Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Anuz Art Creation - Rangoli Kolams..

Kolam......normally called "Kolum." O sounds like Oh. U sounds like bun. Kohlum.

Kolam is an auspicious art of decorating courtyards and pooja rooms/prayer for hindus drawn mainly by women and girls. Some women use rice flour to draw a kolam, which is the traditional medium to be used while others use colourful rice. Generally, a kolam is drawn with bare fingers using predetermined dots. The dots are either connected together to make a pattern or loops are drawn encircling the dots to complete a design.
When the symmetrical pattern is decorated in colors using colored sand or flower, then it is called rangoli.

These patterns or designs were created in the olden days (according to Tamil literature) using rice flour. Holding a handful of flour in their right hand, the woman will uniformly drop the flour to make a line through her thumb and pointer and keep on moving her hands to make the curve or the dots. Nowadays, women use powder made out of stone. (Stone is crushed and sold commercially). The patterns are very complicated and huge during festival months. The temples will have complex patterns that will cover thousands of square feet. Sometimes, several women together will create one large design.

Nowadays there are perforated rolling tubes, perforated trays and stencils available to speed the process of making kolams. During festivals and weddings, rice flour paste is used instead of the flour. This tradition of decorating with kolams is passed on from generation to generation. But as im too interested on this wonderful art by the Indian , i try to figure it out , how to do it .

Than I learn a wonderful kolam in not only depend on the patern, but the bright colour plays main role on this . A kolam draw wit colourful rice and ending with white borders always give xtra attraction and I have practice on that and, now it’s the main highlight in Anu’z Art Creation .