NEW YEAR

Today is the last day of the year, looking back I wonder how many people would rewind their resolutions , targets, and deadlines etc. Me,though  not much in to all these  new year resolution thing, but  not critical about it either. This year I also join the band wagon of these resolution takers because of two reasons. Before my surgery  I was really really busy with art classes and  work shops. But for the last two years I sort of became lethargic may be thanks to my eighteen month  recuperation period. Last year I started doing these air dry clay flowers which kept me busy a while. Now I want to start my classes again like old times, for that I  know  I need new samples and projects especially in cold porcelain which is my favourite medium. So I take  not an exact   new year resolution but a sincere mental note to work for at least two hours apart from other schedule.  Let me wait and see as to how far it works out!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

            

SPRING ACADEMY

Today SPRING  academy for crafts was launched amid fanfare and many personalities from agriculture to women empowerment and patent and trade mark have discussed the role of women in marketing,production  and quality control procedure and they have shared their thoughts and expertise. Here myself and Banu and some more women entrepreneurs have exhibited our creations and sold some as well. Here are the pictures:

Here are some of others' exhibits  too. Renowned tamil magazine KUMUDHAM SNEHITHI editor Ms Loganayaki also graced this function despite her busy schedule and she is with the participants.

AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS STRAWBERRY

I made lot of strawberries whenever I could because it will be an ideal gift always and liked by every one. Earlier I would not take photos of each one of my work, but starting my own blog made me change my practice. Hence a new small strawberry fruits arranged in a small basket. The basket which is not visible is made of cold porcelain.

AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS ROSE

I have made these roses some time back. I found it difficult to do the petals of same size initially, I have wasted some clay also in the process. But after two three attempts I am able to do better. Here I have arranged the roses with some filler flowers in a flat dish.

AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS MINI BONSAI -POMEGRANATE

This is a fruit bonsai  made in air dry clay. Tiny pomegranates are made to to the small bonsai.

AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS MINI BONSAI

This is another small flower bonsai. The dough is tinted with colour before forming leaves and flowers as usual.

AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS MINI BONSAI

As I mentioned earlier, some mini bonsais are being published now. Let mew start with CHERRY bonsai. First clay is  tinted with oil colours,  then  leaves and fruits are made and  arranged in a small pot.

GIFTS DECORATIVE BASKETS

 Hi this is a very belated post . I have made lot of decorative  works on baskets for navrathri festival some time back. I have done crepe paper flowers and some bread craft on these chettinad style baskets, but god! this work is strenuous because of the dyeing and starch and twisting and shaping  of crepe. But this was well appreciated and received.  More to come later.

STUDENT'S WORK ALSTROMARIA

Today  we have finished Alstromaria arrangement. It is done in majenta shades and the student liked it so much which relieved me as well because I have persuaded her  to do in that colour combo as she wanted to do in orange like I did. But it turned out better than what I did. So every one is happy. Next comes mini bonsais.

wedding theme BUTTERFLY

                  We have made saree box and photo frame. Photo frame is done using air dry clay . Blue sweet peas are arranged and stocking butterfly is added to it.

wedding theme BUTTERFLY

            Next we made the trinket box on which beaded lace and kundans are fixed . Very tiny butterflies are added on top of the box window.

          We have made Napkin rings too. The rings are made using cold porcelain  and the butterflies are made of kundans.

wedding theme BUTTER FLY

                  Here comes the tissue box . It was painted in violet  and dusted with gold  on which an organza butter fly adorns.
      

                   Next is the mirror which is decorated with beads and sequins.

wedding theme BUTTER FLY

South Indian brahmin weddings, the groom's sister has a special place. She would give the bride  a nice saree, set of cosmetics, jewellery and anything to everything depending on individual wish. She will give all this to the new bride as a welcome gift and we will have a Nalangu function after wedding is over. Here the sister in law too is from U.S she wanted to give these gifts in  thematic style i.e BUTTER FLY theme. Here we made saree box, cosmetics tray, coin box, mirror, napkinrings, tissue box, trinket box, photo frame .Here I have added the cosmetics tray or dry fruits tray where tray was painted in pink as the theme is violet and pink. One stroke leaves are painted and butterfly motifs are pasted in it.

            

wedding theme decorative plates

Myself and my friend Banu were very busy these past few days as we are doing a special theme wedding project. We were asked to make decorative plates some of which I am putting here. Our Indian weddings are as such elaborate, South Indian weddings are comparatively less stylish and splashy compared to north. This being an NRI wedding in Chennai, they wanted us to mix both tradition and style, hence it has both north's style and south tradition. So we made decorative baskets, trays, plates etc.

Banu

Banu is my friend and she is doing a lot of paper crafts such as quilling, parchment and tea bag folding etc. She has put her recent works in a very nice video which I want to share with all of you. I have given the link below.

Banu's Creations - Miniatures out of Lamasa

www.youtube.com

Air dry clay flowers Sweet Peas

This is another sweet peas arrangement of air dry clay . I had problems with my camera memory card so I was not able to put my pictures. I am going for a video tutorial of bread dough preparation some time soon.

Air dry clay flowers students work orange bonsai

Its been a very long time since last I wrote. I was little busy with classes and last month some  navrathri  gift orders. I will upload those photos too. This is a mini orange bonsai made in the class.

murals

Recently I got to work on vastu  mural which is a gift to my special friend. I have used  wood as base on which I have put lot of abstract wood pieces. I have used clay which I make at home to give texture on the back ground and all the vastu symbols be it om or lotus or fire or swastika and tulsi are entirely hand made except for ganesha and lakshmi idols.My friend is very very happy about the design and so am I. Hope all would like it. I have given the laminated effect with epoxy resin.

students work

Its class time again. First we made poinsettias as this catches attention first  and this is relatively easy to make without cutters too. Every one want to make in red colour only but I persuaded one student to make in majenta. It is yet to be finished.But I am having problems posting my photos and hope it will be rectified soon.

Revathy Kumar

Hi and hello, its been a while since I last wrote. I have been quite busy with some functions and my classes so I could not blog as much as I wished. Now my classes for air dry clay flowers started rolling I will soon upload all those works. From now onwards, I would like to add links of those works I like,  tutorials etc..
    I would like to start from my close friend and confidante who is a specialist in making ceramic flowers. She has learnt this art in muscat, did a special course in orchids. For those who want to visit I have the link below, you can see one  or two of my works too there.
           http://craftnest.net/

FREESIA

Freesias  are popularly used in making soaps and perfumes due to deliciously fragrant nature. They come in wide range of colours such as mauve, pink,yellow, red, and bicolours.

POINSETTIA

When you say poinsettias, you will think of christmas. According to christian legend, they are called flowers of Holy Night.They come mostly in bright red but varieties are in white, cream, light pink, orange etc. The bright colour parts are called bracts and they are actually leaves only. The flowers are small yellow bunches in the centre. Here I have published red poinsettias.

LILY OF THE VALLEY

There are lot of myths about lily of valley flower. It is the flower of month May.According to the legend  these flowers are formed from Eve's tears when she was kicked out of garden of Eden. It is also called the ladder to heaven. It is known for its light fragrance and bell shaped flowers. 

SWEET PEAS

Sweet peas  are cluster of blooms in wide variety of colours . Their flowers resemble butterflies. the flowers are famous for their vibrant colour and fragrance.

BONSAI - CROWN OF THORN

I made some mini bonsais such as crown of thorn, pomegranate, cherries etc.

ALSTROMARIA

I am dedicating this section of AIR DRY CLAY FLOWERS to that person who wished to remain anonymous. I am grateful for her grace and magnanimity  , she has given me her samples and  some essentials to start with.  Initially I found it hard to mould the petals with hands as these are done without cutters, later I have developed my own techniques. I can say for me this art is more or less self taught.  I have done sweet peas, roses, some fillers to start with. Here I have published alstromaria.

CLAY FLOWERS - INTRO

I was introduced to this wonderful art sometime back. In India, this clay art is  still in infancy stages as the availability of clay and tools are scarce and quite expensive. I was supposed  to visit someone to discuss my bread craft, but what welcomed me was these beautiful flowers be it roses ,sweet peas, daffodils and what not. For the first time in my life I am seeing such amazing art.  Since then I was searching for this clay but without success. After some  gap of three years , I had a chance to meet that person again to whom I am forever indebted  for introducing this art.While she was residing in Japan,  she learnt this craft some 25 years ago. What amazes me is that these are done in traditional japanese method i.e without using any cutters or moulds. Here is an example of camelia flower done some 20 years ago.