CONTEST TIME - Its all in the Painting!

CONTEST TIME!!! :) :) Yay!!

During my visit to Turkey last year, I came across this house with beautiful tiles, in colours like blue, red, black and yellow against the light green door! Contrasting with these lush colours was a flower pot with bright yellow wild flowers planted in a simple bucket! How could I not take a picture?? :)

Now here goes my contest! Can anybody paint this picture and post it on my Lively-wood by Sunday May 27th? Anything would do, pencil, crayon, poster or acrylic colours! Just anything! That one artist will win a beautiful surprise from the LAND OF TURKIYE!COME ON....prove the ARTIST in you! :)
Can't wait!

Recycle....is it a part of everybodies life?

When people like us re-use and recycle, the world will change, ain't it? Now you may say that how many times am I going to write about it on my blog...I say..over and over again! This time I shall talk less about how I have recycled and talk more about how a lot of people around me have done the same..in their own little way.

Kanchan, one of the most creative lady I have ever met in my life runs an apparel business with ethnicity and a deep reflection of our culture in her patterns. It is called Design Kreeda. She not only designs clothing but also works around other imaginative ideas. Lets see her plan on a broken chair she salvaged for a long time. She says " I love some of my furniture dearly but when it is no more in a usable condition, I cannot throw it. I couldn't throw my favourite chair away! So I decided to use it differently... I was in my study room, searching for some small note and wanted to buy a pin up board to save them all. I decided to buy a boring pin board. I thought and turned around only to see my poor little broken chair shoved under the cupboard. And volila! This broken chair was converted into a pin board!"

I don't know Vasudha but I have seen her work. She seems to be a very imaginative gal with her blog full of beautiful and most importantly doable things! I asked her if she wanted to be a part of my recycle post and she agreed. Thank you so much for sharing your work. Anyway I picked this really nice post on 'The art of Decoupage'. She says that she has a chestnut trunk which she thinks is easily 75 years old and sort of damaged. Since she had mastered the art of decoupage, she decided to use it on this trunk as well. Laced with pictures from a calendar, the trunk looked gorgeous and original. This whole makeover took her about 3 days to complete. Using the used was her contribution to the old and new!

Rutika is my very young friend whom I worked out with. She, I thought was one of the most sensible and nice people from a whole bunch of them. She is also one person who loves experimenting different things. She says that she picks up a lot of fancy liquor bottles. She tries using them as juice bottle or vases. These bottle featured in the post had a lovely shape which inspired her to make use of it for summer juices. Hence, she put up some simple polka dots with cool colours and got a cork of stainless steel and converted it into a bottle for serving juice/water.

Another inspired and creative buddy of mine Aditi is always up to something. Though a physiotherapist by profession, she enjoys creating new things all the time. Well I think her innovative juices keep her going and she does come up with unusual things like pen stands from corn tins, tissue paper dispenser out of liquor boxes, photo frames out of shirt cardboard etc. She says, "RECYCLE has a synonym called UPCYCLE' which has always been an intriguing and interesting pass time for me. Now though I refer to it as a pass time it is much more than that. When I recycle stuff, it is usually made of the things which are lying around at home- unnoticed, unseen or under utilized." The most fascinating thing she made were beads. Can anybody guess what they are made with? They are'PAPER BEADS'!" It is the best way to utilize all the envelops, wrapping papers, pizza menu pamphlets, advertisement pamphlets, old magazines or news papers. She makes fancy necklaces, earrings, bracelets, etc from them!

My architect friend Aloka and her husband bought a new apartment last year.There was a lot of old furniture in it that the earlier family did not take along. She says, as architects they were not enthusiastic about it because it did not meet with our design sensibilities. Moreover, as per our new furniture layout, many fixed pieces were positioned in the wrong place as seen in the first picture. Since they believe in re-using, they decided to re-position and work around things which already existed. And voilà the kiddie room appears larger, the white colour helps it look light and breezy. There are dashes of colour that liven up the space without making it feeling dingy.

From the above examples, lets assume that recycling is a part of many lives. It isn't all about only being creative, it is a contribution you make to this world. In this post, I want to highlight and thank all people who have chipped in their ideas and have spread awareness.

Story of Reflections Reflected!

It seems like a weird title, ain't it? The whole post is about one of the most popular, innovative, utilitarian and aesthetic piece of furniture which just takes about a little space on your walls. I am talking about mirrors, the one thing I enjoy making. I always feel that when you look into a creative mirror and like what you see, makes you happy.

Most of the mirrors I have made so far, have always had some sort of a reason and inspiration. I love to pick ideas off the streets or from my travels and make it a part of my creation. From my collection, I have picked up some lovelies and their stories.

Bluesome Vespa


Remember the days when the almost one motor bike was the Vespa? When I made this mirror, I spotted a beautiful blue antique scooter on the streets of Mumbai. Thats when I thought, its time to revive the past...it is time to relive the moments even I spent on this moped as a child!

Colour Recycled


I am big into recycling. I try to re-use as much as I can. Every time my carpenter shaves off wood to make the surface smooth, these beautiful curls of fine papyrus wood get wasted. Hence, I decided to process and colour them so that they last, and stuck them on my mirror. Turned out to be a creative mixture of natural and recycled material.

Tashi Delek


In 2009, we visited Sikkim for 15 days. We ventured in to the remotest areas bordering Tibet. The experience was divine. I noticed A lot of hotels, restaurants, shops were called "Tashi Delek". Infact the hotel we stayed was called "Tashi Delek" meaning 'may good luck come to you' in Bhutia. As soon as I got got home, "Tashi Delek" had to be on my mirror!

Jaala


Round, rich and deep blue, one of my favourite mirror is Jaala, meaning water. Water being the most important element of life, civilization and prosperity had to be a part of my work. My visit to Hampi made me implement some elements of the Vijayanagara kingdom into my work which survived and prospered because of the infinite Pushkarnis or man-made water holes and a splendid water supply despite the barren land of Hampi. This mirror marks the infinite water reservoirs and the riches of the kingdom of Vijaynagara.

Zig Zag


I had always seen zebras on television. It wasn't the most fascinating animal I had ever seen. In 2010, I visited Kenya when I actually got to see herds of them. I loved them instantly and again, it had to reflect in my work!

Eva La Rosa


While I lived in the USA, I had a little Indian handicraft store in a Farmers Market in Dayton. Every Sunday morning, he would sell beautiful, fresh roses from his farm for just $6! The placard saying "roses for just $6" was written so artistically, that I copied it on to my mirror.

Horn OK Please


How can we ever ignore the lovely slow moving trucks of our country? They are bright, bold and gorgeous. I can say they are "shaan" (pride) of India! So, I dedicated an entire mirror to these giant beauties of India!

Sheesha Peetal


During my travel to Hampi, The most important metal used during those times was copper or peetal. This place was also full of temples where spoons, diyas or lanterns were made from copper. Hence, I thought, I should dedicate my tall, green mirror to the temples and the common man of Vijayanagara.

Peacock Plumage

I was shocked to see the overwhelming intricate doors on all the houses on the island of Zanzibar! I had to use it...the idea, the design! It came popping in into another deep green mirror I made, I call it Peacock Plumage!

NDTV Profit features my home!

So..in the month of March 2012, I receive a call from Manasvi. She talks to me about being a part of NDTV Property Show. While I talk with her, I keep thinking, why would I be invited to a property show when I design homes? I also wondered why would I have a stall in an exhibit where they sell houses and offices? Anyway I thought I will dig deeper and ask her more questions. In my mind, I had decided that doing an exhibition at this time was not such a good idea! So, I call her up again to let her know that I would not be able to do the show. Before I could begin, she tells me about her show in details and why she wanted to feature my home! I almost stumbled with my words and asked her to repeat what she said. And yes!! She said she wanted to feature my home on NDTV Profit in the Property Show!! :)



So right after that, a date was fixed for them to come home. She told me it would take a few hours to shoot that particular room they had chosen to feature. It was the Leisure Lounge. The room which has so much thought behind it. A room that has a place for a study table, storage, book case, a podium for a large no. of drums, a funky bar and a beautiful cabinet for our shot glass collection.





On their arrival, we discussed what all we were going to talk about, the background of our collection and basically the entire idea behind that room. I spoke more about my work, the colours used and trinkets we picked up from our travels while Bipin spoke more on the lines of his passion for drumming and other little aspects of the room.





Finally after 6 hours of extensive camera and light setting, shooting the knick-knacks from our bookcase and of course the shot glass collection, Manasvi concluded the session. We couldn't wait for it to get featured. March 13th, 2012 was the day when it all came alive!



Here is the link of the video. I have cropped it so that you don't have to go through the entire show.

The Lively-wood Studio

It has been a four years since I started Lively-wood. Nurturing and flowing with it made these years go by and I thought it was time to gift this endeavor a little something. It was time to progress a little! So a shabby little workshop turned into the Lively-wood Studio. A place to display my work, colour, ideas and every little thing that helps me create something new!!



To start with the mirrors, I needed a place to display each and every one of them so that I keep the artwork intact and at one glance, my customers or visitors have a chance to see them all. It also meant, having all the floor space for other things.



A desk with knick-knacks that motivate me, was an important element. I had preserved these mementos from my college days which had abundant memories yet were packed in boxes. I had to get all of it out along with some recycled clocks and put it up right there. I had a artwork, lying around from a project, that I didn't want to throw and was wondering how best to put it to use. So this leftover work turns into a bright bold red grid with the mementos and all my paper gets a display on the soft board hung over my desk!








Like I mentioned in one of my earlier post, I am going crazy recycling! Yes, I went crazy re-using as much as possible even this time! I started with using two steel cut outs which were lying around from Bipin's Dad's factory in the scrap heap. I coloured them and displayed them at the entrance of my studio. For now, I think they look great there! The next I re-used was a window grid made with very good quality sagwan or teak wood. I decided to paint it deep blue and used it as my little chandelier! The list like that, goes on and on...





Lastly, I wanted to display whatever was left behind. A ceramic bell, paper lights, a bird cage and so many little knick-knacks!







Its so nice when some loved ones visit you. I loved taking them to my studio and also felt good to be appreciated.

The Imperial Compilation - Hampi Inspired.

They say everything comes to an end....my recent trip to Hampi & Badami as well...what was left behind were we and many more in their ruins of temples, markets and palaces which once belonged to the great Kings and warriors....What was also left behind were my thoughts inspired by these majestic ruins. I came home, studied the pictures of the architecture, studied the metal used, the bold colours and the importance of water in this area. And then, it was time to use it in my work...



Mirrors have always been my favourite. I love to experiment with them and guess what? Most things look nice on them anyway. So, talking about the rich Vijayanagara of Hampi, there lived middle class people as well. The most important metal used during those times was copper or peetal. This place was also full of temples where spoons, diyas or lanterns were made from copper. Hence, I thought, I should dedicate my tall, green mirror to the temples and the common man of Vijayanagara.





This next mirror has a very profoud thought after the beautiful and intricately carved Pushkarni. A water reservoir shaped in a square with triangular steps, was made around Temples for bathing before visiting the Gods. The deep Blue of the mirror with a combination of Gold marks the riches of Vijaynagara..





Bali is my next mirror. The reason I named it such is, after the gorgeous women of Vijayanagara. All the statues of women, goddess, queens that I saw in the museum of Hampi, jewelry seemed to have a lot of importance. It looked like they spent a lot of time getting dressed very elaborately. So along with the mirror, I decided to make a wall dresser with golden motifs and pieces of circular mirror and named it Bali, meaning earring.





Round, rich and deep blue, one of my favourite mirror is Jaala, meaning water. Water being the most important element of life, civilization and prosperity had to be a part of my work. The kingdom survived and prospered because of the infinite Pushkarnis and water holes and a splendid water supply despite the barren land of Hampi. This mirror marks the infinite water reservoirs and the riches of the kingdom of Vijaynagara.



Storage of any sort has been one of the most important part of our lives. We need it all over. Nidhanika meaning shelf in Sanskrit - is a solid display and storage shelf for books or anything else. It has simple yet ornate golden wrought iron embellishments. The little motif in golden marks the literacy and riches of the era of the Saluva dynasty.



Last but not the least, after so much time, we saw the Milky way in the twilight that spread over Hampi. That moment was so significant for me, that Koshayi meaning drawers in Sanskrit is a piece inspired by the clear starry nights over the expansive strech of these ruins. The drawers are made blue with golden beads to imitate the shinning stars.

Prismma & Lively-wood come together!

Prismma...an online magazine conceptualized as a platform for showcasing interior design, home decor and lifestyle. The features span various aspects of home living and interior design......and it featured me!! :)

My post on trunks and its usage got its place on the Prismma magazine.



The step by step feature on displaying art on the wall was the most welcomed post on Prismma