Needle and thread- Dawn

Dawn

Kathakali Doll

"Kathakalī is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colorful make-up, costumes and face masks that the traditionally male actor-dancers wear. "
- Wikipedia

My friend's father is a great lover of the art form and so made a Kathakali Doll as  birthday gift for him.

All the parts of the doll except the jewellery are made from recycled materials.

Making the structure

The base is a circle cut from cardboard. Each leg is attached to the cardboard base. Newspaper coils are shaped into bust and head.

The entire body is covered in newspaper strips.

Apply paper napkin strips covered in glue and water mix and cover the whole structure. Quilled rolls are applied for crown and earrings. Circular piece cut from cardboard forms the base of the headdress. Black thread is used to make the long hair.

An old white cloth is used for the skirt.

Another piece of old cloth is used for the upper portion of the body. The skirt is painted in white.

Other finer details and jewellery are added.

Finished doll

Newspaper doll

A doll made from newspaper.

Leaf painting

Leaf art painting...

The leaves used for painting are peepal tree leaf or banyan tree leaf. Once the green leaves are plucked from the tree, they are soaked in water for about 10-15 days...Water should be changed every 3-4 days to prevent decay of leaves. Once the outer layers are completely removed, the leaves are taken out and washed with water. The remaining layers can be removed using toothbrush. This process requires a lot of patience. Once the cleaning is done the leaf skeleton will be white in colour. This has to be dried completely before starting to paint.

Dried leaf skeleton

Paint the outline with a thin brush.

Complete the design. We need to be very carfel when applying paint with brush as the leaves are very delicate.

5 pointed 3D paper stars

3D paper stars. Can be used as tree toppers or can be hung from the ceiling. 

Miniature violin

"Music is what feelings sound like.."

Draw a basic violin shape

Cut two pieces out of cardboard based on the above pic. Cut two F-hole shapes on one of the pieces.

Glue them together to form the basic shape. Attach a cardboard strip to get the 3D structure.

Cut a few pieces of paper (newspaper or paper napkins can be used).

Glue them to the body of the violin using glue and water mixture. This will make the structure sturdy.

It will look like this once complete. Let it dry completely.

Cut out other shapes( neck, tailpiece,turning pegs, scrolls) and repeat the same steps to cover them all with paper strips.

Attach the pegs to the scrolls . Make 4 holes using a needle on the tailpiece. This is to thread the strings.

Apply acrylic colours 

Attach threads through the holes in the tailpieces and glue them down below the pegs.

Apply a coat of varnish or clear nail polish to get the glossy finish. 

And we have a miniature violin :)

3D papercut

 The Golden Dream...

The base legs , middle portion , the tower and the dome were all drawn on white computer paper. 
Each section was drawn 4 times for each face.
These were cut  separately and glued together... Then  painted with golden acrylic colour.

Newspaper door sign

Kids room door sign

Newspaper was rolled into long tubes and attached together. This was painted with blue acrylic colour. The letters of the name are cut from thin cardboard and painted with yellow and red acrylic colours. Paper alphabets, foam doll and giraffe, musical notes etc. were added to create various themes.

Handmade card for baby shower

Handmade card for friend's baby shower .....

Miniature baby crib

Miniature baby crib using paper and cardboard..

Crochet baby blankets

Two baby blankets for friend's newborn baby using crochet....