Kolam by Sudha Balaji

 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  a t 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 ...

 We need very small white rangoli designs for our daily vasal kolam .  I would like to reiterate that time and space are constraints at present.   However, to follow to tradition of decorating the entrance with small and simple kolam we need some ideas. Rangoli tips - Symmetry is very important for the beauty of rangoli but when we draw with rangoli powder with our fingers  it is possible that there may be imperfections here and there.  We should concentrate on the overall symmetry and should not compare individual elements. For example, in the muggulu designs shared above there may be slight differences in the lengths of the arms, sizes of the patterns.  That is our limitation and constraints we humans have. These designs can be used as small without chukki rangoli can be used as base to expand further, whenever possible. Spirals should be drawn without any joints.  For this draw them with confidence at one stretch.  The close-up image of ...

 These are basic designs that can be drawn at the entrance for our vasal kolangal hence images showing intermediate steps are not shown  Seven rangoli ideas are shown here that can be used for 7 days in 30 days i.e. simple kolam for a month. One of the most common kolam in the pic below.  The basic star pattern with petals from all edges.  The 2 lines are drawn separately. How to learn kolam   We can learn this art by referring to books or websites like Rangolisansdots.  Drawing on a notebook is easier than drawing with kola podi.  Kolam making the traditional way demands coordination among the fingers and thumb.  Filling the inner spaces with patterns of our choice and also on the outside as demonstrated in the images below The pics show one of the methods of creating a beautiful kolam even with a small design.  1) Small rangoli kolam easy  2) small star kolam   If you would like to try double lines simultaneously the smalles...