Tree tutorial

While working for a Golu many times tree are needed in a scene and this I found is an easy way to make a tree, I have especially made this using bits of themocol that remained from the previous year.

 

I have used both one inch and two inch thick thermocol to make this tree. First I cut the one inch thick thermocol in the shape shown below.

                     

cut the one inch thermocol in the shape of the stem of a tree( you can draw and cut out the shape and then smooth the sharp edges with a foot scrapper) . 

        

Place the cut one inch thermocol tree shape on a two inch thick thermocol and trace the outline.

Cut it out and stick it on the one inch shape one on top of the other.

Fix the stem as well and then randomly remove chunks from the thermocol so that the even surface looks like this( you can give this job to your kids who would love to pluck out small bits of thermocol ).

Paint the green part with yellow first and then with two different shades of green.(Unlike me, please spread an old newspaper down first to save yourself from cleaning all the mess)

Paint the bark of the tree brown, let it dry.

Navarathri Golu

          These are some of the work I did for this year Golu at Avvai.

       

    

       

This origami lotus in a pond is a miniature pond of Madurai Meenakshi temple.(Porthamarai kolam)

This is a scene for a story where the crane refuses to eat the fishes that nibble on the sages who take bath in the pond. I added a quilled lotus to the pond.The fish I cut from thermocol and added silver glitters for the scales.

It became my job to set up these steps . It has five stories for which I have created the scenes and put them up. Though we have our assigned work  , we take lot of help from others.This is just a small part of the golu, the actual story for this year about the Nayanmar , Thirunavukarasar (Appar) covers one half of the hall and two other steps form the Main golu. 

 

       This is a scene again from Madurai Meenakshi temple where lord Shiva dances in a silver stage.(I made this using thermocol wrapped in silver paper.

Along with mythological stories we also have fairy tales and moral stories. This is a tower for Rupenzal I made. I have quilled some creepers on the sides of the wall.

This is the tree I made for the scenes on the steps. I made three of them. They are made of thermocol and painted with acrylic paints.

flower kolam

       Today for the valedictory function of Avvai's inter school competitions we chose to make a poo(flower) kolam. This image of Lord Ganesha is the symbol of Avvai academy . 

       My friend Kavitha and I made this kolam at the entrance of the auditorium .

Positive quotes.

Kaleidoscope

     I have always been fond of kaleidoscopes, but never though of making one. This summer camp at Avvai my friend kavitha taught the students to make a kaleidoscope.( I taught one class of paper art:))).After she finished the class she still had material for two more kaleidoscope. She gave me material to make one for myself .For a long time the mirror strips were in danger of being broken to pieces,lying by themselves on a shelf , then one day I sat down and got it done.

      The materials required are :
3 strips of mirror.
1 triangular glass piece. 
glue
cello tape
butter paper
wrapping paper
cardboard
small beads or broken bangle pieces...

        Join the three mirror strips as shown with the help of cello tape.

    
      Stick the triangular piece of glass on one side also with tape.

Cut a card board into strips with length and breadth a little bit bigger than the mirror. 

      Stick the card board strips on top of the three mirrors and join the edges with tape.The card board should be stuck in such a way that the extra length of the cardboard pieces should stick out on the side where we have stuck the glass piece.So that we get a small space over the triangular glass.

      Put some small shiny objects in that gap and close it with a piece of triangular butter paper piece. on the other side of the kaleidoscope stick a triangular cardboard piece with a hole in the middle.(Feeling the butter paper to be very thin , I have placed a piece of card board strip on top of the first triangular glass along all the three sides and fixed another triangular glass piece over, that is, the shiny objects are between two triangular glass pieces and over the second glass piece I have stuck the butter paper).

      Wrap the whole thing neatly with a wrapping paper. Your kaleidoscope is now ready .

Water colours

      This is my first water colour painting . I must have done it some thirteen years ago . I was just beginning to learn to paint with water colours. I gave this picture to my mom and this vacation I got to take a picture of the painting.Many years ago the picture fell off the hook and the paper inside tore ,that is the line on the cat.
   Now I hardly paint except during the Navarathri Golu when we have to create scenes for our stories. 

glass painting

   This painting is one of my favorites. I painted this at a competition and won first prize. 

Little girl

Indian woman

snowed in

pencil shading

Kapaleeswar Temple .

 Thousand pots neatly cleaned and arranged at the Kapaleeswar temple Mylapore ,in preparation for the abishekam of Lord Kapaleeswar.

Akhil's hospital

This is a picture drawn by my 12 year old son Akhil. It is his idea of how his hospital would be. He is very creative and has great imagination. He never refers to any picture ,
He has used oil pastels for colouring.

crowd in a temple.backdrop

This is a picture I loved making. We have used it twice in our Golu.

chidambaram temple back drop

I used water colours sketchpens and oil pastels for highlighting the shapes in the kopuram.

kitchen back drop

when we are working for the Golu, each year we have a different subject. we try to reuse lot of stuff we have saved from previous years .But a lot of work does remain , it gives us, some of the members inclined towards art and crafts an opportunity to do something new. This is a back drop of a cooking scene.
I have referred comic books like tinkle and other story books for inpiration.

kolam for Zee

pencil shading

embroidery

pencil shading

temple

This I made for Avvai Golu.With thermocol and hand made paper for roof.
I made all three layers separately and stick them one on top of the other.

Arathi thatu

The base for this plate is a old silk saree . The butterfly is cut from thermocol and then gold paper is stuck on it and then decorated with bling.

Arathi thatu

 The base for this plate is handmade paper. I just stuck a lot of glitter balls. White ones for the heart and the center circle , and colour balls for the rest. This looks really brilliant when the lamps are lit on them.

Arathi thatu

           The base of this plate is an old silk saree. Gold colour thick paper was cut and rolled to make the rectangles and the center square and then the entire plate was decorated with sequins  and bling.

Arathi thatu

      These are flowers made from handmade paper. I just cut petals of equal size and rolled the end and stuck them together to make a flower. The center is a white marble. The space in the center of the plate is for the lamp.

Arathi thatu

       Old bangles were stuck together and bling were added to them. The rest of the decorations were done with glitter balls. The center piece is a palanquin made with beads.Small doll of bride and groom is to be placed inside and lamps are lit inside the bangles.

Arathi thatu

 
First I covered the plate with an old silk saree , as I have done with all my arathi thattu . I cut a circle from handmade paper and then with the help of a paper cutter cut out the shapes from the paper. I stuck the entire circle on to the plate and then I stuck the diamond shapes cut from the same paper in the gaps and then added a lot of bling.