Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Craft II: Celebrating 'Fire'

Fire is the spark within us. Fire is the warmth in a happy home. Fire represents enlightenment, where there is light, darkness and ignorance are dispelled.



We are fortunate to celebrate Fire, right in time for Diwali - the festival that lights up hearts, minds and homes all around India and abroad. We want to share with you pictures of lamp decoration that has become an annual tradition at our home. As the weeks gets closer to Diwali, we buy small clay lamps from the local Indian grocery store and the stage is set!

To prep clay, wash in cold water, wipe dry and leave to air dry for a day. The lamps are now ready to be painted. Both tempera and acrylic paints work well. Layering with a base coat of paint, then adding contrasting colors to enhance the designs makes the engravings stand out. Beyond that everything is left to the imagination. A few sequins and craft gemstones add to the richness and we have lamps ready to be lit up.



Traditionally, these lamps are filled with oil and a wick is lit. We use a more contemporary version of a lamp - the tea light candle. Lamp decoration makes for a fun project enough to warm a chilly October evening :-) Share your light with us!

And that is not all! Add a spark to your Diwali this year with this charming coloring sheet from Saffron Tree...



Please have the kiddos colour on and send it to us by the 30th of October! We would love to upload it on to CROCUS gallery. Send us your child's name and age, the country/city you are from.Thanks!

A very happy, colorful, delightful Diwali from Saffron Tree to its readers all over the world!

9 comments:

sathish said...

Lovely.

Praba Ram said...

Thanks, Anusha!

Adorable and heart-warming indeed! Will get the kids to colour on it today..

Fond memories of making handmade diyas from terracotta and white clay, last year at a friend's place. So so miss the vibrant hues of autumn there on the east coast during diwali! Previous year in 2009, we did a dried-leaf diya card when K was in second grade class..On the back side, an acrostic poem K wrote about Diwali still fresh in the mind... Delightful Lights, Indian beauty, Wonderful lights, Autumn colors, Leaves of fall, Indian things... hey that gives me an idea for next CROCUS! :)

Thanks for this, L and A!

Praba Ram said...

typo...Delightful sweets..:)

sandhya said...

Wonderful, Anusha.

ranjani.sathish said...

Anusha, those lamps are so beautiful...did you and your boys do them ?! Loved your intro to fire.

Lavanya, the colouring sheet is amazing, packed with details.

utbtkids said...

Beautiful!! We did some diya painting this time for diwali and the girls had a blast!

Lavs said...

Good one. The diyas have been painted well. I think I shall explore this art with my son during next deepavali.
I have downloaded the colouring sheet-If I can make it on time will post it to you.
Wish you had two different colouring sheets-one for small kids with less details and second like the current version with amazing details.

Meera Sriram said...

Gorgeous A! I had distributed clay diyas to paint at R's kinder class here and the kids loved it - the sequin is a great touch - will remember that!

Anusha said...

Thank you, everyone, for your comments.
Praba - very neat - her poem and the idea for the card!
Ranjani - the kids' give the diyas a good coat of base paint and pick out colors for me. this year I gave them a pair to decorate start to finish. Those two lamps are drying as we speak :)
utbt - please share pictures.
Lavs - thanks for the input, we'll remember that for next year, we'd love to have LB's sheet colored in, as he pleases :)

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