Kolam by Sudha Balaji

 First image The rangoli  starts with a plus and expands with semi-circular patterns and petal like designs .  It has a simple two line border filed with blue rangoli powder on which red dots are added.  All the four edges have spiral patterns.   The rangoli is filled with different colours yellow, green and blue. The remaining space that is black can also be filled with some colour of our choice,  only thing it is to be done carefully.  The rangoli with colours filled is available in Dusshera rangoli Second image - This kolam / rangoli  also uses floral petals as motifs.  The basic kolam is drawn with spiral patterns as shown.  The outermost patterns are based on floral petals and are used to decorate the kolam.  Third image - In the rangoli  the central design is drawn by drawing intersecting lines and forming the parallelogram like patterns.  The edge of each one is expanded with floral designs with two petals.  The gaps between the petals are filled with free hand designs.  The cen

Important Rangoli tip   Filling up rangoli with colours of our choice or suitable to the motifs or patterns used.  Filling rangoli with rangoli powder also comes with practice because care should be taken to ensure that the colour of  one pattern or design does not spill into the other.   However, if it happens, it can be corrected.  For example if we fill a rose with pink colour and we inadvertently spill green meant for the leaves, on the pink petals, that can be corrected by adding pink again over the spilt green colour. Drawing  neat and beautiful curved lines makes the rangoli very attractive though it is a very simple rangoli design.  Colourful curved lines parallel to the white design can be drawn to  get a colourful design. Or leave it plain and simple. These rangolis can be used as apartment kolams as they are called in Tamil Nadu.  Apartment kolam are small rangoli designs drawn at the entrance of apartments due to constraints in space.                          Some designs i

 The first image shows   basic and simple freehand  kolam from common star rangoli Tradition has it that the  star shaped design is drawn with two lines.  Petals are drawn along the edges of the star pattern.   The gaps between are filled with floral petals and the rangoli is filled  colours to get the design shown below.    A simple but attractive rangoli.  Can be drawn in double quick time. The lotus, is widely used in  freehand rangolis.  No wonder I have also used them in Rangoli-sans-dots at the centre of a rangoli or on the periphery.  The lotus has been a religious symbol in India and one  can  find them  in religious places like temples.    The lotus in particular has been associated with  many Gods and  Puranic tales. Some freehand designs have been added between the petals.   Complete the rangoli with bright  colours. The motifs chosen should match the floral design at the centre.   This post is a " collection " of simple, cute and beautiful (!) rangoli designs.  We

The first rangoli is a unique one created by me.   Observe how simple it is to create birds in rangoli kolam art.  The birds resemble ducks , don't they. All intricate details that are required in drawing or painting or not required here.  A simple free hand design to represent a bird will suffice.  To further improve the rangoli the birds are shown carrying fruits.  Fill the rangoli with colours as shown in the image.  It will suffice if we draw colourful lines inside the rangoli design.  A floral design with birds is ready for use.  One of the easiest and best ways to make birds patterns ! It is not necessary to fill the entire rangoli with colours  in these types of rangoli.  That is the beauty of this traditional art form.  We can depict birds and flowers quite easily .  It is not necessary to draw them with  a piece of chalk and then drawn with rangoli powder.  We can represent Nature through simple images or patterns. Rangoli sans dots as I named it was all about free hand r