Re: Rangoli

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on March 27, 2000 at 14:54:18:

In Reply to: Rangoli posted by Cyane on March 27, 2000 at 09:41:22:

: 1)On the designs and info I gathered, it is said that using dots to
plan out your designs is helpful, but it just seems to mess me up. Do
people also do rangoli just freehand?

Some people really like the dots. Some don't. Some traditions use
dots. Some don't. Remember ....India is a HUGE country with widely
varying traditions. If you try to make generalizations about Indian
traditions, you'll find yourself making the same mistakes people make
about Native Americans. (The Mohawk are very different from the
Pueblo; the Ribari are very different from the Tamil.) Every woman in
India has a favorite way of doing her patterns. Develop your own
favorite way.

: 2)CCJ you said that you could use a henna cone to do the designs,
mine are far too liquid for that, and I can't use a paintbrush either.
I've just been dripping it from a spoon. It works pretty well, but is
extremly messy, and I was wondering if there was any other way for me
to do it.
Dripping from a spoon seems fine to me. Some ladies dip their fingers
in the paste and dribble it. Some dip a little bit of rag in the
paste and draw with that. Some people use powder trickled through
their fingers. There are as many ways of doing Rangoli as there are
ladies prettying up the ground. I think everyone will have a different
answer to "how to". I like a carrot bag with a smallish orofice and
the paste mixed about like pancake batter. That worked pretty well
for everyone I taught last weekend ......I and several others were
able to get very intricate patterns very easily. And .... the weather
was soooooo lovely ..... such a nice excuse to sit outside on the
first really warm weekend. We made rangoli at the bonfire site.....
(looked like a big white lace doily around the fire circle) and at
night danced it into the dirt. Not quite traditional .... but not that
far from tradition, either. And .... nearly everyone got hennaed and
some harquused. Spring is just incredible after a Lake Erie winter.
(Though snow is forecast for tomorrow again...mmmmffff)

Follow Ups:

• More on Rangoli Jewel 00:32:29 3/28/00 (2)
  • Re: More on Rangoli Natasha Papousek 08:31:24 3/28/00 (1)
    • Re: More on Rangoli Catherine Cartwright Jones 10:27:16 3/28/00 (0)