Working with Terracotta

                            
                                                                        Chapter 1

Miniature Figurines    

                              

Jam, Sauces and Pickles everywhere....

Everytime a jam bottle got over, I used to wonder what it could be used for rather than the usual way to store masalas (Indian Spices), which I have used myself and  I am sure most of our mothers and grandmothers would be doing the same when a glass bottle got empty, as it is scientifically proven that cheaper plastics react with the masalas and hence is not considered a safe way to store the spices. Again got everything cleaned up, dried and stored away.

Like most of the mothers my day too starts with making breakfast for the family, packing the lunch boxes, getting the kids ready for school, breakfast time with my husband and once he goes to office, starts “ MY CRAFTY TIME” which goes on for couple of hours until the kids are back from school.

It was during one of those CRAFTY mornings that I stumbled upon a terracotta pack that was purchased earlier. On one of my usual crafty hunts, I came across a pack of air drying terracotta in one of the leading chain of supermarkets. I had picked it up thinking I might have some use with it on a later occasion.Wanted to try out sculpting at least once. So I started out making the face first. As it started to take form, I realised that I requires quite a lot of patience and every process should be done as fast as possible, as the clay was an air drying one and once it started drying it had a tendency to become hard and would just chip off. So I tried to keep it moist enough spraying water every now and then to prevent hardening and I was pretty happy with the outcome of each feature. Once the face was over I realised that it had come out to be a miniature face and that I couldn’t make it stand upright and that it needed a base. That was when I was reminded of the tiny bottles that were cleaned and stored away . What could be better than a glass bottle with a miniature figurine on the top.  So I started working on the lid of the bottle. Smoothened the base out on the bottle lid with some more clay and yaaaay there my figurine stood upright. But when i closed the bottle it looked quite empty.

On one of the earlier craft purchases, I had bought some shells and beads and also some colourful stones and hence I tried stuffing my bottle with it. After stuffing the bottle, i have sealed the bottle with the clay and once it was dry I painted the figurine with acrylic paints. After drying use little arty glue and stick the satin ribbon/ lace around and tie a neat bow and the end result :

SEE IT FOR YOURSELF!

Sorry for not having the working stills as I forgot to take pictures of each process. But I am sure by reading the process all of you will be able to do this miniature figurine on your own.

Come along and lets try creating a MINIATURE FIGURINE.

Things you will need :

Air drying terracotta

Old Jam/ Sauce bottle washed and dried thoroughly

Beads/ Shells/ Stones for stuffing

Acrylic paints

Satin Ribbon for the bow

Method:

Take a lemon sized ball from the terracotta pack and keep the remaining pack sealed in an air tight container to prevent drying out. Knead the clay well . Pinch out three small balls approx.0.5 cms. This will be used for making the eyes and lips. Slowly start forming a face by slightly rolling the ball to form a slightly oblong shape, flattening it. Now pinch out another 1 cm clay out and start rolling to form strands of hair. Stick the strands on the head using water. Add some curls to the tip for the female figurines. Once the hair is done , let us proceed to the eyes. Flatten the small balls out and press a toothpick horizontally in the middle to show the eye lids. Now stick the eyes in place. For the eyebrows roll out two tiny balls and roll out long. Stick above the eyes. For the nose pinch out a tiny ball of clay and roll it to form a line thick on one end and thinning it to  the other end. Now stick the nose, thinner side up and thick down( this would be the nostrils) between the eyes. Make two pin-head holes using the toothpick for the nostrils. Take the remaining tiny ball for the lips. Roll such that it is a bit elongated and press it down. Pinch on both sides to give the shape of the lips. Press the toothpick horizontally between the lip to form the upper and the lower lip. Now press gently with the toothpick on the middle upperside of the lip to give it the shape of the upper lip. Pick it up gently from the work surface with a flat knife and stick under the nose. Now the face is done. Press it firmly on the bottle lid using some crafters glue and water. Now roll out a thick piece and place under the face. Merge it with the bottom of the face and the base of the bottle lid to form the neck of the figure. Smoothen it out to give a smoother look. U could add collar to the dress/ shirt at this point. Allow the figurine to dry for 24 hrs. Now fill the bottle to the brim with Beads/ Stones/Shells. Close the lid tightly on the bottle. Roll out a thick piece of clay and seal the bottle lid. Make sure you smoothen out the clay so that it looks like an extension to the dress of  the figurine. Allow to dry completely. After drying paint the features using acrylic colours. Tie a bow around to finish the look.

SOME OF MY WORKS

Here I have used an empty olives pickle bottle for the man and a Nescafe bottle for the lady. Blue pebbles are used to depict the man’s shirt. String from my son’s old water bottle is used to show the belt and brown and clear pebbles to show his pants. The lady is wearing a red and white polka dress.

Husband’s perfume bottle for the man and a jam bottle for the lady!

                                                         An Indian Couple!

Singer

School Kids

70's is back!!

                                                                   

                                               
                                                                      Tribal Boy

                     
                                                                  ABSTRACTS:

                                                        Masai Mother and Child

Let me know what you think about my work. Stay tuned for more of my art works.

About Myself

Hello All!



Introducing myself, I am Manjula, a Contemporary Indian with interest in modern art with a fusion of traditional Indian art forms, a homemaker and a mother to two, also passionate about recycling old unwanted things and making something useful out of it. 

When I am not painting, find me crafting/Journaling/Upcycling/Recycling/Refurbishing/Redecorating. 

RusticTrails@ Home Studio_by_Manjula is my journey into the world of art beyond canvas, sharing with all you wonderful people the little things that I learned along the way. Hope you like it.

Looking forward to hear from all of you!

 

THE YELLOW WALL

 

Earlier last month after going through a terrible tragedy in the family, barely had we started coming to terms with it,  when we landed back, awaiting us was another shock on our entrance door which some of the expats like us would have gone through "A Premise Eviction Court Order" from the landlord. 

Reason: They decided to sell an entire building off!!! 

 

Flashback: After shifting 3 apartments in a span of 3 years (2008-2011) we had enough of packing and unpacking stuff with 2 small kids. Finally when on the 4th house hunting spree in 2012, we checked all the familiar places but either due to the rent or the size of the rooms we couldn’t get what we wanted. Finally we hear about our current place which we never intended to go in for,  as we had not heard about this place during our 3 years of residence here. As usual for any human mind resisting change when moved from their comfort zone, I was against the idea. After viewing couple of apartments, the conversation goes like this:

 

Hubby: Frankly speaking we did not like any of these because the rooms are too small for our wardrobes and beds to fit in.

 

Me: Can you show any other apartment which is decently big??

 

Real Estate Broker: I have shown you most of the vacant apartments in this area

 

Hubby: Do you know about this place  that they’re talking about in the newspaper??? They say its a new building and they have open house.

 

Broker: Well,  I don't deal in that area, but 1 thing I can assure you. (Hindi;- "aap ek baar jaakar dekhiye. Wahaan to duniya hai"). You will like the place!!

 

Hubby thanks the broker and we move towards our car still the thought of moving to "donno where" and "godaam (godown)" and all sorts of adjectives drooling on my mind. 

I slowly hint my dislike for the idea but hubby says: " we will simply have a look and if we don't like it we won't move that side"

 

We reach the venue. Outwardly lookwise it was not all that great. We enquired about the open house. The person showed us couple of apartments. It had huge, spacious rooms with an open kitchen and an enormously long balcony. We immediately liked the place. The entire building was empty and we could choose any apartment we wanted. Even though a 3 BHK was in our budget, we decided that we would go in for a 2 BHK as we are only 4 of us and parents visit us only once or twice during the year. Hubby said "lets explore this area" and we step out of the building into the common area. And lo! What I see is a lot of greenery which we were longing for in the last 3 years. For all the apartments we had lived earlier it was like stepping out of the building and on the road, without any play area for the kids. Now I see a huge football ground, a jogger's track, a  swimming pool, a gym. When we went further down the lane, a clock tower,a branded department store and a autodrome and kartodrome....... In short a small town in itself. It indeed was "duniya". Slowly it started becoming our dream home and we decided if everything goes well we would not move out of this place as long as we are here and that year after year we would only renew our tenancy contract. 

 

The following year I felt the walls were quite monotonous and so got my main entrance wall and one of my bedroom walls painted chrome yellow. Just loved the outcome.

 

"I just love you my YELLOW WALL"

 

Since I am a WARLIOHOLIC (crazy about the WARLI art, which is a tribal art form of Maharashtra), most of the home decor done by me has got a WARLI touch to it and hence it was but obvious the yellow walls looked incomplete without a warli touch to it. And so I started of with painting tiny warli motifs on the wall. A continuous one day job with getting up in between only to feed the kids. Thank god the kids were having their Eid holidays!! 

 

The black on the base yellow looked stunning!! And since it was the main entrance wall , I wanted it to be the focal point. Still there was something missing. How about adding a hint of light to the wall and what could be better than mirrors. Thats when I was reminded of a crafty purchase in India, tiny mirror pieces. I immediately opened out my "junk box"(friends call it teasingly). They say “all junk could find a place in your home”, since I love to recycle broken stuff and do something creative with it. I found a packet or 2 of different sized mirrors. I immediately glued them on to the wall and voilà it looked lovely. Kids just loved it . My older one said it was amazing. Couldn't wait for the day to end to show it to hubby, my biggest critic. He just loved the wall too! 

 

Since I am a recycloholic as well, had saved a few broken pcs of a dining chair from the old apartment time. Immediately made a small wall shelf out of it to keep small curios. How good would it be without warli on it. So painted the motifs on it as well. It looked nice but still there was something missing to it and I felt there was lot of assymmetric empty spaces.  

 

For some time now I have had an affinity towards brass handicrafts and traditional curios and every trip back home meant some brass shopping! So this time I wanted to pick up some traditional bells. A leading metalware store quoted an exorbitant price for a brass bell with chain. It was just then my eyes fell on a basket full of loose bells of different sizes in a corner. I immediately asked the price and it was 1/10- 1/6 the price of the bell. Picked up couple of them. The salesperson at the store said that they don't sell the chain seperately and that I would have to buy it as a big lot. 

 

Since my in-laws are supportive of my art and craft, my mom- in- law suggested that I check at a small store close to our house back home to which I agreed and to my surprise I found some more of them there and the sales guy agreed to sell even the chain. Was tooo thrilled at my purchase and couldn't wait to reach back home.

 

Back home I was yet to figure out how and where to use those bells. After quite a lot of pondering, I arrived at the idea of hanging them under the shelf. Again the outcome was amazing!!

 

 

Can't explain how much we are in love you our YELLOW WALL. Our day begins and ends with a look at you and everytime we pass by you we cannot stop admiring you!!

But the thought of having to vacate leaves us feeling terrible.  The mirrors adorning her would be plucked out mercilessly and sanded. Our lovely YELLOW WALL would be stripped of her paint!!!

 

Similarly each and every corner has a story to tell. 

 

It not just a house. It was our home!!

This is a reality and as expats living in this part of the world, the thought of vacating is always dormant in our minds and surfaces towards the end of each contract period. I am sure most of other expat readers would agree with me and would be feeling the same.

 

How we could tell you our YELLOW WALL how much we love you and we wish we could take you along!!!

 

 

Parent’s Day Competition, Best out of Waste!!!

 

This is the one day at the child’s school when we as parents become children again, trying to bring out the creative mom/dad that’s hidden inside us-

Parent’s Day Competition!!!

When the circular regarding the same came in my mailbox, I was super thrilled and at the same time a little nervous thinking that what could the best thing that could be made on the spot,  in front of the judges within the time limit of 1 hr, and that too out of waste. We had a week to collect the materials as the event was to be held the following Saturday.

I suddenly remembered an empty gift box with a velvety inside that I had saved to be used at a later date. I was so happy to open up my carefully stowed away box of craft supplies  with a lot of beads and threads and tassels but the rules were very  clear:

No store bought new material to be used excepting gums/glues.

It has to be made from waste.

Wondering what to do, as I entered the kitchen my eyes fell on an empty coconut shell along with the husk that was kept to be discarded after use. I immediately got my cue- this is what I am going to use!. So the “What” part of the question was solved now and what was left was “How”.

After some brain-storming as to whether it should be something like simple wall hanging or a painting and so on, I finally came across a broken piece of one of the old clocks I had saved some time back which was still working. So I decided to do a perfectly working coconut shell clock wall hanging.

I am sure all of you would agree with me when I say Our Families Are Our World, and so I decided to make that as the theme of my work.

 

                                                

Come along as I walk you through the entire process…

 

Materials Required:

 

Empty gift box base

Coconut shell thoroughly scraped and cleaned

Coconut husk

Coconut stalk (flower portion at the base)

Golden Chocolate wrappers-8-10

Tissue Paper & news paper pieces-5-10

Water

White glue

 Cardboard piece

Toothpicks

Paints- orange, white, yellow, brown, metallic bronze

 

Method:

Papermache heads: Tear the newspaper into strips and soak it in a bowl of water and leave it overnight. Next day strain away the excess water, mix few drops of white glue and start kneading into a smooth ball. Now pinch a lemon sized ball out of it and start moulding to form the face. Depicting my own family, I made 4 faces.

House: I cut out a piece of cardboard to the shape of the front portion of the house. I gave a bright orange colour to the house as a  contrast to the background. The walls were ready now and what better than the coconut husk to give an earthy feel to the house. So I stuck the husk to the top part of the house to form the roof. I also used papermache balls to make the pots and rolled paper and toothpick pieces for the ladder to give a village feel to the house.

I felt a scenery was incomplete without a sun. As I looked around I stumbled upon a coconut stalk flower that rests on top of the coconut. I added some orange paint and added some lines to give it an abstract look.

As I would call myself a warlioholic for the love of WARLI art form, to finish it off, I added some warli motifs with bronze metallic paint around the box.

Coconut Clock: I took an empty coconut shell with the side which has eyes on it and scraped the inside fully so that no residue is left. Then gave it a good wash and left it to dry. Once dry, I used a knife to scrape through the centre eye of the coconut such that a hole is formed. 

                                                

Then I inserted the hands of the clock through the inside of the shell and attached it to the back behind the shell.

I added some hot glue between the shell and the back of the clock to keep it  from moving.

I broke the other half of the leftover shell into 12 small pieces to mark the hours. I used some metallic paints inside the shell to add some highlights. I made a small hole at the top of the shell so as to add a string to attach it to the box.

Now that the box and the clock part were ready what was left was to attach all of them together to look like one single wall piece.

I attached the box to the clock with a string and added a handwritten note “ Together We Make a Beautiful World”. I crushed some golden Ferrero Rocher wrappers and rolled them into small balls and beaded them to the note along with some papermache accents and my BEST OUT OF WASTE WALL HANGING was ready!!!

 

Even though assembling all of this in a short time was nerve-wracking, I enjoyed the whole process with my little helper doing all the gluing part. Afterall its all about becoming a child once again and having a real fun time with kids.

I hope you enjoyed reading this I much as I enjoyed creating it. Would love to hear your thoughts and your stories….

 

Until next time its ciao from yours truly…