kolam.

Ami · Aug 31, 2005

Hi friends,

Kindly suggest me for putting Onam special kolam decorated with flowers, preferably small in size.

If there is any other methods to decorate inside of the kolam hoping that for every state, there should be some special for decorating, pls let me know that too.

Thanks in advance.

nirupama · Aug 31, 2005

Decorate with colored salt

Hi Ami,

I see you to be a new member in this community - Welcome!

Hey, there is a traditional way of decorating rangoli with colored salt. Buy salt in crystalline form and mix it with rangoli colors that you can get in the shops. (I think desi stores would have them). You can use it to decorate the inner portions of the rangoli and may be also try decorating the border with flower petals. That should look great

Ami · Aug 31, 2005

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply, Nirupama.

Yr idea sounds so good; did not know that adding crystalline (kal uppu, right?) salt will decorate the florets rangoli too!! How it will turn out if I substitute the podi uppu (regular salt) as dont see any the rock salt here.

Bye.

jyoti · Sep 1, 2005

Regular salt might melt!

Hi Ami,

Regular salt might not be good to mix with rangoli color powder. Even if you are able to mix, when you put it in the rangoli it will soon melt and become watery due to moisture in the atmospere.

So try crystalline salt - kal uppu, as suggested by Niru.

If you have difficulties find it in the U.S., you can try and buy some color beads (tiny ones). Since you might put only small kolams inside your house, little amount of colored beads would be sufficient to decorate it.

Advance Onam Wishes to you and your family!

Ami · Sep 1, 2005

Sounds a good idea using beads, Jyoti. will try..

Thanks a bunch.

manjula · Sep 1, 2005

color with lentils

Hi!

As I grew up in Delhi when I learnt making rangoli in my school (I took interior designing) we used all kinds of lentils. It used to look very pretty. Try this bcoz i'm really sure u can get all the lentils here in USA.

enjoy!!

Manjula

Ami · Sep 3, 2005

Thanks, Manjula for the suggestion. If you have any photos decorated with dhals or grains, can u post it becoz, recently, viewed a site and it has this dhals, rice etc. decorated in the rangoli and it was not impressive as the colors are very dull.

Rgds.

Varloo · Sep 7, 2005

Kolam

Dear Ami,

I wish you and your family a very happy Pon Onam. You can use small fruits like grapes in between. Also try mustard (kadugu). You can spread a little glue and spread the kadugu so that it will not get damaged. Or try cut vegetables of different colours. Make sure that they retain their colour.
Varloo

Prema · Oct 31, 2005

Flower Petals

Hi!!

All the above ideas are good but you can also try these ways....You can spread glue on the floor, and spread different colors of flower petals in the inner sides of rangoli and outline with anyother contrasting plain rangoli colour ( preferably white ).

You can also mix regular rice with prefered rangoli colors ( add very little water while mixing so that the color gets blended well with rice ) and spread in the inner sides of the rangoli.

Making glue the most economical way..... depending up on howmuch quantity you require mix 1-2 Tsp of Maida with water to make a thick batter and put it on flame. Bring it to a boil keep mixing so that it does not stick to the bottom. Let it become little thick. That's it..... you glue is ready!! This hardly takes 5 min.

Wish you all and your families a VERY HAPPY DIWALI !!

Prema