ART SMART : Whether on floor or wall, rangoli says ‘welcome’
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
We hang wreaths on our front doors and put out doormats that proclaim “welcome” to make our homes inviting to visitors. But in India, decorating an entrance to welcome guests has been elevated to an art form — rangoli.
Rangoli is the centuries-old art of painting decorative images on the floor with colored rice flour or powdered chalk. Since the images are made with loose powder, rangoli designs are temporary; some homemakers create a new one each day. They can be as small as a doormat with a simple pattern or, for special occasions, as large as an entire room with an elaborate, labor-intensive design. Rangolis are also sometimes made with flower petals, beads and grains.
Popular design themes are geometric patterns using circles, triangles and squares, those based on celestial symbols such as the sun, moon and stars, or images taken from nature, such as flowers, leaves and trees.
We’ve created a simple rangoli that is more permanent and can be hung on the wall to welcome guests once they are inside your home.
Begin by making sketches of simple designs on scrap paper. When you have one you like, draw it on a piece of black mat board (ours is 8 by 10 inches ) with a white pencil.
You can fill in your rangoli design with colored sand (available at craft stores ) or make your own, as we did, by dyeing table salt with food coloring.
To dye salt, put about a fourth of a cup of salt in a glass bowl and add three or four drops of food coloring. Stir it with a spoon until the coloring is evenly distributed. Spread the moist salt on a plate to let dry. Do several batches in different colors so you’ll have a selection to work with.
Using a small brush, paint one section of your design with slightly thinned white glue. Sprinkle colored salt generously over the glue-covered section. Gently shake off the excess onto a piece of paper so it can be used again. Paint all the sections of your design that are to be the same color this way and let them dry before beginning another color.
Continue painting each section in a different color until your design is completed. Let the finished piece dry overnight. Hold it upright and gently tap to remove any loose salt. For an elegant presentation, display your rangoli in a frame with the glass removed.
What you’ll need Black mat board White pencil Salt Food coloring Glue Paintbrush Art Smart, featuring art projects for children and the young at heart, appears in Family on alternating Wednesdays. Gretchen Goetz is a freelance writer in Dallas. E-mail her at
pearlgoddess@sbcglobal. net
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