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 grid ( 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 colour...

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   Next step for this kundala muggu chukkalu type One of the many ideas for Pongal kundala mu...

  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 ...

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. Let us start this post with  a sikku kolam with 8 pulli first  We can draw it for weekdays ( Monday to Thursday , except Friday ).  I do not draw these on Fridays.  There is no specific reason.   Next kolam is also a 8 dots sikku kolam , seems easy but can be a bit tricky and demands lots of concentration like almost all kolangal of this type   After sikku kolangal let us try a regular dot kolam with 8 dots  Step by step pictures for this pulli vacha kolam - an eight dots rangoli  Chukki rangoli with square dot pattern  ...

 Muggulu with lines are quite popular during festivals and for Fridays.  This geethala muggu is shown in a few steps for easy understanding This is one of the most attractive lines kolam muggulu designs that we can try for festivals  Can be drawn for Bhogi rangoli .  In Tamil Nadu big rangoli designs are drawn for Kanum Pongal and Mattu Pongal ( when Pooja is offered to the bulls and cows ) Usually dot rangoli are preferred .  We can try straight line kolam designs also for a change. One line rangoli designs or single line rangoli designs of this type are traditional old fashioned rangoli design without chukki. These traditional kolam with lines are beautiful in their own way.  Though they appear simple , they can be challenging because we have to draw 4 parallel lines ( as humanly possible ) .  More the symmetry more the beauty.  It is a good practice to draw thin lines ,  for getting thin lines take minimum quantity of rangoli powder ....

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 may 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 Also called kambi kolam   or pinnal kolam ( pinnal refers to plaits ) Drawn in white with decoration with white kola podi if time permits  We can try modern ideas by drawing with colours.  I have shared one such design here . One more 11 dots sikku kolam for Margali kolam ...