renee Frank has given some very good ideas:

http://www.pepitaneedlepoint.com/article/ideas-for-left-over-needlepoint-thread.htm

I specially like the one for the birds. Just go through it. I think it is very good article. Do you have any ideas? Please share with us on this blog.

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