Hello Everyone!
Please be ready for a really long post today.
Last Saturday a very good friend of mine Pranjali got married to love of her life & I was very fortunate to attend it. When she invited me, I started to think about what to gift her..... Giving it a good 15-20 days of thought , I decided to gift her something specially handmade. What would have been more better for their new beginning than specially handmade Lord Ganesha. I decided to make her a Quilled Lord Ganesha. I knew she would like it.
I started exactly 1 month before the wedding date to search online for a good Lord Ganesha picture. After going through various beautiful images I finalized
this one
I was not sure whether I will be able to recreate it exactly, but wanted to give it a try anyways. The image was 8 inches x 8 inches in size, I took a printout of it & got it enlarged to fit in a 12 inches x 12 inches cardstock. To keep the trunk of Lord Ganesha in the correct direction I had to trace it from back side using a tracing paper & then using the traced image drew on the cardstock to match the original image.
The next thing that came to my mind was about framing the finished product. I went hunting 12 inch x 12 inch size frames at various craft stores near me. Initially I thought that I would make the entire thing & get it framed from a professional, but I was not sure how many days I was going to take to complete it & whether I could get it framed if I got late on completion. Recently my mentor at work Mona created a art piece with paper flowers & had it framed in a shadow box, I remembered that & went hunting for a shadow box. I found something in wooden finish in brown color in A C Moore near me.
I already had some quilling paper in various colors to at least begin the project. I decided to order more only if required. After gathering all that was needed I finally started doing the actual quilling part 3 weeks before wedding date. The most crucial part was doing the outlines in black, as I had never done anything like that before. Here are a few shots of my initial progress .
Making the outline stand was the most difficult part & in addition to that I volunteered for more DIY stuff. Once while speaking to Pranjali about her wedding preparations, she mentioned that for the engagement ceremony she needed to prepare a decorated box/dish called the 'Sakharpuda'. Its a part of a Hindu engagement ceremony. I volunteered to make it. It wasn't a hard task but needed some thought process & creativity. Thinking about the Sakharpuda stopped my quilling work on the Ganesha idol. I knew I was going to use the
Bee-hiving technique in quilling for bigger areas, but there were smaller areas for which I had not thought about yet.
After giving a lot of thought & doing research about that a Sakharpuda is (Thanks to mom), I had a clear idea about how I was going to make the Sakharpuda. I picked a candle bevel, 2 tealight holder & a pillar candle holder from A C Moore. Stuck them to each other using Super Glue. I was going to decorate the entire tray with paper flowers, leaves , glitter & rhinestones. The initial product before decoration was as below
Then came the 4th July long weekend & I went to visit my relatives for 1-2 days. After ocoming back I realized that I have only 15 days in all to complete both the projects. I started with the Sakharpuda tray 1st. Decorated it with paper roses , leaves , rhinestones. Still it looked incomplete. So my friend Shakti suggested to add colorful patterned paper at the bottom of each candle holder. I did that & also added some Rangers Stickles glitter at the edges of all the parts. The finished product came out really well.
Then I started working on the Ganesha idol, but with office work & other preparation for my wedding trip, I was getting tired. But I stretched a bit everyday. Stayed till late night & finally on the day of my flight i.e. 1 day before the wedding I completed giving my last touched to the Quilled Lord Ganesha idol. Just placed it in the shadow box & I was done. Here are a few snaps for you to see my art.
Pranjali & her husband Prasad and everybody else present at the wedding liked both my handmade gifts. Prasad complimented saying that 'It looks really Professional'. I was just happy that they loved it.
I hope you all alos liked my quilled Ganesha. Thank you
very much for taking your time to notice my work. Sorry for the bad photography, will try to take better pictures in future. Hope to hear
again from all of you soon. Till then take care. :)
PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar
lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I
take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to
my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding :-)
Supplies used:
Quilled Ganesha idol: Quilling strips 1/8' (Pink, Purple, White, Black, Orange, Moss green, Bright Yellow, Melon, Magenta, Dark Pink), Tacky glue, Rhinestone (Red, Green), Shadow box frame
Sakharpuda Thali: Candle bevel, Pillar candle stand, Tea light holders, Super glue, Spellbinders Shapeabilities Dies Foliage, Spellbinders Shapeabilities Dies - Spiral Blossom 1, Ranger Stickles, Rhinestones (Aqua Blue)
