Colourful Rangoli for Diwali

Happy Diwali to all my friends. Friends its Diwali time and everywhere you can see lights and crackers as Diwali is known as the "Festival of Lights". We celebrate Diwali by lighting diya, candles, bursting crackers.

Diwali is a festival of sweets, firecrackers, lights and of course the decorations. Not only decorating homes but even the streets, markets and all possible places are decorated with many lights and other Diwali decorations.

Diwali is decorated mainly with Diyas, Hangings, Rangolis, Lights and lamps.

To say about rangoli the whole Diwali time you can find rangoli drawn outside each and every house, shops and even people selling Rangoli powders gives a demo of Rangoli designs.

Here is the Rangoli I did in my office.





This one is Rangoli using "Tandul". This means rangoli using rice, grains, peas, spice powders, pulses, Dal.

Painting a Banyan Leaf

Painting on a banyan leaf is a different painting many of you might have heard of this. It will take a bit time to get the leaf into complete Net condition only with veins on them. I did soak at least 7 leaves and i got only 2 leaves properly out of it as some of them were in a bad condition.

How to make:
1. First of all you need some 2-3 banyan leaves and soak them in water for around 20 days.

2. After 20 days u can see the veins of leaves and other waste aside from the leaves.

3. Now wash the leave carefully in different water and remove all the waste from the leaves very carefully. Do it very slowly and carefully as there are chances of the leaves getting damaged.

4. After washing it and taking out properly you can see just the veins of leaves.

5. Now start painting your imagination on the leaves carefully using some 0-2 number brush.

6. The outcome of leaf painting is really beautiful.

Here is one of my creation.

Diya Decoration

Diya is a small lamp and it is also known as ‘Deepak’ or ‘Deep’. A “Diya” is a traditional candles. The relation of Diwali and Diya is just unique. Diwali is the festival of lights and the Diyas bring light to the world. So here you can make beautiful diya by decorating it. Diwali is the time when you can different designs of diya. You will get decorated beautiful diyas and you can get plane diyas also which you can decorate yourself.

So here are some tips to make your diya look beautiful.

1. Diyas look more beautiful by coloring them with different colors and giving them small floral designs.

2. Decorate your diya with some shells, beads, some glass pieces, golden lace and these decoration are for the plane diya that you will decorate.

3. Here you can even make a diya of your own with ceramic or POP (Plaster of Paris). You can make simple bowl shape for a diya and decorate it or you will get diya moulds easily available in markets. Make beautiful diya out of it.

4. These are some tips to decorate diyas.

So paint the Diyas and light them around your house as you can see handmade diyas look more beautiful and stunning as you light them up and the reflection of small mirror pieces will make your house look more brighter.

So try out and decorate your house this Diwali.

Here is the diyas decorated for you u can see different shapes of diyas.

Candle Making

Friends its Diwali time so decorate your home with beautiful lights, and if the light is home made it can add more beauty to your home.

Candle making is one that can add some more beauty to the decorations. Gel candles are easy to make, but I had a difficult task making it as this was my first try in Candle making. Gel candles are burn longer than wax candles. You can try out different ways to make beautiful candles making layers or adding embeddings in glass containers or any other translucent container. Decorate your home with these beautiful candles made on your own.

Materials

Gel Wax
Candle Scents
Candle dyes
Wicks
Wick Base
Glass container

Method:

1. Firstly stick one end of the wick by a wick base or glue in the container. Suspend the wick vertically in the container by tying it to a split cane or a toothpick.

2. Melt the wax in a double boiler or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. The gel wax may take more time for melting than paraffin wax.

3. Add any colour to it. You will want to add your color and scent fairly quick because the gel will set fast. Only liquid colour is recommended for optimum effects. (strictly only one or two drops, otherwise it may ignite the whole surface of the gel when you light them)

4.Pour the wax into the container - down the side to prevent bubbles. The higher the pouring temperature, the fewer bubbles.

5. If you want bubbles for effect, you should let the gel cool before pouring.

5. Pull the wick up straight and center it.

6. Once candle is fully cooled down it will be ready to burn.

You can create all kinds of interesting candles by pouring different colours of gel on top of each other. Allow each layer to completely set before pouring next.

You can even add some decorative items likes shells, sand, small stones, dried leaves etc. as per you wish.

In this way a beautiful gel candle is prepared. This will surly add more beauty to your home.

Here is the candles. The first one is with bubbles and rest with shells and beads.



The burning candles.

Ceramic Pen Stand

Uses of ceramic powder is many, you can make lot of things using ceramic. Ceramic pen stand sounds different but its nothing different than the making of ceramic pot painting. Its not only designing pot using ceramic powder there are different things you can make out of this ceramic dough.

Here I made a beautiful and useful pen stand.

Materials:
1. Ceramic powder
2. Fevicol
3. Hardboard

How to make:

1. Make dough of ceramic by mixing ceramic powder and fevicol and take small pieces out of it, roll the dough as shown.



2. Now make it into triangle shape or any shape that you like to.



3. Now place these pieces one above the other and make a beautiful pen stand.

4. After drying it colour the stand and decorate it as you want.

Handmade things are always natural and good looking, so here is one beautiful handmade pen stand for you. You can make different shapes and sizes.

Here is the one I made.

Ceramic Pot Painting

This is another Ceramic pot painting, this one is a different design. You can learn how to make ceramic pot painting from my previous post of Ceramic Pot painting.

This piece of work was done in the same way but a different design. You an make any designs like figures, flowers or just tapping some ceramic here and there and painting on them with different colours with ceramic dough. So try out some different designs.

This is the new piece I made out of ceramic.



Ceramic Pot Painting is always a good showpiece.

Making a Decorative File

File making, making a file is really interesting as we are making something that is useful. You may have some old files which you don't use. So we are trying make some old file into something that can be reused.

All you need is an old file with some decorative items like ribbon, plastic mirror, lace or anything that you have with you.

How to make it:

You have to cover your old file completely using the card paper, then decorate it using the materials you got.

Be creative and make beautiful and useful files.

This flower is make of duplex paper.



This is the inside portion of file.



This I made using lace, plastic mirrors, lace and matte material.

Navratri Matka Decoration

Happy Navratri to all.

Navratri, the festival of nights, lasts for 9 days with three days each devoted to worship of Ma Durga. During the nine days of Navratri, feasting and fasting take precedence over all normal daily activities amongst the Hindus. Evenings give rise to the religious dances in order to worship Goddess Durga Maa.

On this festive season our office celebrates each day beautifully and then came across Matka Decoration which is also called as "Garba Decoration" or "Garbu Matki".
Each one of us was provided with pot and was asked to decorate using our own creativity maintaining the traditional look of the Matka.

So here is one I made and I came out to be the winner.



So my Warli painting worked here too. I made the dance form of Warli painting sticking some colourful beads and using some colours to make it more beautiful.
In the middle of the Warli painting is used "Swastik". Swastik is being used as Luck Charm. Swastik is drawn on the gates to prevent houses from evil eyes. Its also said "Shubh Labh" i.e. good luck with prosperity.



Kalash has many symbolic meanings- it is the primordial waters, the soul filled with love and compassion, abundance, and hospitality. The coconut is a symbol of the God head- the three eyes symbolic of the eyes of Vishnu. Kalash is for good luck, good fortune and all-round happiness and well being when this divine kalash is kept.



Bandhani is a complete tradition of Gujarat can also be said as Traditional wear of Gujarat. So the Matka got the Traditional Bandhani with beautiful Golden lace on it and some mirror work to make it look more traditional and attractive.