Arathi decorations

        Just a quick post to share my third and fourth arathi thattu decoration with quilling on it .Lamps can be placed in the center of the plates .This post  is especially for people who mail me for more ideas for decorating wedding plates.
        The second plate is decorated with spiral roses after I cut the paper with a pair of craft scissors.The green leaves are made from green paper from an old paper bag.

       Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.


     

Quilled peacock

      Me and my sister have always been fascinated by peacock patterns and designs . Quilling a peacock therefore has always been on my mind.. I am visiting my mother and I am with her today on mother's day .  I wanted to gift her something special  .Since my brother bought her an ipad she has been my regular reader. As soon as I post something new she calls me to say how much she liked it and  she also shares it with my father.
    I found a beautiful oil painting of a peacock on the internet and tried to quill mine to look like it.The most difficult part was to make and arrange the feathers. When I first arranged them I couldn't do it in a natural way without a lot of gaps in between the feathers .To make the tail more full, I first made a lot of eccentric circles with 2mm green colour strips and stuck them  together to form a layer and then arranged the feathers over them so that the green strips underneath showed in the gaps and also helped in giving dimension to the tail.
    I used only Pre cut strips and a needle tool ,it is such a joy working with pre cut strips as the finish is so much more fine

     Though now I like big projects , I would like to go back to the comfort of cards and small projects for sometime.I did not get much time to photograph this project,  I was working till the last minute and it had to be taken for framing . This picture I shot in Sunlight .

    It has been a very busy month with me crafting along with my summer English classes at our library, I still have a week of classes and looks like I am already behind in my Arathi plate decorations ,I wonder where time goes.

     Thanks for stopping by, and happy mother's day.

   

     

Quilling my profile picture

       It is with lot of joy that I share my most favourite and biggest project of all with all my blogger friends . This project is very special to me as I have long dreamt of quilling my profile picture.

       Durga or Shakthi  means  strength or energy and feminine creative power. The terracotta Durga  mask in my profile picture has been with me for the past seven years, it hangs over the door in my room . It is such a smiling mask and when the lighting in the room changes the expression on Durga's face seems to also change and I am forever fascinated by it

        I started this project last september ,I had finished only the top triangular part of the crown when I put it away to take it up when I had more time. Re starting the project was the most difficult part , I have more colours now and I also don't have some of the colours that I had used at that time. I also had to figure out the lengths of strips that I had used .But once I started I was quite obsessed with it . I kept at it when ever I found time not even going online some days:).I have to thank my husband for suggesting this project and getting me all the quilling paper that I needed  .

       I first finished the head dress and then the ears , hoping to quill the face too. I did not want to spoil the work  so I decided to print out the face alone. I found this face on a Tanjore painting and by that time even I started to think that my work resembles a Tanjore painting. I made a lot of adjustments to fit the ornaments around the image and quilled over the hair and all the jewels on her face. The fact that I could fit the head dress and the earrings around the image is nothing short of a miracle.Many thanks to my elder son Abi who helped me print out so many pictures and manipulated  the images to suit the colours that I have used.

       As this is a special project  I  only used pre cut strips  and a needle tool for the entire work.

         I still have to frame my work ,here I have just placed my quilled Durga on a board I have prepared for my next Arathi thattu.
        Thanks for stopping by, Have a creative day.

Quilled flowers framed work.

         I got some new colours ,some beautiful shades of pink and couldn't wait to work with them. I recently got a request for a frame work with lot of flowers and quilling flowers is what I love best. It took me a lot of time to finish this one ,I did struggle to arrange the flowers and  feared if it might look too busy in some places.

      I have used both hand cut and store bought strips for this project. The background is a blue colour card stock which is an A4 size. This is the biggest work of mine, and my respect for people who do big projects has increased.

        Many thanks to Noor Nahdi of Paperie Designs' Studio and Hussena for featuring me on her blog.


      Thanks for stopping by, Have a nice day.

For the love of crafting DT call.

       I somehow missed Kavi's Design team call. Looks like there is still time. All you have to do to participate is to post three of your work and link back to the challenge blog here.

card

Doll

Home decor

      For those who would also like to participate , do so before March 31st.   

Quilled OM

   The ancient syllable OM or AUM is the shortest of the Mantras and in the Indian tradition it is a word suggestive of God.Repetition of OM enables one to maintain mental and emotional calmness , overcome obstacles and enable understanding.Saying "OM" is actually a form of meditation.

    I made this card for a dear friend. I wanted to make a simple OM symbol and fill it Szalonaisa style, you can see one of her work here where she has used such tiny elements to fill up the animal figures. I rolled the strips around a old refill to make small circles. I have lost count of the hours it took me to finish this one. I almost at one point believed it would never end.But it looks so beautiful as if made with tiny beads. Needless to say it looks better than it does in the pictures.

Thanks for stopping by, Have a creative day.

Here's another OM I  made on request. Glad it also turned out well.

Crimped flower

      I finished decorating another arathi thattu. Like my previous one this is also a  wooden frame covered with handmade paper. The plate is decorated with quilling ,some bling and the frame is decorated with a  recyled ribbon flower and a string of beads .

      The square is quite large with both the length and breadth more than A4 size , the challenge for me was to find ways to cover the area quickly. I made a big crimped flower for the center and swirls to cover the rest of the space. Alternate looping method is a quick way to make big quilled elements and so I choose this method . I did struggle a lot to stick the single strips on the uneven surface, had to use a lot of glue . The good thing is the glue doesn't show much. I made the center of the flower flat so as to make place for a small lamp.

      
      Thanks for stopping by, Happy international women's day.