Flower Kolam with Paisleys

I am getting lazy to upload the kolams which I had drawn at my Parents home. I need to draw more kolams to reinvigorate myself. I know kolams have the magic to revitalize me. Freehand kolams were not my cup of tea until, I stumbled upon a friend's kolams, 6 years ago. Her huge doilies inspired me to venture out of my sikku cocoon and unleash the creative mind in the freestyle genre. I don't pre-plan the design till the first line I draw on the floor and my freehand designs are decided at the spur of the moment.

A few Years ago I was working, so I had a limited time to draw kolams on doorstep and at the main entrance. Mainly it was sikku kolams that adorned on the doorstep. Even my neighbour complimented me for the sikkus I drew. But the doorstep was small which permitted to draw 11 dots at the maximum. Only on festive days it was a four dot flower kolam decorated with colours was the special kolam. Or a Six petaled flower round rangoli with colours was the other special kolam to me. The same design is in this link.Six petal Flower kolam Except I added colour powders. 10 years ago, the ready made colours were not available in the market. All we needed is to buy the rangoli colours and add the white kolapowder to it.. But now we have the luxury of using ready mix colours..

Coming back to the freehand kolams.. The transformation took place when I saw kolams of my friend, a stranger then. She draws some 6 foot diameter kolam, which looks like a doily. A white spread of kolam in all shapes, I was mesmerized and stupefied by her kolams. Inspired by her kolams, I started to draw freehand kolams and ventured into a new genre. At the initial stage it was just a reproducing her kolams as a practice session to get acquainted to the new style of drawing kolams. Later it because my favourite style to unleash my creative mind.

I started with eight petaled flower which is a common design to start with. Then, I extended with outlining and filling the space with cross lines. The next challenge for me was to draw a prominent design without swirls and minarets with cross lines.. Paisleys, they come from nowhere and occupy my mind while drawing. Again to extend drew minarets and outlined with triangular shapes. My mother who was nagging me to finish off the kolam soon as it was getting late, 8.30am, normally no one appreciates a woman who draws kolam after 8am. One factor is that the street gets busy with school going children and office goers, that causes a disturbance to both passers-by and the kolam creator. So for the final touch I added flower and enclosed the way my friend does.