Monday, November 23, 2015

LANTERNS OF LOVE



                                                "And at last I see the light
                                                  And it's like the fog has lifted
                                                  And at last I see the light
                                                  And it's like the sky is new"


Everyone of us love to sing that song and feel the world as a child.
Its not just Rapunzel who gets lost watching the lanterns up in the air!
Far off in the air,it feels as though its transporting our dreams to the universe.
Lanterns are always a visual element of joy in all its form.
If we could make one closer to our dreams and watch it over in all its colours, that would be very dreamy.

I chose to customize a lantern for the most dearest person who would cherish and leap out of joy seeing the varied colours of her hero "KRISHNA".

To my best buddy,to the heart filled with pure devotion to Lord Krishna, I couldn't think of any other birthday surprise than the handmade Jagannath lantern.




I made this lantern entirely of Paper machie and of course its really difficult to safeguard the papermachie from the tiny cousins who wants to experiment it!!;)
After the paper machie is ready to get its colours,the concept was finalized to Lord Jagannath,Lord Subhadra,Lord Balram in the centre.




These were the hangings depicting the cheerful peacock feathers!!!
And starting to work with acrylics,glitters,golden touches finally the lantern was ready!!!






I didn't have time to fix up the lighting for her,thankfully she had one at her home and sent me this beautiful surprise back to me.


And when she sent me this,
"Jagannathised Lantern.
Akshayaa gifted me this on my birthday.
I was so surprised and very happy as I'm basically a great devotee of Lord Jagannath.
Very beautifully made from paper machie and intricately painted with floral pattern and the gods.
Its more beautiful when lit in night along with the peacock feathers hanging below.
It gives a feeling as if Lord is the light in our darkened life.
Very nice interior artifact and a lovely unique gift made with lots of dedication and love.
Love you so much :)
The most treasured and favourite gift that touched my heart!!!"
I have no words to say except,
HARE KRISHNA!!!
Its lovely to watch those colourful shadows on the wall and get lost in our dreams.
Love and Lights to all!!

Monday, October 26, 2015

DIY TUTORIAL- KALI MAATHA



Here is my first DIY tutorial about airdry clay dolls.
I really don't want to give you all a big shopping list and steps listed out as one,two ..

Lets make the DIY creative rather making it as a blind instruction and so I hopefully believe  that at the end of the article I would have made your creative zest boosted up!!

BASIC MATERIALS

First and foremost grab on some airdry clay if you already have one or you can find it in the stores who sell art/craft supplies or just reserve it online.
This is the airdry clay I had been using for years together whenever am inclined to create a doll.
This costed Rs.150 and the usage depends on the size of the dolls. One can make around three or four smaller dolls or two bigger ones comfortably.
Go on a scavenger hunt and pick out some toothpicks,needles,tissues and anything you feel handy for your project.

CONCEPT

When I had the thought of making an air dry clay doll of Goddess Kali , abstract shapes flashed onto my inner mind.
So,I tried experimenting with shapes and combining them to characterize Maa Kali.
You can find the illustration below explaining the form of the concept.



THINKING HAT TASK 
What is your favourite character or anything that you longed to make it yourself ?
Is it the glossy superhero doll that you wanted to buy but walked away with a sad face!
Is it the Rapunzel doll you so badly wanted to have one for yourself!!
Or wondering to gift your loved ones something special!!

GO AHEAD!!NOTHING CAN STOP YOU!



HANDY TIP 1: While working on the airdry clay eventhough you dont need any other glue to stick the parts,it depends on the complexity of your doll.
  • You can use toothpicks or pins to secure head onto the body and use one drop of  Feviquick/Flexiquick/Fevicol or anything that sticks firm onto the surface that has to be joined.
  • If your airdry clay has dried out,dont panic!! Get a bowl of water and put the clay inside it for a night or a full day.
  • For working on finer details you can use anything that your comfortable with; such as toothpicks,bell pins,safety pins or any sharp tools etc

After the Kali maa had dried out completely, I added some colours to her avatar.
Bright primary colours with a tinge of gold made her body glow.
I abstracted the lion completely with yellow and blue combo!
As kali maa's unique identity is her face and the blue shaded fierce body I painted them as such.

THOUGHTFUL TIP 1 :Whatever geometrical avatar you had chosen to work on, remember to incorporate the elements properly without distorting the cultural/social identity of the selected theme.
For eg, Kali maa need not necessarily be slender and fierce, so I abstracted her body and face but the elements like lion,objects in her hands,colour of the skin etc should not be forgotten.



HANDY TIP 2: While working on details like hair its better to paint them separately and attach them later because if u paint it aftermath it creates a mess onto the other areas.
You also get coloured air dry clay wherein you can mix them or use them directly without painting.

Now my Kali maa seems to be ready shining at her best!!!
I used toothpick to work on the eyes and mouth but as mentioned earlier you can use anything that you are comfortable and confident on working with !
I added some stones to decorate her dress and throne which adds more bliss to it.




After completing her final looks I varnished her completely and here is the Divine Goddess Kali Maa!!!







So what are you waiting for!!
Shoot up your imagination wild and create your happiness!
Please do post your pictures of the doll here and also drop in your queries anytime here.
Love and Lights to all!!!!


Monday, October 19, 2015

NAVRATHRI FESTIVE GALA - LAKSHMI MATHA


Navrathri festive is on!!!
Nine days of tribute and dedication to the divine goddess,celebrating the happiness and igniting our souls with the divine energy happens with the flow.
As a part of adding some creative energy to the eve,I wanted to create the Goddess Lakshmi in a new avatar.
Getting back the materials on board I started with the framework.





After browsing on many pictures of Lakshmi matha I decided to make her abstract and rest her golden feets on the divine lotus.



The final finished posture of the divine goddess with the symbolic golden coins flooding over the lotus petals.
As she was bored with her classic saree I decided to give her a retro makeover with a pulled back ponytail adorned with the golden throne.




Here we go, presenting the Goddess of Wealth and prosperity "LAKSHMI MATHA" blessing you all straight from your computer screen
Make a wish and chant,
                       "Om Hrim Shrim Lakshmibhyo Namah"
                                           






Have a blissful Navrathri!!!Love and lights to all :)

Thursday, October 1, 2015

THE KRISHNA SERIES- PART 2



The spiritual journey isn't so difficult,until you fall in love with it and express it through the forms u love to! 
It seeks you,indeed its true.



Today am gonna share with you one such experience,on my creative spiritual journey.
As a part of the exhibition,I had to make some time to do more products and also creative ones.
I bought some wooden sticks of about 10cms long and stared blindly for many days to start with it.
Finally sticking onto one idea,I decided to create three themes.
The common factor in all the themes,who remains unchanged  is Lord Krishna.





After the initial works with the wooden pieces ,each of the sides were designed to be aesthetically flexible.
One side had a mischevious Krishna with Sudhama, godly presence with  Meerabhai and the romantic lover with  Radha in each of the sticks.




Each of the sticks had a appropriate handwritten quote taken from Srimad Bhagavatham along with a peacock feather on one side.
So the choices can be made easy!
Pick one for your friend,you have Krishna and Sudhama.



It can be used in multiple ways.
Hang it up inside your car, your house niches or walls or the most simpler you can use it as a bookmark or just place it on your desk.
Go by your heart,place it wherever it needs to.



With so much hopes and high spirits I reached the exhibition venue after the busy college.
Like a small kid I remember showing my products and explaining it to all my lovely colleagues enthralled by the vibes.
It was an amazing event and before us were many other stalls selling jewellery,clothes and obviously food. 
Me and my friend arranged all our Krishna products, books and some goodies.
After a couple of shutterbugs :p we got in some visitors.
We had all kind of visitors mainly kids.
The only surprising visitor was a ten year old kid who inspected all my products with grace.
He asked me too many questions even an elder wouldn't ask.
What is it, what is the meaning,where is the quote from...!!
Very sweet of him to read out each tiny quotes and asked me the meaning.
The best compliment I got ever was from that tiny kido,saying me its very nice and very meaningful.
It became nearly late and close to the end of the function, and still none turned out to buy any of our products,not even a small frisbee of cost Rs.20 that attracted many kids.
Turning to my side I could see my friend equally disappointed,incase she had bought boxes of books and goodies.
End of the day we realized few things!!!
My friend gave out a spiritual perspective stating that  Krishna wanted her to experience even non-devotees .
When I saw the Krishna smiling in my wooden sticks,I felt greater peace and enlightment thinking of the kid's compliment which is harder to earn.
Yes Krishna even comes in a disguised form to compliment my work!!!
Love and lights to all :)














Friday, September 25, 2015

THE KRISHNA SERIES - JOURNEY UNLOCKED



It was on a hectic day in my college working towards preparing notes, checking on students designs, assigning test dates,question papers:p I got a call from my friend.
I barely could concentrate on her call while i heard some words like exhibition..Be ready!
After a deep long call along with our casual talks,i realized I had just 15 days to work on for a upcoming exhibition to be held for a kindergarten annual day function. 
She wanted me to do some products on Lord Krishna and the products would be a part of her booksale.
With the limited time,I could just think of  making something interesting and creative with variety of options to choose from.
Today, am gonna blog about two of those collection.


1)THE GOVINDA - FRIDGE MAGNET

These are made with thin wooden strips symbolizing the namam on lord Vishnu's forehead.
The theme was blue with golden finish, completely handpainted and varnished with the chant "HARE KRSNA"at the bottom.
It could also be customized to key hanger and flexible enough to be used however one wants to.





 2) RADHA AND KRISHNA




This dreamy Radha lost in the enchanting  love of Krishna was however manifested in the artifact.
This was completely handpainted on the wooden strips which can be kept anywhere that your heart desires and am sure, the blessings will shower upon wherever it is.




The sides were also painted according to the colourful warm theme, and to your surprise you can find a quote best suited to make your day blissful.
Stay tuned on the coming week for the rest of the Krishna series.
Love and lights to all!!!

Monday, September 21, 2015

FLY YOUR SENSITIVE WINGS


Yes you read it right, "SENSITIVE WINGS".
Wondering if u had come to the wrong site article!!!?
Today's article is not exclusive for sensitive people or the so called termed "HIGHLY SENSITIVE people."Its about what the world needs to heal itself!
If u wonder what is a" highly sensitive " term ,you can browse up on the internet and will find thousands of research papers and bundles of information.
And yes.. dont puzzle your minds with these  terms, as today's article is completely an attempt to show you the other perspective of your inner self  no matter if your sensitive or medium sensitive or completely a practical buddy.

"SENSITIVITY" is not a term, its a "EXPERIENCE "that you have to feel from inside.
Its not a word to fear about or even you might have said someone to stop being sensitive.
But there is a chance to experience god beyond all the negative assumptions of being sensitive.
As energy flows into where your thought leads to, the same way sensitivity needs to be channelized onto the right direction.
On a simple note,

On a scale of 1 to 10 how much sensitive are you?
Oops..stop counting the ones where you got bullied and cried, instances where you got hurt almost everyday by a friend etc
Yes these do count on, but the sensitivity what am talking about is different.
Take a look at the quote by the American novelist and recipient of Pulitzer and Nobel prize expressing on what it means to be a highly sensitive person.

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create—so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."




Sensitivity is Creativity
Most of the artists, poets ,musicians ,actors are said to be sensitive people.
One common platform that connects all of them is sensitivity,
Sensitivity to their character,sensitivity to the musical notes, sensitivity to the colours etc
But don't worry if you aren't one of them.
Even a person who has a job of looking at his computer screen all day long would be creative, the one working as a beautician would also be creative,the small kiddo in your neighbour's house would also be a creative Dexter..who knows!!!
The fact is its all inside us,without any partiality.
Sensitivity ignites the creative process inside us.
Use your sensitivity to lighten up your inner world and in the meantime that lightens up your life.
What do u feel when u see this picture?
Dont say this is a beach..and at the far you can see some mountains and a sunset..:/
The moment you see this picture, it feels refreshing and peaceful but there is more beyond it.
Put your sensitive nerves to work and try it out!!!
An artist starts to mix his/her colours on the palette sensitized by the varied colours and hues and tones,texture of the sand, sizzling waves and the beautiful shades of orange shown by the nature.
A poet starts to write metaphors, rhyming words on his/ her  diary,
A small kid tries to make his hands orange keeping it buried under the waves sensitized by the sunset's magic.
We need  sensitivity to feel and express god's creation through ourselves.
Did you just say, I wanna be there right now!
This is sensitivity!!!
Yes you cant go in search of the exact location,but you have the same frequency around you,your neighbourhood,your city and everywhere and inside you.
It will still make you feel joyful amidst a huge concrete jungle, still make your  hopes high and destiny joyful even when your bound by the stress around you, still make u happy identifying a butterfly amidst a huge traffic jam in simpler words.
If you are stressful, pickup your sensitive wings and walk through the busy streets .You will find happiness along the homeless kid's face with his companion street dog, the beautiful smiling roses waving at you along the nursery shop, the wonderful shades of blue shimmering on  a unknown bird which u try to figure out, ringing of bells at the small temple along with the church bells and mosque prayers, the smiling baby on her mother's lap feeling millions of joy in her mother's eyes and not the least the vendor who sells posters of hope and happiness all the day carrying his hopes high that it would be sold at the end of the day.
Does it seem so long..yes i know,at the end of this you had witnessed God's energy through all of them at no cost.
Just go to the  nook of your room where sunlight fills up every morning with your cup of coffee or just step out to your balcony where the plant kingdom welcomes you!!
Experience your sensitivity whatever scale you are!!!
The world needs sensitivity to heal its wounds.
Love and lights to all !!!
Fly your wings high up!!!
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.