Saradha Navarathri 2020

>

2020 has been a crazy year for literally everyone on the planet and the same was (is) true for me. What with work from home, home schooling a toddler and the added pressure of house hold work as we had to stop all house help to avoid the risk of contracting Covid-19. The glue which was holding my sanity together is planning for this years Navarathri. 

Every Golu has two integral parts, the traditional part where the Idols of Goddesses and Gods displayed on odd numbered steps (3, 5, 7, 9) and sets of dolls which displays everyday life, like a festival celebration, village life, zoo etc.

This year we wanted to create a typical village with temple, shops, houses etc and a small nandhavanam with 'in-built' zoo.

Most of the items like decorations, shops in 'Village' set up are handmade by me. This was done over the course of the year. I simply live for the joy of creating things out of nothing, there is no greater joy than displaying a finished product for a crafter. So you can imagine how much I look forward to Navarathri every year.

Of course it comes with the added advantage of meeting family, friends, singing to my hearts content without anyone asking me to shut up and I also take this chance to make the most shy person on the planet to sing and dance 😀

Also Navarathri is a special occasion for our family. There are so many fond holiday memories in our maternal grandparents place. The best memories comprise of time spent with my cousins playing in October Chennai rain, 'who-can-stay-awake-the-whole-night' and 'who can eat more' competitions (!) & of course arranging golu dolls. 

All these memories triggered with one word, Navarathri (or 'Quarterly leave' if you're a South Indian 90's kid). The preparation and planning itself takes a month (if you're a normal person) and for crazy crafters like me, it takes roughly about a year. 

I will be posting details of all things handmade in separate posts.

Without further ado presenting you this years Navarathri Golu! 

This is the trailer which  I made during the festival, please follow the link in the description for the detailed Golu.

Please leave a comment after you watch the video 😀. Below is the full detailed video.

Home project

I believe it's safe to say that, one of the positives that Covid-19 has introduced is more time for family and for self care. While it has added a lot of pressure for anyone who takes care of  household work (No gender bias here! 😅), it also has its own perks.

Like for example, finding time to do craft. Post pregnancy my list of priorities changed immensely. Sometimes there's even a battle between work and self care but no battles when it comes to child care - as its always priority #1 for me and my husband. I am one of the fortunate to have a partner who understands my asks and needs as well, not all Indian-working-mother(s) can confidently say this sentence. Sad but true. That said, I still could not find time to do things which aren't productive but keeps me mentally occupied. 

Between office, a teenage toddler 😅 and house hold work, the only time I ever get to quench my thirst for crafts is during Navarathri! A topic very close to my heart, so it deserves a separate post.

So when we painted our house and had a chance to re-decorate, we decided to go with all things handmade. But why hand made? Why not buy and decorate?

I am a person who, when shops, only buys things which can't be made by hand. It's a habit that my mother inculcated in me which I follow to date. She always says, "If you can do it by yourself, don't waste money on it". And again, fortunately for me, I am not a big fan of mass produced stuff. Also if you have ever had a chance to display or gift something you have done by yourself, know the pleasure of creating something from the scratch; that, in itself, is a drug worth getting addicted to!

So in this blog and in upcoming ones, I will post some of my small projects which I have created for the purpose of decoration only.

I picked up the pain brush almost after 4 years so I hope devi Saraswati, the goddess of all things that you can learn, is kind to me!

I have listed here one of the first projects that I did over the second week of June, 2020. A simple glass painting to hang in the guest bedroom. I browsed through pintrest for some ideas and I specifically liked one that was simple yet can be made colourful. So here it goes!...

This is the first ever picture that I took of the painting. I used a thick glass which I bought from a craft shop called Itsy Bitsy. For lining the painting instead of drawing a line, I used dots to create the borders with Metallic gold Glass liner from Camel, which you can find in any local craft store or on online stores, I have given the link for your reference only. Apart from the glass, I bought everything else it in bulk from a local store.

If you can't find them then you can also use any 3D fabric liners which come in tubes or if nothing else then use tooth pick to do the dots using paint from acrylic paint bottles. 

Before I started the painting, I drew the rough sketch on a paper. Then sealed the corners of the glass with the completed template with a transparent cello tape so that the glass doesn't move while you're working on it. I used Glass colours (Solvent based) by Camel and Glass colours (Water based) by Fevicryl.

Couple of tips while doing glass paintings (specifically for beginners), always start from the center of the glass. It helps you not to smudge your own work while you're painting your way through the corners of the glass. Never mix water based and solvent based colours, I've tried and it becomes gooey on glass and doesn't look good. And always, always work while keeping the glass on an even surface. It takes about 24 hours for any type of glass paint to dry, so patience is a must here.

In the above picture, you can see the dots up close and the glass paint. Since these are dots and as they don't have a definite border, I first coloured the smaller circles and other partitions inside, which doesn't share a border and then did the rest of it.    

Once I finished painting, I took it off the template paper which I had earlier sealed with glass. And here is a picture of the completed painting which is yet to be framed.

Apologies for the picture quality, I'm a bad photographer 😬. I will upload the framed picture once done.

Edit: Here is the framed picture! How does it look?

Declaration:

1. Please note that I do not get any money for any shop/ item referrals, its purely to help craft crazy people like me shop better 😁.

2. All templates that I use for my crafts are mostly inspired by something or the other. I like them to be unique so while you can find some similarities (because I liked the idea), I don't like to copy work. If they are my own productions, I always make sure to mention them explicitly.