Ganesh Chaturthi is round the corner. I decorated a Yogurt bucket with colored paper, flowers and a bow (left over from a gift wrapping). I stuck the paper to the yogurt bucket inside outside. Rolled the flower string over the handle and tied the bow to the bucket to make it look attractive and lo and behold I had a beautiful flower basket in which I put in the flowers so all my friends who come over for the aarti in the evening can pick up and offer to Lord Ganesha.
Miniature paintings and sculptures are fine art on a small scale, with minute attention to detail, which can be enlarged or withstand close inspection without revealing its faults. A miniature can convey all the beauty and power of a larger work of art but has the added appeal of being a particularly personal object. The viewer must view the work at close range to obtain a full appreciation of both the image and technique. The miniature has always had a feeling of preciousness associated with it due in part to the fact that it can usually be held in the palm of your hand.
I bought the set from a store about a year ago and started doing it but with 2 kids I really didn’t get the time to concentrate enough to finish it, so it was my husband Yo who finished this.
In the picture you can see a traditional Japanese house with a low table and bench. Food is laid on the table and there are other Japanese staples. Minute attention is given to ensure that everything is perfect, so there are small things that have to be stuck looking at a picture provided. (You can see in the close-up photo above) This was actually bought by Yo for my 5 year old to develop concentration and give attention to minute details, but we are the ones who ended up doing it with her help ofcourse.
Do try miniature art. It really builds up your concentration and patience.
The morning rush to reach work in time during the working days and can’t find your socks, how many times this could have happened to us. What we do is usually stack our socks in one place, so we can’t find the pair. It’s worse if our socks are all the same color and have only a slight difference in design. Here is a little tip on how to organize your socks, so that it looks neat and at the same time stays together in a pair and there is no way it can mix with the other pairs.
Step 1
You can see a pair of socks, I took a colorful one so its easy to see how it is done.
Step 2
Keep one socks on top of the other as shown in the picture
Step 3
Make 3 folds. First fold the bottom side
Step 4
Then fold once more. Roll on
After you fold it will look like this.
The side where you put your leg in will be together as you see in the picture
Step 5
The last flap you pull and turn inside out, this forms a pocket and holds the pair together
Voila.....You are done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See the top view of the folding.
You can have many pockets of your pair of socks as shown in the picture below, not only will they be together so you don’t have to search for the pair, they also look neat in the closet/wardrobe/cupboard.
I did this coin work embroidery on my Punjabi suit. I bought this dress because it had a very sober and rich looking color combination and I was in love with the kalamkari print and the sheer softness and flow of the fabric. I got it stitched from the tailor but when it came from the tailor I felt it was looking very dull and simple, the color which initially impressed me felt dull and I wanted to do something to make the dress look more glamorous. The color of the fabric didn’t leave me with much choice as any embroidery I choose would get blended into the kalamkari print, so I settled for coin work. I chose gold colored coins of a medium size to give it that extra zing.
I sewed on the coins onto the front, the sleeves and also to the dupatta.
It was very difficult to attach it to the dupatta and I learnt later that usually when they attach such kind of embroidery to sheer fabrics, they usually use a thick cloth as base when they sew on the embroidery to help hold it in place. I had to stitch many times to hold the coin to the fabric. But its worth the try.
Hang your curtains in a different manner and lo and behold the look of your house is changed !
Curtains do much more than blocking the sunlight and maintaining your privacy, they also soften the look of the room. Hanging curtains in right fabrics and patterns in different ways can make your window look larger, smaller, wider or narrower than it really is, add height to the living room or give an oriental or romantic feel to the living room.
Here is style of hanging the same old curtain but draped in a different manner, this gives it a theatrical look. The draping done here is very simple…..
Step 1
Hang the curtain, scoop out the fabric from the middle as shown in the picture, hold it there. About 5 inches of the fabric is held by you in your fist.
Step 2
Twist the 5 inches that is out
Step 3
Roll it around, forming a circle
Step 4
And bring the tip through the circle formed
Step 5
The Tip comes out and is held there like a knot
This gives the appearance of a rose and you can see how beautiful this drape looks.
You can do this in fabrics which are not too sheer and slip off, if you so choose then you must hold the knot with a decorative pin.
If the curtain is made of heavy jacquard or cotton materials you cant drape it in this fashion.
The fabric should be light and able to hold the knot.
You can further enhance the look by tucking in an artificial flower or tying a bow.
Here is another trick to organize my little one’s hair bands. Used Incense stick(Agarbatti) rolls. Incense sticks are sold in rounded cardboard containers. Dispose the outside cover and use the roll inside. Since the incense sticks are placed inside these cardboard rolls they have a very good fragrance and the cupboard where you keep them will emanate the fragrance of the roll and since they are just the right width and length for my little one’s hair bands, I thought why not use it to organize her hair bands, so we paired them in colors and put them on the roll. Now it is easy for her to pick the one she wants, just stretch and remove out. The cupboard is fragrant and the hair bands are organized.
This is yet another activity we enjoyed doing together.
After I delivered my second baby, I went to India for some rest. I stayed with my parents for 4 months enjoying the luxury of post natal care and generally not doing anything. After a while I was getting so bored that I decided I must make myself busy with something.(Since I am a Type “A” personality).
One project I undertook was teaching computers for free to my maid servants’ brother and the beautician and the second project I undertook was embroidery.
Yes embroidery…..What embroidery I knew was attaching stones, just like we attach a button…so simple….(its called stonework and was a rage in India about 2 years back) to the neckline of kurtas and that I had done about 2 years back, the tailors in India nowadays charge a bomb for even simple embroidery, so I thought why not try doing some simple embroidery myself, if it was not going to work I will pass my project to the tailor and pay for it to be done…..Ohhhh!!!!! the luxuries of staying in India.
I do most of my garments purchasing in India. Since I happen to live in Mumbai the fashion capital of India and the fabrics there are cheap and I have a permanent tailor there who does all my designing. I just have to tell him my ideas and he will get it incorporated for me…..I truly miss Mumbai when I am here (in Singapore).
I am going to feature all the embroidery I attempted in segments, I tried different works and different looks.I also designed a few dresses, they are unique and I will feature them in the blog soon….
During the time I did a lot of purchasing, mainly kurtas. Some expensive and grand party wear and some simple for regular wear. I end up wearing western wear(pants and kurtas) almost all the time in Singapore simply because it’s convenient and less clothes to wash, iron and maintain. This time round when I was shopping I noticed that cotton kurtas were selling in small roadside shops for Rupees150-200.
The moment I saw this green Kurta I was in love. I liked the color and threadwork and the fact that it was so simple. Since I had a lot of time and nothing to do, I thought why not do some embroidery and highlight the look of the kurta.
SEQUINS WORK ON KURTA
I wanted to use contrast in this Kurta as I felt the Kurta was gorgeous as far as color and the thread work goes, but still looked pretty plain. So I chose orange colored sequins, as they make a definite but subtle contrast to the green. The orange colored sequins I chose are called Dhoop- chaav(literally meaning sun and shade), but actually this means that it shows two colors. In one angle it will look like a copper color and in the other angle it will look like orange color.
Things that I used : - “0” zero number needle, orange colored thread and orange sequins.
I decided that inside every mango shape(threadwork) I am going to sew on a sequin. After I sewed on a few I got bored as I am not very patient with embroidery, It took me about 15 days to finish the kurta, but believe me the immense happiness it gave me when I wore it…..It cant be explained in words.
Today is Ganesh Chaturthi and it gives me such nostalgic memories of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Mumbai where I was born and brought up. The pandals, the huge Ganpati idols, the small ones, the elaborate themes, decorations and imagine all these for 10 days. We wake up early in the morning with the music blaring out of the loudspeakers from the pandals of the Sarvajanik Ganpati Mandals. The music that we used to hear was mostly Lata Mangeshkar's (The nightingale of India's) voice singing aarti and other bhajans in Marathi for Lord Ganesha. Listening to these bhajans immediately transfers me to my childhood days. No matter how many people sing these, it cant feel as good as listening to Lata Mangeshkar singing it. You can listen to the aarti here,
This blog is an effort to show that anyone can be artistic. Art is nothing but an idea/thought and its creative application. I owe a big thanks to my dearest hubby who has helped me create wonderful things. Who helped me put my thoughts and ideas into action.
and offer to Lord Ganesha.
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