Sun shines, nay, smiles on my wall

That's what Dipti Nair, a dear colleague of mine, probably thought after she finished a mural in her balcony.

A woman of many hats, Dipti loves Madhubani art, and the Sun God motif, which she says, is predominant in her creative pieces, be it pottery, paintings or cushions. That's why she did not hesitate to do up the balcony of her rented home in Bangalore few years back.

Here is her take on the make-story:
`It took a long time because I procrastrinated. Days and weeks would pass and I would not touch the half finished mural! I started out with painting the border first and for a long time, family and guests thought it was what I painted - a large terracotta red rectangle with a border.

One fine day, I was so disgusted with myself that I finished the entire mural in three days.'

And what a lovely mural it turned out to be!In spite of not knowing how to do Madhubani art!

Naturally, she spent a large part of her reading time in the balcony for years. A bigger tribute was in store later. When she moved from the house, the home owner decided to keep the mural intact.

Doesn't this balcony feel heaven! To add some more creative touch, she repurposed a chopped tree stump with cave painting figures. Here it is:

Dipti used Fevicryl white paint for the mural. She has started painting a similar one in her new home too.

Photo courtesy: Dipti Nair

Want handmade gifts with a difference?

A few days back, you got a glimpse of some really innovative gift wrapping by Lalitha Menon.
That was not all! Here is more from her. The gift occasion has been Christmas, but such ideas can be used for practically any time of the year.

Does the following picture remind you of Easter egg hunting? Or simply looks like a bird nest that lost its way to an office desk?

Lalitha Menon, the ever-so experimenting gifter, has done a lot of work here. She emptied the contents of egg-shells by making a tiny hole at one end carefully. She then washed and dried the egg-shells.

What followed, needed more dexterity. She filled small pieces of muslin with cloves, cardamom and cinnamon, tied each with a ribbon, and gently pushed it into different shells. She sealed the shells with white tape.

The nest, she made with Inja - a tree bark that is easily available in the ayurvedic shops of Kerala, India. And used a ribbon for the gift effect. So spices in the muslin are the gift. They can be pulled out and placed between clothes. And Inja is a superb body scrub! I bet it makes for a gift from nature, and far less expensive than the expensive body scrubs from big buck stores

Here is another one from her desk:

It's simply a gift placed inside an empty coconut shell - rather two shells of a coconut. The coconut was sealed by wrapping with tissue paper, and using a ribbon to hold the two halves. The post-it note reads -- `A great ostrich laid an egg just for u @ my farm!!'

And now for some patience:

Never thought you would pull out some cotton from the First Aid box or your medicine shelf for gift wrapping did you?

``The idea here was to rag the receiver, so it takes some time to unwrap the gift,'' says Lalitha Menon. Sure enough, the gift was wrapped with cotton at both edges and the center filled with colourful rubber bands.

The words on her post-it note read: `Santa ran out of `wrapping paper in the North pole...''

Wow, what a Christmas gift!

Pics by Lalitha Menon

Caricaturish bookmarks

I love cartoons, specially the classic Tom and Jerry and Mickey Mouse kinds. I love cartoons of the daily newspaper too, R K Laxman's Common Man being my favourite.

Drawing cartoons I thought was impossible. Not equipped enough. But a few tries really worked.

Here they are, cartoon expressions that made their way to bookmarks.

All I used was - cardstock or cardpaper that's off-white or cream, a brown Sharpie marker, brown thread with beads, Uniball Vision Elite black gel pen, a hole-punch besides some glue.

Not to forget the corner punch.

Glue two pieces of card paper of the same size and press them under books, or maybe your sofa. A day later, pull them out, draw expressions, give your words and tag the bookmarks after punching. Borders are optional.

Just being able to make the eyes and mouth gives you such a world of possibilities!

These designs look better off the picture than here. The pen work looks thicker.

I loved this Great Idea stamp, but am not so happy with the Happiness bookmark here. The result is tacky. My friend who came visiting loved it though.

If you wish to learn to make expression-faces, google images and try out on your sketch-pad.

Pics: Radhika M B

Newspaper on the wall

Would you ever dare to put up newspaper on the wall other than for protecting them during a painting session?

Vidya Nair of www.whatsurhomestory.com, an amazing DIYer I have just met online, actually put up vintage newspaper on her wall, as decor! I wouldn't have believed that pieces of newspaper you would throw away as trash would liven up a wall, but for those pictures.

For me, it's always that `Ah! the smell of old newspaper!' feeling. Still it would be a dilemma in my visual head if newspapers could actually work as decor...never mind if the best of brains managed to make furniture out of that ubiquitous thing!

Take a look at these:

Is that not gorgeous! She has used painted birch bark and gingko leaves for that dry-souvenir look.
For those of you who do not know how gingko leaves look, here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GinkgoLeaves.jpg

Here is a couple of pictures more.

Me thinks it would have made lovely impact on wall decor of other dark colours too. But love this look here anyways.

For an idea how she made it, you could visit Vidya Nair's wonderful DIY website. Here is the link - Recycled Newspaper Art

Meanwhile, look out for more from Lalitha Menon and some `not so recycled' bookmarks from my end too.

Photo courtesy: Vidya Nair