Diwali Ahead!

Diwali Ahead!

Sunday Nov 3 is Diwali this time. Amma will be back in India by then but it will be the first time that we will be celebrating Diwali with D!

Have been stumbling upon some lovely ideas to decorate the home for Diwali.

Here are some pictures.

Paste washi tape on tea lights and they are good for display.

Block printed paper lamp shades. The lamps are simple. Just place a tea light in a wine glass.

Definitely float some flowers and tea lights in a shallow bowl like so...

Images courtesy allthingsbeautiful

Also make a beautiful Rangoli with Kundan on hand - decorate it with tealights and flower petals.

Thanks Patricia for the image!

And here are some pictures from diwali at home in 2008 - totally beautiful... With Amma Autnty and M..

Lets see how Diwali turns out this year!

Raw pieces ready to paint

Couple of pieces that have been baked ready for while and they are waiting for their colors.

Purple and green jhumki

Second attempt at a Jhumki.
Made these a little smaller than the original red one. And kept the design simple.
Loved the green and purple combination from the pendant, so decided to make one more with the same combination.

Started them off by keeping the top half black and then I yielded to S's comment about purple not showing much on black.

So I painted the whole Jhumki in gold. May be I regret it. May be its fine.

Either way the next such jhumki will be a half black - half gold combination like in the first picture.

This Jhumki design is simple and can be done easily - so we are going to see a lot of this pattern in many colors! :)

Purple and green pendant

Finished one more pendant this weekend. D has been down with some cold - so this weekend we have all been laying low. The unfinished - just baked look...

The just painted look.

I liked the purple in combination with green. Both pearlescent colors from Lumiere.
S seems to think that the purple doesn't show all that much with the black background.
Sometimes colors are better without a deep contrast. The black sort of makes sure that the contrast is not that deep. Anyways, here is one more pendant waiting to become a necklace.

Brass pendant with terracotta -2

Here is a lovely brass pendant that I bought on Esty.
Love the design on it and I am hoping to make this into a nice necklace with terracotta beads.

Color d earth website has some such brass pieces paired with terracotta. They look lovely. You can see a few of them on my earlier post too.

I have been liking everything about terracotta jewelry making so far - molding / making designs on clay / painting. I stumbled upon the first thing that I do not enjoy all that much. It is bead making! Many of my pendants are still waiting for their beads to become complete necklaces. I have to find a way to break this boredom associated with beads. Here are some unfinished beads.

Ooookay finished up the necklace that I intended to... Here is how it looks...

I could pair it with the red jhumkis on the hoops - could pull it off with a red bandini saree... Not a bad color combination?

Update : Oct 5, 2013

Wore it this evening. S's friends had invited us for Golu :)

Update: Jt donning the brass pendant necklace with her lovely off white salwar! Nice smile! :)

Red jhumki on a hoop

My first attempt at a Jhumki / Jhumka - what is the difference between the 2 words anyway?
North inidan (Jhumka) vs south indian (Jhumkit) etymologies?

Somehow I have not been comfortable with the idea of hoops. I have never been able to carry them too well! I am hoping these Jhumkis will make me a little less scared of the idea.

This is not exactly how I pictured they would turn out - I was hoping the red would be brighter. And the design itself could have been a little more detailed. For a start, this is OK.

The challenges that I faced were - you can get the shape somehow but to get the same exact shape for the pair is challenging. Also since I am shaping this entirely by hand with absolutely no moulds, I have been leaving finger prints on them which leaves a not-so-smooth surface to paint upon.

Hoping to figure these out as I go. 

Lumiere metallic paint on terrcotta

Completed this pendant just yesterday - So this one is fresh out of the oven! Literally  :)
Dissatisfied with the lack of shine on the regular acrylic paint - I decided to invest in some metallic acrylic colors - Jacquard Lumiere was a good option - Had it shipped to me over the weekend. It was time to paint away!

Here is a pre-baked picture of the pendant and...

And... the picture of the final finished piece... Can do better with painting - staying within lines. But in general I am happy with the way this turned out. The color combination and the shine. S even said this makes the other prior pieces look a little dull and amateur. Sister dear said "Nailed it with this one" :)

Family and their support! Love you all :)

Excited excited. Hopefully I should figure out the cord and the stringing or beads by this weekend, so I can flaunt it off at the baby shower for a friend.

Finally I finished up this set into wearable jewelry. My first finished terracotta set!! :)
This is how it looks.

The black cord somehow made it look incomplete. So I painted the cord with the same gold paint I used on the beads.
I love love it!!

Have a traditional indian baby shower for a friend coming up this weekend - eager to wear this jewelry with my green saree! 

Yay yay good times!

Finally I managed to get a picture of this set with the saree I wore over the weekend. 

Here it is - the necklace with the earring on my temple border green saree and also seen partially is S in his brown kurta :)

Brass with Terracotta.

One more great idea for terracotta. Saw some such products on color D earth website.
Pair Big brass pendants with terracotta beads.
Lovely necklaces. Just the right amount of color.
Pair them with beautiful Jumkis.

Inspiration

While browsing for Terracotta jewelry online these were some eye catching pieces that I came across.
When I fall short of ideas - a place where I can look for inspiration.
Wish I could acknowledge the source for these pieces. The source is varied and I happened upon these by an image search on google.

This one below has a unique shape - not your regular circle. And the colors are also picked well. Off centered design - makes it modern in appeal.

These stood out mainly for the intricate work in the pendants. The design itself is not very complicated, it is a very smart use of paint - the white dots especially.

A piece which is modern in the appeal again. Blue and pink are such young non traditional color combination. Pairing these with gold is something that I would not have thought of.

Purple and blue is a bold combination yet again. Gold is used sparingly - just enough to give it the shimmer.
Nice piece - young color combination.

Peacocks seem to be rather popular among terracotta jewelers.
This is a beautiful specimen - if even I end up making a peacock, I will surely draw my inspiration from this one.

This piece stood out mainly because of the shape. Easy to cut out - starting from a big circle. Simplistic design and muted colors are also a plus - especially when you want the jewelry to be quieter than your dress.

Green and Gold

Im happy with this :)
Green and gold mainly - and a small hint of fuchsia.
Such a traditional south Indian color combination :)

And somehow I feel - the pieces look better when the black shows.
So totally enjoying this art now.

Fuscia and Orange Terracotta

I was hoping Fuchsia and orange color combination would be more pleasant than this latest terracotta piece.

Something like this:

Or like this:

May be its the black background that did not work out...

Or may be its the combination with gold that did not work out - or could it be that the gold is too much in quantity when compared to the primary combination I aimed for.

Any way, this is the piece I ended up with. I can do a little better sticking within the lines while painting.

Blues - terracotta

The next terracotta jewelry piece. Wanted to do an all blue piece - ended up with this.
Question is - Do I finish off the black part on the center with metallic silver painted or not?

Some samples of color options that I tried for this piece.

Appam

Today is avani avittam... It's a Tamil festival where men change the poonal or janivara - the religious thread worn across their chest...

As usual festival food was cooked at home, including majjige huli, tayir vada, beans palya and kesaribath. The speciality today was this sweet dish called appam.

We tried this same dish couple weeks ago for Krishna janmastami.. But it was rather chewy and burnt of sorts.. This time the dough was almost perfect consistency and it came out fluffy and just the right amount of sweet 

The ingredients are jaggery, elaichi powder, coconut, maida, rice flour (couple spoons). Mix all of them to come to a good dosa batter consistency.. Then drop it in hot oil to deep fry.. It should fluff  up within a minute. Turn around and cook both sides until golden brown. Sweet Appam is ready to eat. 

D loved it too.. S went to the temple and did the ritual with some 50 others... Lunch was a three course happy meal :)

Terracotta with sculpey

Started working on terracotta jewelry...

It's such an amazing form if art!! And such beautiful jewelry...

Over last couple weeks I was searching for a nice terracotta set.. And over the course, I learnt that it's actually a hobby for some.. The more I saw such creations, the more I was impressed and eager to try my own.

As usual I brought it up with my beloved sis and she was equally excited about it and totally encouraged me... Infact right now she is trying to get into a terracotta class herself :)

Within no time I was at michales and I picked up some white sculpey, Martha stewart gold paint and I was all set to start making clay jewelry...

With D around.. I'll be happy if I get 20 minutes each day for myself :)

So day 1 just went in playing with the clay...

Day 2 I made some rough shapes and make some stamps of design on it... And baked and hardened the clay ... Like so... Did I mention it was white colored sculpey?

Day 3 I finally got around to painting the pieces... Mr. S offered to paint one himself and I was glad to let him help... He was not bad at all when he started off but he soon got carried away and ended up with this exquisite piece :D

I had to try out the gold I bought.. This is how it turned out... Not as great as my imagination... But I'll take it for a start... 

Sculpey iii needs min 2 coats of paint and doesn't take on paint all that easily... Should try super sculpey and original sculpey next... 

 I could have made this into a pendant if I had stuck an eyepib in it before baking... Alas!!