Kolam by Sudha Balaji

 Rose petal garland DIY | Rose petal garland making T his post may have information on how to rose petal craft ideas , flower petal craft,  gulabi patti haar or mala .  This can be used for decoration for festivals viz Varalakshmi Pooja, Dasara Diwali or for occasions like wedding , baby shower.  Also can be tried for craft projects .  We have to be careful while handing the petals because they can tear easily, also we have to be careful when handling the needle , so avoid giving to children.  Of course we should be careful too when we handle the needle.  If you would like to have a look at a colourful rose rangoli with dots for Diwali  obviously Rangolisansdots being a website primarily for rangoli or kolam , it is available with steps and colours  or for that matter I even have a hibiscus kolam with 7 dots  created by me  We can tie both ends to form a garland  We need roses, long or medium size needle, thread and vaseline A...

Traditionally we have to stand and draw kolam at the entrance. Kolam is an art similar to rangoli that is drawn at the entrance of homes daily early in the morning.  When we stand, bend and draw kolam obviously we perform a physical exercise too. It is a good practice to draw the kolam standing at one position without moving around .  This will improve our visual skills because we try to visualise the patterns to be drawn in various directions standing in one place It is preferable to draw it early in the morning before sunrise.  For a demo video please watch this video , how I stand and draw kolam           

It is a good practice to remove the garland offered to Gods in the Puja the next day before starting the Puja. The dry flowers are removed and kept in a separate basket or bamboo plate near Pooja mandir or in the Pooja room.  I offer the dried flowers to the Tulsi plant. In our family we do not put them in the dust bin. If Tulsi plant is not available, we can offer to any other plants or trees in our garden, terrace garden.   Also, these garlands are not reused for any other photo or for any other purpose in the house. Traditionally flowers are tied with vazhai naaru (banana bark fibre - dried) .   I removed the dried flowers and used the fibre again for tying flowers but only for Puja . Paneer rose petals, some fragrant leaves (called maru , dhavanam ) were ground with shikkai few decades back. Nowadays everything available readymade! 

I f some said beautiful rangoli can be drawn with big dot grids only, these two designs may prove them wrong.  Though I repeated many times, I would like to reiterate that in these days finding time for drawing rangoli at the entrance daily in the morning has become a premium. Naturally we look for small and quick kolams for our daily kolangal.  Add the factor of space, flats offer very little space for drawing kolam.  Compare it with our house in a small town where we grew up, we had the entire courtyard at our disposal, so sometimes even our daily designs would be as big as Margazhi kolam. The chikka rangoli galu  below use 2 by 2 dot patterns Chikka rangoli with 2 chukki Sanna chukki rangoli with 2 dots  Small is beautiful  Kanchi Mahaperiyava once said the word Jagatguru means Jagat Guru - the world is your teacher.  I learnt a lot of free hand rangoli designs ideas from my mother.  This started at a very young age, and this may be one of th...