Vara Pooje. (Part of South Indian wedding ceremony)

Greeting!

I was planning to make an Indian wedding set from a long time, and finally, finished 'Vara Pooje' set. 'Vara' means groom. South Indian Brahmin wedding is a three days ceremony. 

The whole ceremony will take place in a wedding hall, which consists of a big kitchen, a wedding hall, bed rooms, bath and toilets. Basically the wedding halls will be big enough to accommodate 700 to 1000 people. The entire expenses for the wedding will be paid by the bride's parents. 

The wedding hall will be booked way in advance, the cooks will be hired to cook for all the three days, different menu is cooked on each day of the wedding. Basically the preparations for the wedding will start at least some six months prior......

The day before the wedding, the bride's family will go to the wedding hall first and start the wedding preparations. The cooks will arrive in the morning, all the vegetables and groceries will be shopped and stored in the store room, the food will be cooked for 700 to 800 people.

In the morning, the bride and her parents, should perform some rituals like, worshipping their family deity, and lord 'Ganesha'. Before the start of any auspicious ceremonies, we worship lord 'Ganesha', so that the ceremony can take place with out any impediments and troubles.

While the ceremony is taking place others will decorate the groom's room. (I will be taking about this part in my next project). After lunch, the Bride will get ready for the evening's ceremony. 

The Groom's family and his relatives will arrive to the wedding hall in the evening. This ceremony is called 'Vara Pooje'. The Bride's parents will welcome them by putting a garland to the Groom and his parents. Once they enter they will be taken too their respective rooms, and after they get freshened up, they will be invited to have some savory and coffee. 

Savory and coffee will be prepared for every one in the evening. After snacks, ceremony will take place, the priest will be present. 'Vara Pooje' is a formal engagement where both Bride's and Groom's family exchange an invitation, the invitation will be written by the priest. Which includes some details like the Bride's and Groom's name, their parents names, the date and the venue of the wedding, etc....

They worship lord Ganesha and Kalasha (A coconut will be placed on a silver pot, filled with water, vermilion and turmeric).

During this ceremony, the Bride and Groom wears a garland, the bride will be dressed traditionally in a silk saree, and ornaments. The groom will wear a formal trousers and a shirt. Parents will be dressed in a traditional outfit too.

During the ceremony the Bride will receive some gifts from her in-laws!

After the 'Vara Pooje' people will have dinner and some people spend a night in the wedding hall and some people will leave to their respective houses and will return the next day for the wedding.

Next day the wedding ceremony takes place and in the evening Reception.........(I will be taking about these in detail, later)

Making something with out a pattern, and just by using my imagination and my brains of course, is quite rewarding..... I had a great fun, making this set......

Next I will be making the wedding set 😄😄.........

Will be back soon 😉

Revu!

 

Nurse.

Greetings!

I just finished knitting this Nurse, from Jean Greenhowe's book. My friend asked me to make this doll for her sister-in-law who is a nurse......

It's always fun to knit Jean's dolls......

Will be back soon........😊

Revu!

Knitted Bunny family wall hanging.

No matter how long the winter, Spring is sure to follow. We will soon spring forward by the end of March, and Easter is also fast approaching, I decided to make something related to 'Spring' and 'Easter'.🌅🐣

I love making scenes, story books and picture books are my inspiration for doll making. This year I want to concentrate on designing some knitting projects, and here is my first design for this year!!☺️😊😉

I not only love making scenes, but love to display them. Hence, I thought about this idea. A 'Knitted Wall hanging'!! 🏡. In this way, I can make the entire scene and hang it on the wall. This scene is inspired by the picture from a story book called 'The Bunny Book' by Richard Scarry. I tried to cover most of the things from the picture. I tried to give 3-D effect to this knitted piece.

Whenever, my cat sheds his whisker, I collect them and I have used the real whiskers for these bunnies 😀........Daddy bunny's glasses are made out of wire. I looked through my junk pile and found some interesting things to make the axe........

I framed this knitted piece using foam board. The finishing is not very good, but I am satisfied for now... There is always a room for an improvement..........

Daddy Bunny🐰 and the kids are having a great time in their garden, sharing love, happiness and picking carrots!!! 

I am pretty sure, you too are waiting for Spring!!

I hope you liked this knitted wall hanging as much as I did.......

Will be back soon with my next project......

Until then, you stay classy craft world!!!

Revu!

Cinderella Topsy-Turvy Doll.

Greetings!

Finally!!! I finished making this Topsy-Turvy Cinderella, for my childhood friend. This is designed by the master designer Jean Greenhowe. I feel so happy and satisfied after I knit one of her dolls. Cinderella can be transformed from patches to ball gown, by turning the skirts upside-down. What a fantastic idea!!!! Jean is my biggest role model........I just love her color choices, just unbeatable.....

After making the doll, I feel like keeping it for myself 😛😝😜.........

Will be back soon with my next doll.......

Revu!

Tea for two.....

Greetings!

'Tea set' themed craft is one of my favorite crafts. Anything related to tea set is quite fascinating to me.....I recently came across this tea set paper craft from a website called  Kittie Caraccialo for ellenhutson.com. I fell in love with the project. Mine is not as good as the original, but still I am glad that I attempted it. I am not very good at paper crafts, but want to learn as many crafts as possible.

I wanted to make this for 'Valentine's day' unfortunately, I am two days late......but, it's always better to be late than 'NEVER'......this looks great on a kitchen or a dining room wall.......

There were no templates or step by step detailed instructions...but the author has mentioned how she assembled each and every piece. I just kept the photo as a guide and gave my own touch up ......I drew the tea pot, cup and saucers, vase and spoon patterns on a card stock and cut them out. Cutting paper is quite tricky. I don't have a paper cutter and I have to cut every thing by hand. I am not quite sure, if the over all finishing is good or no.... What's so ever, I enjoyed making this project.........

Now I have to finish two dolls that I am knitting currently. One is a gift for my childhood friend and other one is a custom order.........

Will be back soon with my next project........

Until then, you all have a great crafty week 😉........

Revu!

Dasara in a Dolls' House.

Greetings!

This year I want to concentrate more on 'Indian Dolls' showcasing my culture and traditions and festivals. Every year in the month of October or November we celebrate a festival called 'Dasara' or 'Navarathri' (meaning 'Nine Nights').  The festival is celebrated for a period of nine days and on the tenth day we celebrate 'Vijayadashami'. This is the most auspicious day of all. It was the day on which evil was destroyed by good. Auspicious occasions like weddings, new business ventures, etc take place on this day. Dasara is celebrated in a different way, in different parts of India, I am from Karnataka and I will describe how we celebrate 'Dasara' or 'Bombe Habba' (meaning Doll Festival)......

This is one of the fascinating festival for ladies and young girls, since it involves displaying and decorating dolls and figurine for all those nine days. The dolls include everyday scenes, religious dolls from the two great epics of India 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata', miniature utensils, weddings, royal court life, wooden toys and anything that a girl plays. Some enthusiastic people even make a model of a park or a forest and display animals etc....

Every Brahmin woman gets a pair of wooden dolls(male and female) in her wedding from her parents, called 'Pattada Gombe' which are generally made of teak or sandalwood. It is compulsory as a part of tradition to dress these dolls using fabric or color paper like a bride and bride groom and display them every year along with the other dolls during Dasara. It seems that in ancient times these dolls were representative of local king and queen, people prayed for their long life and prosperity of the kingdom. In front of these dolls we place two 'Kalasha's' (two small silver or copper pots, filled with water, coconut, and beatle leaves, which is considered very auspicious. I made these wooden dolls out of yarn. I had to make these very tiny so I knitted them using zero knitting needles and fine yarn. I am not very happy the way they have turned out but I can live with it for now :).

On fifth day we celebrate 'Saraswathi Puja'. Goddess Saraswathi, is considered the Devine source of knowledge and enlightenment. Books and musical instruments are placed in front of the dolls and children offer prayers to seek knowledge. I made 'Veena' the musical instrument that's played by goddess 'Saraswathi'. I looked through my junk pile and found some interesting beads and other things to make this instrument :)............

We draw  'Rangoli' in front of these dolls. 'Rangoli' is a folk art from India, in which patterns are created on the floor in living rooms or courtyards using materials such as colored rice, flour, flower petals, chalk....drawing 'Rangoli' in front of the house is sacred and it's our tradition. It is believed that by drawing this we are welcoming goddess 'Lakshmi', the goddess of wealth.

We light the lamps in front of these dolls, light the incense sticks, and offer fruits and other delicacies, that are prepared to the God along with the flowers. In the evenings we invite ladies and little children to see the dolls and we exchange sweets and other offerings like fruits etc., which is called 'Bombe Bhagina'. Little girls dress up for the occasion and carry a little bag to collect sweets and gifts from their neighbors. Devotional songs and hymns will be sung.

On the evening of the tenth day, any one of the dolls is put to sleep and the Kalasha is moved a bit towards north to mark the end of 'Dasara'. All the dolls will be packed up until next year. Doll collection is one of the greatest hobbies among the ladies. Every year they buy new set of dolls, and the collection grows year after year.

I made a miniature version of 'Dasara' even though Dasara is quite far off, I thought of making it since this idea was fresh on my mind..... I even made a room box to arrange every thing. This whole set was created out of my imagination, except for those felt dolls which I borrowed from Kath Dalmey's 'Dolls' House Details' and the 3-D paper garden was inspired from the book 'Paper in three dimension' by Diane Maurer-Mathison. I on,y made some changes to the garden by adding a cottage....

I made some clay folks as well....

Over all I am quite happy to show that Dasara can be celebrated quite elaborately even in a'Dolls' House'............last but not the least want to share my favorite pic.... I love the girl's tote :)......

 

Will be back soon with my next project ;)....

Revu!

Makara Shankranthi

Greeting!

January 15th we celebrated 'Makara Shankaranthi' in India.  This is the Suggi or harvest festival for farmers of Karnataka. On this auspicious day, young females (kids and teenagers) wear new clothes to visit near and dear ones with a Sankranti offering in a plate, and exchange the same with other families. This ritual is called "Ellu Birodhu''. Here the plate would normally contain "Ellu" (white sesame seeds) mixed with fried groundnuts, neatly cut dry coconut and fine cut bella (jaggery). The mixture is called "Ellu-Bella". The plate also contains sugar candy moulds of various shapes (Sakkare Acchu) with a piece of sugarcane. This festival signifies the harvest of the season, since sugarcane is predominant in these parts.

In some parts of Karnataka, a newly married woman is required to give away bananas for a period of five years to other married women from the first year of her marriage, but increase the number of bananas in multiples of five. There is also a tradition of some households giving away red berries "Yalchi Kai" along with the above. In North Karnataka, kite flying with community members is also a tradition. Drawing rangoli in groups is another popular event among women during Sankranti.

An important ritual is display of cows and cattle in colourful costumes in an open field. Cows are decorated for the occasion and taken on a procession.

This is my first project for 2015 and I am quite happy to start the year with this auspicious project!

Will be back soon with my next project.........

Revs!