Tag Archives: DIY

fall between the pages

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                            raking aside leaves

                                 on the background pond

                                              I release the moon.

                                                      – A haiku by H. F. Noyes

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Dry leaves between the pages started with my botany student sister years ago. This is one project which is ever going. I did it too and now my daughters have a few thick notebooks full of dry leaves and flowers.

This is what my elder daughter did for her school project – a wall hanging.

The creepers are of dried tomato plants. Orchids and bougainvillea flowers are kept as it is. The body of butterfly is made of rose leaves. The feathery wild growth (?) (on the right side) and wings of butterfly are coloured.

The wings of butterfly with their antennas are absolutely untouched-see the nature’s perfect cuts!

I can’t recognize these leaves (I mean the wings of butterfly ones). Anybody know? May be Robyn of garden rooms will be able to tell us.

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                          This photo by Daxiang Stef – via Flickr.

make it or break it

And somewhere there are engineers

Helping others fly faster than sound.

But, where are the engineers

Helping those who must live on the ground?”

                   –Young Oxfam Poster on this site.

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                                                spindle

magicfan.gifHe has an engineering degree from best institution in India and still we can say he is a teacher. He is a toy teacher who teaches children how to make simple toys from inexpensive materials which hold a little science secret. Children are not bothered with any heavy explanation, they just have fun! He says learning by experience sticks in the memory.

Arvind Gupta has conducted workshops for children in more than 1,500 schools across India. He has taken his toy-tours to quite a few countries.

 He has written several books on science for children and translated several more. At present he has been working at the Children’s Science Centre, Pune.

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                                     mgaical pencil holder

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               dancer                         can aeroplane

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          ball in the air                            balloon pump

His site is a treasure house of toys-DIY (+200) , digitized books and few films.

Do not miss this site –:all of you who have school-going young children!

design-ancient scripts

               (In Brahmi script I have tried to write read me)

                                          read me ?

                         Harappan script (ca. 2600-1900 BC)

                          Magical Stela, 360-343 B.C.E, Egypt

I can’t read these!

Can you?

But I think I read these scripts.

I read: —

That our ancestors wrote too beautifully! Do you agree?

That curious caterpillar in me gets so aroused I go green.

(Please donot correct my words I want to describe this way only.)

That mystery of not knowing what is written arouses what I call lovely fear in me.

That my fascination drives me to use these scripts/images in various DIY ways:–

? All the time I use these kinds of images as my desktop background.

                                          my desktop

?Years ago I had copied these scripts in clay and put on wall as a decor piece.

                                     in this shape now

?I want to do walls of narrow passageway in my new home with these scripts translated in clay including the lippankam method of Kutch, Gujarat.

(Lippankam is a dying art & craft I just love so much. Simple motifs are made with clay and small mirrors on the walls. Will do a post on lippankam later though I am terribly short of images.)

 

                                          Stela, Egypt

 

                           Indus script (ca. 3000-1200 BC)

              

                         Brahmi script- ca. 3rd century BC

                                      (click to enlarge) 

rakhi-the thread of bond

Rakhi-the thread of love and protection:

I do not know of any Indian festival without at least one element of design entwined into it. Rakhi is no exception. In fact it is so laden with crafts and designs that with changing fashion and market new avatars of rakhi keep coming.

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The sister ties a rakhi on the right hand of brother and brother is thus bound with love to protect the sister. The history of rakhi is told here.

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Today, rakhi is also market and convenience driven.

I live in a metro city. So the work and distance to my brother’s place had me tie rakhi to him on Sunday already. But my daughters tied rakhi to my husband (his sister stays too far away, on her behalf) today.

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The Chinese are always so eager to penetrate any and every market. They are already into our rakhi festival. Indian markets are full of made in china rakhis.

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Our film industry does not remain far behind. In kid’s rakhi there is always an element of advertisement. Hanuman rakhis, Jadu or Ganesha my friend rakhis (films released or to be released) become the most popular too.

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Rakhis originally made with colorful threads have taken many embellishments with it. From beads, jari and zardosi to stone, diamonds and even swarovski crystals and gold, silver designs are woven with threads. In the small scale industry of rakhi making, now big gold and diamond brands also want to have a say.

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Generally brothers sport rakhis but in few casts (Marwar-Rajasthan) woman too wear rakhis. Today we too are tempted to wear rakhis.  Not only we sisters get promise of protection we get fabulous gifts from brothers too. 

A few; Types of rakhis.

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And if you are smitten by rakhi, you can make one on your own: a few DIY projects for how to make rakhis.

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                               thali (dish) decoration with rakhi

(Rakhi images courtesy chennaibazaar, homeindia, indiagiftsportal).