Kolam by Sudha Balaji

 An auspicious  Pooja room kolam and hence not drawn at the entrance.  As in the case of many posts I have shown  the white kolam only.  It is preferable to decorate with kavi ( ochre ) colour.  Kavi is usually used for auspicious occasions. This kolam can be drawn for our Wednesday kolangal or Saturday kolam as these two days are important for Lord Vishnu We can also draw for Vaikunta Ekadasi festival , Purattasi month ( the whole month is considered important for Lord Venkateswara ) I have also added Goddess Lakshmi's Feet for this rangoli.  In traditional rangoli we represent Her through Feet patterns. The main rangoli represents the Lord through shanka and chakra designs with the Namam pattern at the centre.🙏🙏 I receive few suggestions on social media - like lines should be drawn from top to bottom, patterns should be drawn clockwise and not counter clockwise Though I appreciate their views , I think that we must first encourage drawing kolam dai...

    Rangoli making / Rangoli drawing - double stroke kolam T he first image shows the first step of the rangoli.  I have used only parallel lines drawn simultaneously in this design. Draw four pairs of intersecting lines.   From the ends of each line connect the adjacent line to get the pattern seen above. A very basic design that can by itself used as a simple rangoli for our homes.  The next design has evolved from the previous one.   Draw a parallel line border matching the contours of the first design.  Connect the border and the floral design with as many straight lines as possible The third step of the rangoli is shown below.  Decorate the periphery of the rangoli with floral motifs that are formed using spiral and circular patterns.   Also fill the petals at the centre with simple oval designs.  This is a plain rangoli by itself and can be drawn at entrances.  The rangoli can be filled with colours.  Adding col...

 First image The rangoli  starts with a plus and expands with semi-circular patterns and petal like designs .  It has a simple two line border filed with blue rangoli powder on which red dots are added.  All the four edges have spiral patterns.   The rangoli is filled with different colours yellow, green and blue. The remaining space that is black can also be filled with some colour of our choice,  only thing it is to be done carefully.  The rangoli with colours filled is available in Dusshera rangoli Second image - This kolam / rangoli  also uses floral petals as motifs.  The basic kolam is drawn with spiral patterns as shown.  The outermost patterns are based on floral petals and are used to decorate the kolam.  Third image - In the rangoli  the central design is drawn by drawing intersecting lines and forming the parallelogram like patterns.  The edge of each one is expanded with floral designs with two petals...

Important Rangoli tip   Filling up rangoli with colours of our choice or suitable to the motifs or patterns used.  Filling rangoli with rangoli powder also comes with practice because care should be taken to ensure that the colour of  one pattern or design does not spill into the other.   However, if it happens, it can be corrected.  For example if we fill a rose with pink colour and we inadvertently spill green meant for the leaves, on the pink petals, that can be corrected by adding pink again over the spilt green colour. Drawing  neat and beautiful curved lines makes the rangoli very attractive though it is a very simple rangoli design.  Colourful curved lines parallel to the white design can be drawn to  get a colourful design. Or leave it plain and simple. These rangolis can be used as apartment kolams as they are called in Tamil Nadu.  Apartment kolam are small rangoli designs drawn at the entrance of apartments due to constra...

 The first image shows   basic and simple freehand  kolam from common star rangoli Tradition has it that the  star shaped design is drawn with two lines.  Petals are drawn along the edges of the star pattern.   The gaps between are filled with floral petals and the rangoli is filled  colours to get the design shown below.    A simple but attractive rangoli.  Can be drawn in double quick time. The lotus, is widely used in  freehand rangolis.  No wonder I have also used them in Rangoli-sans-dots at the centre of a rangoli or on the periphery.  The lotus has been a religious symbol in India and one  can  find them  in religious places like temples.    The lotus in particular has been associated with  many Gods and  Puranic tales. Some freehand designs have been added between the petals.   Complete the rangoli with bright  colours. The motifs chosen should match ...

The first rangoli is a unique one created by me.   Observe how simple it is to create birds in rangoli kolam art.  The birds resemble ducks , don't they. All intricate details that are required in drawing or painting or not required here.  A simple free hand design to represent a bird will suffice.  To further improve the rangoli the birds are shown carrying fruits.  Fill the rangoli with colours as shown in the image.  It will suffice if we draw colourful lines inside the rangoli design.  A floral design with birds is ready for use.  One of the easiest and best ways to make birds patterns ! It is not necessary to fill the entire rangoli with colours  in these types of rangoli.  That is the beauty of this traditional art form.  We can depict birds and flowers quite easily .  It is not necessary to draw them with  a piece of chalk and then drawn with rangoli powder.  We can represent Nature through simple images ...

The elephant kolam design is a popular kolam with dots found in public domain.  It is also a popular kolam in our family.  Just as we have "family song" in our movies, there are some rangolis with dots that have been  popular in our family for decades.   This is one of them.  Another using  birds  has been shown in an earlier kolam here in this blog .  More will follow in the future. The dot pattern for this rangoli is 21 to 1 (ner pulli).  First draw all the elephants one by one.  Then the central floral design is drawn and the remaining dots are filled with floral designs.   Finally the colours are filled and remaining gaps are filled with some colour, brown in this case.  Free hand decorations of the elephant are done to complete the kolam with 21 dots this can be classified as a big kolam with dots. There are many more kolam that need a dot pattern using 20 and 25 dots.  Since drawing them by the traditional ...

Big kolam with dots for competitions, festivals, functions  This rangoli or muggulu are suitable for New Year , Sankranti muggulu or Pongal kolam with dots when we draw big and beautiful designs 17 dots kolam designs - birds rangoli designs for competitions Kolam designs with big  dot grid are commonly used during Margazhi  season.  One such common kolam  , my kolam is slightly modified when compared with the original version.   The theme is using a pair of birds on all four sides with the remaining dots being used up with some simple patterns like flowers, leaves. I have retained the original birds but have modified the other patterns.  We can also have  nestlings too in this kolam.  The dot grid is 17 to 1. 17 dots kolam designs - birds rangoli designs for competitions step by step with a few images , it is simple with repetitive patterns  on all four sides and as usual the remaining dots  If you are looking for 17 dots rango...

Medium size kolam  designs for New Year , Bhogi and Pongal festivals  Kolam designs above 15 dots may ( can ) be classified under an intermediate category, they are neither small nor are they very big.   They can be  drawn for festivals like Margazhi, Ugadi or at the entrance of kalyana mantap ( wedding hall ) .   One such design below.  It is with a 15 dot to 8 dot grid ( The dots are idukku pulli type - meaning that after a row of dots is placed the next one is placed between the previous row of dots and below ( or above ).  Consequently, the number of dots reduce by one in each row - 15, 14, 13, 12 till 8 dots in this case.   I have shared the plain and white kolam.  White kolam designs are beautiful in their own way and are widely used in Tamil Nadu, daily.  In the kolam with colours I have chosen to hide the ribs drawn on the floral patterns by adding the colours.  We can also add the ribs again after filling the colours...

 Rangoli sans dots as the name suggests is all about rangoli without dots.  Some of the designs created by me few years back are shared here.   Free hand designs test our imagination. While white kolam can be drawn for daily purpose rangoli , we can draw the colourful ones for festivals like New Year. If you are looking for simple rangoli designs without colours for beginners that are new too these rangolis  may be the ones you are looking for.  Obviously most. kolam drawn by me are new particularly without chukki type  because they are all created by me . Some of them spontaneously others are recorded in many notebooks .  " Every time you come up with something new and different "  This is a sample feedback from one of my social media accounts.  The reason is I spend my afternoons practising , creating  Addition of colours have been shown in the images below.  The background has not been filled.  If time permits choose...

  Simple rangoli motifs or patterns A collection of easy motifs that can be used in rangoli or kolam . The first image shows the patterns I regularly use in the free hand kolam I draw and share.  It is not a comprehensive collection. Spirals, paisleys , floral petals of various shapes, leaves , tendrils , flower designs , birds , dots , small lines are some of the common patterns. I have shown the close up of some the motifs used in the other images shared in this post.  In free hand rangoli we have patterns drawn  invariably on the periphery of the rangoli .  At the centre we can use the flower designs.  Congruity in selection comes with experience. Floral petals can be with one , two or three lobes.  We can also have clover shaped patterns.  The options are infinite. One pic shows how to draw bird motifs with single line and 2 line technique.  We can represent complicated ideas through simple patterns.  The feet of Lord Krishna or Godd...

I wanted to create a simple rangoli with deepam ( or lamp designs ).  After several small designs I wanted to try a bigger design .  Hence the dot pattern is 15 to 1 The first image , a white kolam step shows how the outer designs are created. I think this one image will suffice to get an idea. This is also a simple kolam but again with influence of free hand rangolis in the motifs on either side of the lamps. As seen in the second picture it is beautiful without filling the central space with colours. for this activity we  need 10 to 15 minutes   Filling up the gaps will take some time and demands  patience! Two pics showing before and after filling with rangoli colours. Karthigai Deepam in Tamil Nadu is somewhat similar to Diwali celebrations particularly lighting diyas ( for those who are not aware ) There is a very good collection of traditional kolam designs and recipes for this festival in this blog. 

  Naivedyam for Navarathri and Fridays - Paal poli  The dough can be prepared with rava or maida ,  I have used rava in this post Chiroti rava is preferable .  If ordinary rava is used dry grind  in a mixer  Add a small pinch of salt , knead the dough, use a wet cloth to cover  Let the dough absorb the water for at least 2 hours Using a rolling pin roll the dough into small circular pieces Then using a fork pierce the flattened dough at a few places so that the holes are through This will prevent air from getting trapped in the poori when frying ( use of Physics, in cooking ! ) Fry the pooris , pressing them while frying to remove any little  air that may be inside The flattened poori is soaked in boiled milk Milk  is kept ready by boiling with  sugar , cardamom powder and saffron Let the  pooris soak for a few minutes, then  remove them. Garnish with pistachios , cashews and almonds for plating A tempting recipe for Diwali ...

For  ten ladies are invited for Navaratri kolu we need half kilogram kadalai paruppu or bengal gram.  Soak for 30 minutes or for 45 minutes if sufficient time is available.    Since other sundal varieties require 12 hours soaking this can qualify as a quick sundal recipe too.   The soaked kadalai paruppu  can be cooked separately in a vessel adding  water for cooking or in a pressure cooker.  ( in a pressure cooker allow just two whistles ). In a vessel take two  table spoons of cooking oil,  one teaspoon mustard seeds, a pinch of asafoetida, two medium size  red chillies and curry leaves.  Add the cooked bengal gram after removing excess water.  Add salt to taste.  Cook till moisture is removed and this will be for few minutes .  Adding grated coconut enhances the taste Thirty to forty year ago sundal was distributed to guests in pottalam as we call it.  Now we  distribute it through ziploc...