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No to Plastic Bag, Spoon & Fork

I don’t like to use plastic materials for my daily usage. We all know the problems created by hazardous use of plastics. I don’t want to discuss those. But I would like to share how you can cut off your usage of plastics 🙂

When I was in India, I never take plastic bags from vendors or shop keepers. When I had a vacation in my college, I used to go to each small/big stores and tried to convince shop keepers not to use plastic bags 🙂 I still remember those 5 stores where I have successfully convinced shop keepers and they stopped using plastics 🙂

I always feel that rather than blaming the system of our country, I should focus on doing something as a normal citizen 🙂

and that’s what I did! That was my little contribution to the environment 🙂

When I came to USA. I was shocked to see the usage of plastic here. I know that every product got recycled here. That’s fine! But US is spending lots of energy and money to recycle them! Again, I used my own way of fighting against it. The whole culture and people are different here. You can not go to Walmart store and convince the shop keeper! No! But yes, you can perform your tiny little steps to make your house plastic free 🙂

When you go to any grocery shops at USA, you end up getting your vegetables in at least 10-12 plastic bags every week! 40 plastic bags a month and 480 plastic bags a year!
So to avoid that, I requested my mom to make cloth bags for carrying vegetables from grocery stores. I keep all the vegetables and fruits in this cloth bags, and I keep these bags directly into my refrigerator. My vegetables and fruits also stay fresh because cloth bags absorbs extra moisture.
I simply put those cloth bags in washer for cleaning. and I keep 10-12 cloth bags in my big grocery cloth bag in my car all the time. So whenever I need to go for buying grocery, My little cloth bags are always there lying in my car 🙂

You can also make these bags at home. Go to Walmart or Michales and get cloth material. cut them into rectangle shape and cover 3 of it side and you are done!

Here are pictures of my cloth bags 🙂

Whenever I go to any grocery store, Cashier loves my cloth bags and always asks about it. And I explain them every time that how I am making a change and not harming our environment 🙂

Another big thing which I noticed here is whenever you go to any party or at friend’s place for get to gather, they use plastic spoons and forks. It hurts me when I see that big Costco box of 500 plastic spoons at my friend’s house 😦
I used to do that before too. But I realized after some time and bought 30 steel spoons from Walmart and after that when I have a party at my home, I always use these steel spoons 🙂

but If I am outside my house and still want to use steel spoon and fork then?

For that I made carry case to bring steel spoon and steel fork and I keep it in my purse all the time. Even if I am going to my friend’s place – I use my steel spoon and fork 🙂

Let me show you the steps of how I made these spoon/fork carrying case:

Step 1: Buy little thick cloth from walmart/ Michaels (They are always available in fabric section)

Step 2: Usually they came into A4 size of a paper, so cut them into half.

Step 3: You can use any thick string and needle to make stitches on it. I used woolen yarn and yarn needle( purchased these from Michales)

Step 4: Insert yarn into needle. Turn half of the cloth to make a pouch to hold spoon and fork. and try to stitch it from bottom and its sides. (you can use any type of stitch of your choice.)

Step 5: To make its cover, Just close the half of the portion from top and put one long string in the middle to close the pouch.

Step 6: You don’t need to do any kind of stitches on any side of the pouch now. I did that to decorate it further. But you can skip it if you don’t want to do that.

And here are my beautiful spoon-fork carrying pouch is ready!!!

Can’t we avoid use of plastic from our daily routine? and replace everything by biodegradable and reusable items?
How about this?

So are you ready to perform your part? 🙂

Warli painting on cabinet

Me and my childhood art friend (Keta) loved warli paintings and we had done lots of art projects together 🙂
We painted shoe rack cabinet in January 2009, and found that photo in my hard drive today 🙂
Sharing you the final photos :
Material used:
Oil Paint : Dark brown color
Oil Paint: white color
Brushes

And panoramic photo,

 

Canvas wall art

My friend Miti and I decided to make something for her home. We went to our favorite store ‘Michael’s’ and purchases canvas boards, some acrylic paints and stencils.
We chose 3 colors (blue, yellow and white) and prepared beautiful wall art. and here is the final result! 🙂

One more,

Warli Canvas

Colorful, circle of life Warli canvas art 🙂
I used acrylic colors (Purple, Yellow, Orange, Sea green and golden).

Another arrangement of canvas makes this painting more beautiful. What do you say?

 

Henna Painting

Henna is a dye prepared from the plant also known as hina(mahendi) which is applied on the wedding day, the bride wears a traditional dress and has henna painted on her hands and feet. Henna is filled in a cone and then applied to body with beautiful small designs.
I bought a wooden box from Michaels to put my hairpins and then decided to decorate it. So I painted the box with dark purple acrylic color and then used my creativity and applied henna designs on it with the help of acrylic tube colors.
If you can’t find tube colors then you can make cone out of plastic sheets and fill thick acrylic colors and use it.
So, here is my henna painted box 😉

 

Dot Painting

One of my friend shared a post on facebook of dot painting workshop. All the colorful dots drawn my attraction and then I started researching about it on pinterest and I got lots of ideas. On the next day, I went to my favorite store, Michaels and bought canvas. I bought their special brushes and tried on second day. I did it on small canvas but honestly, I was not satisfied with the result. I wanted it to be more neat and clean. After some day I found a solution, rather than using brushes I used cotton swabs(cotton buds – which we use to clean our ears) and it worked out very well.
No one has ever thought that cotton buds will be used for painting. haha
And here is my first neat dot paiting 😉

How beautiful does that look? right? 🙂

About Dot painting: Dot painting is made up of small dots of paint colors like yellow (representing the sun), brown (the soil), red (desert sand) and white (the clouds and the sky). These are traditional Aboriginal colors. Dot paintings can be painted on anything, including on rocks, in caves, etc.

Materials Used: 
6 in x 6 in canvas (Painted it with black acrylic color)
Acrylic colors of your choice
Water
Cotton swabs

Method: 
You can download any image from internet and follow the pattern on canvas. Just make sure that you allow every dot to dry out completely before applying new one.

Crochet Experiments

I like to play with yarns of different colors! Crocheting is difficult compared to other craft and art stuff, but once you understand; it is very exciting and relaxing 🙂 Some of my experiments!

Coasters

Name plate

Flower Chair motif

Kindle Cover

Made these little cute babies for my sister-in-laws baby basket 🙂 I made them using newborn socks 🙂

I made these for my cute little nephew on his First month birthday 🙂

We moved to San francisco and I started commuting in a bus to office everyday. In the evening, while coming back home – I either read or do crocheting. Some of the crocheting experiments done on bus.

Ear warmer for winter 🙂

Key holder 🙂

Love to see my colorful yarn collection! 

One more baby winter cap for Vidhan 🙂

Quilling cards

I love to make quilling cards and gift it to people 🙂 I have made some of them in few months. Making quilling cards does not require any steps. You can easily make one if you have a photo of it.

I made this birthday card for my 7 year old nephew – He likes red color and rainbow

Made this card for my 3 year old niece ! It is pop up 3D card

I made this photo frame card for my friend’s graduation 🙂

I made this for the 1st birthday of my friend’s daugher. She called her daughter ‘bug’. Thats why the theme is bug.

Ganpati birthday card!

Rakshabandhan envelope for my sister in law.

Peacock feather card for my friend and my quilling teacher who loves lord krishna 🙂

Random flower for me 🙂

For my husband’s friend who has joined Google Photos team at google.

Birthday card for my friend 🙂

Appreciation card + photo frame for my director

Diwali card for both parents 🙂

Birthday card for my sister 🙂

Quilling warli card for book-lover friend on her birthday 🙂

Christmas cards!!!

Anniversary cards!

Birthday card for cousin who loves motorbiking 🙂
I just love to see how kids like quilling and to make beautiful cards with them.
I made these cards with Krish and Dhani..

birthday card for a friend who likes baloon 🙂 Idea inspired from Prutha’s card

Christmas Card!

Cupcake Birthday card

Baby shower card!

Football themed card !

Diwali cards!

I made this card for Tracey for her new year 🙂

Made this card for a couple who shares their birthdays on the same day! 

For my friend’s Birthday 🙂

Love the colors of cards, tulips and that turtle 🙂 

You can use your own creativity and make quilling cards. It is really easy 🙂 Try it today 🙂

 

 

Madhubani Painting Workshop

મને પહેલેથી ભારતના આદિજાતિ(tribal) ચિત્રો ખુબ આકર્ષે. આ ચિત્રોની શ્રુંખલામાં મને ખાસ ગમતું વારલી આર્ટ. જેના વિષે મે અગાઉ લખેલું પણ છે અને એ ચિત્રકામ કર્યું પણ છે. મને દરેક પ્રાંતના ચિત્રો વિષે બહુ ખાસ જાણકારી નથી પણ કાયમથી શીખવાનો ઉમળકો ખુબ જ રહે. એક વખત ફેસબુક પર મધુબની ચિત્રો જોયા. સાન્તા ક્લારામાં એક પ્રકૃતિ નામમાં બહેન છે. જે ભારતના આ બધા આદિજાતિ ચિત્રો શીખવાડે છે. મે ફોટા જોયા અને પછી એમનો સંપર્ક કર્યો અને બધી માહિતી મેળવી.
મારું વેકેશન હમણાં જ પત્યું અને મે એમના વર્કશોપ વિષે વાચ્યું. બિંગો! કામ થઇ ગયું. એમને મેસેજ કર્યો અને એમને મને બધી માહીતી આપી અને મે paypal થી પૈસા ચૂકવ્યા અને ૨૭-જુન-૨૦૧૭ સવારે ૧૦:૩૦ એ એમના ઘરે પહોચી.
આમ જોવા જઈએ તો અત્યારે ઇન્ટરનેટ પર ઢગલાબંધ ચિત્રો મળી જ રહે જેનાથી હું શીખી શકું પણ મને આવા કોઈ જાણકાર વ્યક્તિ પાસેથી એક વખત અનુભવ લેવો ગમે. પ્રગતિબેને અમદાવાદ NID (નેશનલ ઇન્સ્ટીટ્યુટ ઓફ ડીઝાઈન)માંથી આર્કીટેકચરની પદવી મેળવેલી છે. અને પોતાના ઘરે પોતાની આર્ટ ગેલેરી ચલાવે છે, એમના miniature indian contemporary paintings ૧૦૦૦ $ માં વેચાય છે! એમના આર્ટ સ્ટુડિયોમાં જ અમારો વર્કશોપ હતો. ચારે બાજુ રંગીન ચિત્રો! એમ લાગે કે જાણે રંગોની દુનિયામાં ડૂબકી લગાવી હોય! અમે ત્યાં પહોચ્યા. ૪ જણા હતા અને પ્રગતિબેન. અમારે ૨ અલગ અલગ ચિત્રોમાંથી એક ની પસંદગી કરવાની હતી. પછી ભારતીય, હાથથી બનાવેલા કાગળ ઉપર અમારે પહેલા પેન્સિલથી મોટું ચિત્ર દોરી પછી રંગ પુરવાના હતા.

જે કાગળ અમે વાપર્યો એને આહાર કાગળ કહે છે, આ કાગળની વિશેષતા એ છે કે એક તરફ એકદમ લીસ્સો હોય જેથી તમે સરળતાથી રંગો પૂરી શકો. આ કાગળનો ઉપયોગ આરબ દેશોમાં કેલીગ્રાફી માટે થાય છે. અમે પહેલા પેન્સિલથી અને પછી માર્કર વડે ચિત્ર દોર્યું અને પછી એમાં એક્રેલિક ઇન્ક રંગો પૂર્યા. ઇન્ક રંગો એકદમ સરળતાથી પુરાઈ જાય એટલે પ્રગતિબેન એ પસંદ કરેલા. પરંપરાગત રીતે તો વનસ્પતિ/પ્રકૃતિ(ફળ, પાન, વગેરે) ના રંગો વાપરવામાં આવે છે અને આ કુદરતી રંગો ઇન્ક રંગો સાથે ઘણી સામ્યતા ધરાવે છે.

અમે જે ચિત્ર પસંદ કર્યું હતું એ હતું “Tree of Life”. ભારતીય કળા ક્ષેત્રમાં “Tree of Life” ને ખુબ મહત્વ અપાયું છે.  “Tree of Life” ને પૌરાણિક પ્રતીક તરીકે દર્શાવેલું છે જેમાં જીવનના તમામ પાસાઓ સમજાવી શકાય છે. તમે મારા ચિત્રમાં જોઈ શકશો (સૂર્ય, ચંદ્ર, તારા, વૃક્ષ, પક્ષીઓ, પાન, ફૂલ અને વૃક્ષ પર બધાનો વિકાસ 🙂 )

અમને ચિત્ર દોરતાં ૨ કલાક ક્યાં જતા રહ્યા કઈ ખબર જ ના પડી! જાત જાતની વાતો કરતા મને નવી કળા વિષે જાણકારી મળી એનો ખુબ આનંદ થયો. ચાલો થોડા ફોટા બતાવું 🙂

પહેલા પેન્સિલ પછી માર્કરથી ચિત્રની મુખ્ય રેખા દોરી

પછી ઇન્ક રંગો ભરવાના

હું ચિત્ર દોરતી વખતે 🙂

રંગ પૂરતા

 

અમારે દોરવાનું હતું એ ચિત્ર અને અમારા ચારના નામ સરસ રીતે પ્રગતિબેન એ લખ્યા હતા 🙂 છેલ્લે અમારા બધાનાં તૈયાર ચિત્ર સાથે ફોટો 🙂

પ્રગતિબેનના ફેસબુક પેજ પરથી બધીજ માહિતી મળી રહેશે. જાણવા માટે અહી ક્લિક કરો –>  Pragati Art School

ફરી મળીશું નવા ચિત્ર સાથે !