Kolam by Sudha Balaji

Medium size kolam  designs for New Year , Bhogi and Pongal festivals  Kolam designs above 15 dots may ( can ) be classified under an intermediate category, they are neither small nor are they very big.   They can be  drawn for festivals like Margazhi, Ugadi or at the entrance of kalyana mantap ( wedding hall ) .   One such design below.  It is with a 15 dot to 8 dot grids (The dots are idukku pulli type - meaning that after a row of dots is placed the next one is placed between the previous row of dots and below (or above).  Consequently, the number of dots reduce by one in each row - 15, 14, 13, 12 till 8 dots in this case.   I have shared the plain and white kolam.  White kolam designs are beautiful in their own way and are widely used in Tamil Nadu, daily.  In the kolam with colours I have chosen to hide the ribs drawn on the floral patterns by adding the colours.  We can also add the ribs again after filling the colours....

We all want to display our rangoli skills particularly during festivals like Sankranti and Dipavali.  Of course many of us prefer easy and simple designs .   Here is one of them. With a 7 by 7 dot grid we can get a Pongal kolam or Sankranti muggulu with dots with a Sankranthi Pot  two sugar cane and the Sun.   All these three symbols represent the harvest festival Pongal.   The sugar cane has been represented in purple , the  kunda is overflowing with sweet Pongal and of  course Sun   who we worship for this festival  all have been shown in a small and compact design.  his festival is also celebrated as Makara Sankranti  Karnataka and Maharastra and other parts of India.  My mother called it the Pedha Pundaga  or big festival in Telugu.   First step for the kundala muggulu with dots - 7*7 dots rangoli Sankranthi muggulu white rangoli step 1   Next step for this kundala muggu chukkalu type Ste...

  This is a huge elephant kolam (excuse the pun !!) with 21 by 1 dots.   One of the favourites for Sankranthi muggulu or Pongal kolam.  It is not very time consuming since the patterns repeat.  Once we know how to draw one of the elephants (of the herd !!) it is easy to draw the other elephants.   The patterns at the centre and those at the dots remaining at the four corners can be drawn according to our wish.   This is also suitable for New Year rangoli design if you are looking for big kolam I presume that someone who comes in search of grand kolam may have a long experience in drawing rangoli the traditional way.  So, the steps are in the reverse order :) I have shown only the white muggu.  We can add colour as we please.  That is the liberty we have in kolam art.  Elephants need not be grey; they can be filled with any bright colour. If you are looking for chukki rangoli big size, big pulli kolam designs with steps or big ...

What is kolam - Kolam means beauty, beauty due to symmetry.  The opposite of kolam means not in order, haphazard.   Hence kolam means in order, symmetry etc.  Neli kolam category and symmetry are synonymous. When you view a nelivu kolam (one of the many names for this variety of rangoli - called melikala muggulu in Telugu, gantina rangoli in Kannada) from any direction you will find symmetry -  it can be bilateral or quadrilateral and sometimes radial too in circular designs. There may be software for creating kolam particularly sikku kolangal, since I understand that there is Mathematics involved in this type. Frankly, I do not know the Math part to draw or create this art, I would request anyone making the software to ensure that the patterns produced strike a chord with the awesomeness of the art.  Let us start this post with a sikku kolam with 8 pulli first  chikku kolam simple or made simple  We can draw it for weekdays (Monday to Thursday, e...

 Muggulu with lines are quite popular during festivals and for Fridays.  This Sankranthi geethala muggu is shown in a few steps for easy understanding. The first image shows the beautiful rangoli with lines when it is completed.  The second picture should give an idea on how to start and proceed with the kolam muggulu. 4 lines basic muggu is drawn to form the square. Then it is extended on four sides with eight square boxes as shown.  They should be drawn equidistant from the square at the centre. Then connect them all with straight lines.  Muggulu tips - Care should be taken to ensure that the result is geometrically aligned i.e. they should be as far as possible perpendicular to the square at the centre.  Once this is achieved (it has to be done by judgement without the use of any tools in traditional muggulu drawing) balance muggulu designs are easy and simple.   Sankranthi lines muggulu simple This is one of the most attractive lines kolam mug...

Margali kolam | Pongal kolangal | Sankranthi muggulu 2020 This is a unique type of chikku kolam .  Here we use a single line that goes around the dot grid and gets connected to where it started and hence the name.  Just by looking at a completed design it may be difficult to decipher the puzzle that it appears and probably one of the reasons why it is called so.  As is the norm in this blog, I have given few images to show the intermediate steps to make it easy to understand and learn.  I have used a 11 by 1 dot grid.  This kolam can be drawn with 9, 7 dots and bigger dot patterns also. Step by step pictures are shown to make easy to follow  For your weekday ( Monday to Thrusday ) or weekend kolam ideas Thin long lines should be drawn at a single stretch  It comes with practice  Try for Dhanuramasam rangoli for one of the 30 days  You may also use for sikku kolam with 11 dots or melikala muggulu with 11 dots for Bhogi a...

11 dots sikku kolam for Margali kolangal We can draw these kolam for during the Margazhi season 2019 and Pongal 2020 when we want to display our kolam skills.  The images show the step-by-step process for drawing the design. Big is not an absolute term.  We may consider kolangal above 9 dots in sikku kolam as big because of the complexity in many neli kolangal.  For other pulli kolam any design above 15 dots may be categorised as big.   Do not underestimate a sikku kolam by its size.  Even a small design can be tricky.  So naturally bigger designs will be little challenging.  I have tried to make them easy through the steps given in the pics The dot pattern is 11 dots, then 9 pulli 2 rows. 5 dot 2 rows and one dot. Kolam tips - It is preferable to practice this variety of old fashioned rangoli designs a few times so that we can memorise all the steps.   If the flow of patterns is smooth and effortless the result will be more attract...