The indentations on the leaves make them look real! Lovely collection of different flowers, I guess your house never goes out of season to "grow" any of these flowers! :)
Whenever I look at Irises, I am reminded of a funny story that happened a few years back at our house. I've been involved in gardening ever since we moved into our own home (about a little over a decade). I like to experiment with different flowers/bulbs/plants, whatever comes my way, and whatever grows in our zone. My husband got his hands on a collection of Heirloom Iris bulbs which were given away by one of his collegues, and he promptly thought of me, and brought them home. As soon as he got home, he showed them to me and as I was busy with something else at that time, I had asked him to leave the bulbs on our table. After a while, I decided to plant the bulbs in our yard and so went to get the bulbs. But, they weren't there on the table. My husband then informed me that he had placed the bulbs under a big tree in our yard (an appropriate place for bulbs according to him), which was right next to the planting space (where I had prepped up the soil the day before). Little did he realize that due to his EXTRA helpful nature, he had provided a feast for the squirrels that day! I'll never forget the sheepish look he carried for a long time! I had not bought Iris bulbs ever since, as I still can't stop giggling whenever I come across Irises! :)
Lovely basket made by your sister! About the material used, is this Jute basket or twine? Is the technique weaving or crocheting? Does your sister like to incorporate beads into her basket-work?
One more question; may I have your sister's screen name please? :)
Thank you all.
Lathaji, nice to hear your story, by drawing maavu kolams we give food to small ants, but you provided feast for squirrels, good :).
The basket is made of special grass, called as nOde hullu in Kannada. usually strong. 7-8 grass straws are taken together, twisted make a small spiral and start stiching with a needle using the grass itself as thread. the grass thread is usually soaked in water for 20-30min, so that it would not break while sewing. keep adding straws as the initial bunch gets thinner and run the spiral as needed to make the basket as needed.
My sister (Anitha, we call her Anu) had decorated some baskets with sequins and beads and were gifted to friends, i dont have one like that :( . Now a days she is not able to get that grass to do more and also got busy with her kid. May be i need to look out for the materials for her when she gets free :)
Learning Origami is fun and good exercise for your brains as well as hands. Jayaji to start off from basics you can find some easy animations in this site http://www.origami-club.com/en/. Let me know if you need any more info, i can give you more materails.
I don't think I have come across nOde hullu so far, your grass explanation is really helpful! :)
One of these days, I'll save this picture in Anithaji's folder too. And, if your mom makes you the chutney you talked about, then... :)
Anirudh what kind of paper have you used for the red flower - looks like satin.. Very pretty basket of flowers.. Incidentally my daughter's name is Anita (without the h) too..
Judyji, its the normal copy paper, and took color print. I used two colors (red & yellow) to add specail effects for coloring the squares in MSWord and took printouts...so my color cartridge got to be replaced within 2weeks :)
My goodness, you go to great lengths for your color paper! :)
We tell our kids that such things are only "possible" with Origami paper (thin pre-cut squares of color paper). I bought a pack of those in the Cherry Blossom festival for my daughter, but have told her not to open until her summer holidays begin (10 more days). :)
Yes, it would be good, if you can get all kinds of variations in color papers, which would make the flowers more natural. But many times, i could not find the relavent combination of colors/ designs in the shops (normally here we get single colored on one side and that too rectangles not squares :( ). So, used my comp & printer :) . Actually, origami can be done in any kind of paper, but depends on how many folds you make. If the number of folds is more then thinner the better, but copy paper servers many basic and intermediate designs.
good, got some for your daugther to fold, so we can see more origami after 15days :)
Some sample ones, i have printed on the normal copy paper http://www.ikolam.com/node/5945
In reply to Thank you all. Lathaji, nice by anirudh
In reply to Judyji, its the normal copy by anirudh
In reply to My goodness, you go to great by Lata