A year of "Power to Women"

Hello All,

At the outset, wish you ALL a very very happy 2013

............hope this year brings to you all that you wish and work hard for :)

Another year has come and gone! But by no means has this been an uneventful one! In fact, I can safely say that my life has taken a 180 degree turn. I have taken roads so off my chartered path that sometimes, I used to wonder if it was the right thing to do at all! :) But hard work and determination never fail to pay off. Having the correct set of friends, in-laws and last but not the least, husband go a long way! I am thankful 2012 happened and led me to untested waters. I choked, gurgled, floated and then, finally swam. Aadyaa Originals happened to me! Sayalee happened to me! And life happened to me :)

Though started in September 2011, Aadyaa took off in full flow in July 2012 and these 6 months have brought us such a long way from where we started!!!!!! 11 exhibitions later, we have our own office to usher the new year in! Moving in is in progress and a couple of days later, we should be able to post photos of what will be our workplace for some time! :)

Media took note of Aadyaa Originals as well..........we were recognized and appreciated for our work. It felt good, as a person and better, as a partner of a Studio that is constantly striving to upgrade, hungry for more, forever heading to newer territories, exploring new crafts, new people, new designs...........

Our New Year started with a feature in Mid-Day, written by Samriddha Banerjee. What a flying start to the year and confidence booster, we feel! :) Thank you Samriddha :)

Towards the end of last year, we got an early New Year gift, in the form of an article in The New Indian Express' Sunday magazine (it felt strange to be on Page 3, honestly!). Thank you Reshma Iqbal, for the article and for trusting us :)

At Aadyaa, we want to thank EVERY SINGLE person who believed in us, stood by us........I hope the coming year sees the same amount of dedication and hard work from us......let our blood and sweat be recognized :) Yo to Aadyaa! Yo to Women Power!!!!!!!

Pritesh

A quilled picture frame - worth a million words

Hello All,

After a big gap, I am back. It has been a manic busy time! And a GOOD manic busy time. After a spurt of illnesses (yet again!), I am back full throttle and making a comeback with  this project that has kept me sleepless for more than a few days :D

The sheer size of the project was a challenge! At 16 inches by 20, it was a "task" to fill this up without clutter or without glaring open spaces, and yet retain the "completeness" look. I pulled it off, or rather, so I think!

Here it goes, a picture frame, made memorable with quilling and punch-craft. I'd like thank the client for having such a clear idea about what she exactly wanted. It makes my life much easier :)

And some close-ups, for details of the amount of work that went in to it.......

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Love to Kyoto

Hello All,

I have been unnaturally silent for a long time but Pune weather decided to be a pendulum between summer and winter and illness took a tight hold of our family. Now that nearly everyone is on recovery path, here comes a long pending post.

Someone said, I like the swooshing sounds deadlines make when they go past you! I must admit, I hate that sound and true enough, there was a pushed in the corner situation here. For past 2 days, I've alientated nearly everything and been working exclusively on the second half of the assignment.

It all started one fine evening when a very soft spoke Japanese gentleman paid me a visit. I couldn't hide my surprised but well, he had seen the sign boards we had delivered to Beaute Naturelle and wanted something on those lines. A brief talk ensued and within an hour and a half, I knew pretty clearly what he wanted. Work started, got stalled, thanks to illnesses. But well, about 1 day shy of the deadline, I've managed to wrap it up! Now, I know what the expression "My blood and sweat went into this" means! :D :D I've been up late nights, early mornings, skipping afternoon naps and working on these pretty much non-stop.

So, here goes:

Musical Tree: The wife of the gentleman who came to see me is a Music teacher and she employs a unique method called Eurhythmics to teach piano to children. Music holds such a sacred part in my life that I was all ears. I must confess, I'd never heard of Eurhythmics before and had to Google it. The name of the school she runs is Music Tree and the gentleman wished something quilled along those lines.

I was honestly at a loss about that but he solved my problem. He provided me with 7 choices (I love it when I can choose!) and well, I was idiotic enough to choose the most difficult of the choices he gave. So, here goes, the Musical tree. The total working time in the piece is close to 24 hrs of work alone. I faced a question about whether I painted the background for the tree 'stem'. Answer is no. I've hand-cut that paper, pasted it on a hand-made blue shimmer paper and then, quilled on it. The original idea was to make the entire tree black but it looked almost ominous that way. I wish I'd saved a photo of that. So, I decided to fill in colours. The G clefs had to stand out, so they automatically were assigned red (ah, I can never let go of my favourite colour, can I?). The leaves were an obvious green. The notes, however, took some work. I settled for red as my husband said, the notes are the cherries on the tree :) A Cherry tree to send to Japan? OH YES! :) So, that is how the colour scheme worked out. The background alone took about 1.5 hrs to prepare. There is a white base to the hand-made paper as the blue paper is quite translucent. So, a double layer background, with drying time and then, allowing the board to straighten out. Phew!

This project nearly killed me but as they say, you can't enjoy water if you haven't a parched throat. And I nearly walked a desert country reaching THIS water! :) Worth it in the end! The project stands 18"x18" - minus the frame.



AND

Attitude towards Sustainability. This project's text was the toughest I've handles so far. It just went on and on! The words were long, the font tricky! It took almost 10 hrs to just do the text. I am almost swearing to never touch this font again! :D :D

The ladybirds in the project are quilled but the leaves as a merger of punching, paper-cutting and 3D outliner (the MOST useful piece of knick knack any crafter should have, in my opinion!). The leaves are punched with hand-drawn veins and distressed edges (I am swearing off distressing as well!). The 'stems' are spirals in brown and the 'berries' are styrofoam balls in peach colour. The flowers are modified daisy punch with a 3D outliner core. The project stands 12"x18" - minus the frame.

And a rare one here, me with the finished projects (will give you an idea how massive these ones truly are)

Well, now that this hurdle is cleared off, we (as in Aadyaa Originals) gear up for our stall at the Pune Wine Festival, the first Wine Tasting experience in India. So, drop by and check out what all Aadyaa has to offer :)

Till the next challenge excites me, I'll sign off. Hopefully, I'll be back with something challenging and striking soon :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Quilled bracelet

Hello All,

Long ago, when meg pointed out that I ought to try quilled charm bracelet, the idea planted itself firmly in my mind. I had thought about it earlier too, but sometimes, it takes a friend to post a challenge in your head. After a long long time,I finally had the time to try one out and I must admit, I am in love with it. All the women out there who have daughter 10-12 yrs old, here is a treat for your princesses! :) I dedicate it to Meg and to Baba (who will always be that wide eyed 5 yr old for me) :)

All the charms are properly water-proofed, a practical and fun bracelet :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Quilled Logo - Mansi's Craftstation

Hello All,

I can't believe that in the middle of the Diwali rush of exhibitions, I managed to pull off a major project. I know I am posting it very late but then, Diwali was MAD this time! I travelled so much, met so many people I hadn't met in years and years! :)

When this order came my way, I was kind of wary about taking it up as it landed bang in the middle of our Diwali preparations at Aadyaa. But well, a challenge is always welcome at Aadyaa! We revel in them! :) So, here goes the logo for Mansi's Craftstation.........

It is so rewarding to hear from your client, "whoever looked at it couldn't take their eyes off it"! Thanks so much for this order dear Vaishali! :) It was a sheer pleasure to meet the time challenge :) Hope the recipient of the piece likes it too :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Evolution of the jhumka.......

Hello All,

My last post before I head home for Diwali (IF I tide over this storm of Diwali rush at work!).......the latest addition to the jhumka family, a BIG brother to the previous ones :D

Happy Diwali to you all, be happy and be safe........

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Some more quilled jhumkas

Hello All,

A very very quick post again...........Diwali means madness for us all! :D On personal front, on work front......a quick update on the jhumka series I am on to (and loving!)

I made two of these and the green and red one (though a little Christmasy to look at) is my absolute favourite :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Jhumka gira re

Hello All,

After forever, I am back! With nothing big but something I had been thinking about for ages.......being from Bareilly and not having made jhumka so far was not going down well with me! :D So, I finally made time to try one out. I literally picked up whatever came in front of me to make this one..........feedback welcome :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Midas Touch

Hello All,

I don't know how many of you have this tick, but I sure do. I have this truck loads of stuff that sometimes gets forgotten and relegated to a corner. And then, one fine day, I find it and go berserk! I try every possible craft with it1 :D Today's "refind" was my gold pen which is a treasured possession from Stockholm. Since I was anyway considering doing a pair of earrings with a terrific finish (after I found someone's picture on the Net where the design was way toooo similar to what I had made but only the finishing was 100 times better). The "Midas Touch" pen came in handy and I painted the town (ok ok, just the earrings :D) gold.......so here goes: Midas Touch :)

And ya, I was asked why I always have that one strip surrounding my entire earring? Reason: Sturdiness. I am a very mechanical engineering obsessed crafter. My earrings have to have that sturdiness element. Just a tight coil on top will come off in a snap and I can't bear to spoil my hard work because of that ONE weak link :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Best out of waste :)

Hello All,

Just as I started making an attempt to declutter by impossibly cluttered desk, there were these bits left from punching that I didn't have the heart to throw away. After a bit of thinking and analyzing, this is what I came up with, a simple pendant. I've used the leftovers from a MS punch I used for something else and just added one droplet bling in the centre. Let me not encourage you to keep your desk cluttered for coming up with ideas but don't throw those punched bits away (be a hoarder :D)..........put them to use :) Just as I was making this, I was reminded of this series that used to be aired on DD National, called Best Out of Waste :) I hope I am making the best use of waste :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Acornia Mission Statement

Hello All,

There has been silence on the quilling front on my blog and there have been many reasons..........one of them being this huge project I was on to. To give you an idea, this took ~ 650 quilled leaves (some of which I haven't used) to make and 7 hours of beehiving (the stem). The total size of the project is 14 inches x 20 inches (minus the frame). It took me forever to make as I am not at all a Finance person. This statement is for a Financial Advising company the "idea" for this took forever to conceptualize.

The target of the company is growth and what better can represent that than a tree! :) I've stuck to green and brown as colours as the interiors of the company Office are done in pastel shades of green. So, here it comes, Acornia Mission Statement, completed by Aadyaa Originals for Acornia :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Dharaa - the Earth

Hello All,

This is again a very different post............filled with work done by someone our Craft Studio has hired, a first for us. A sign of expansion, a sign of risks taken and a sign of faith, faith in an artist who loves to knead the clay and give it myriad forms......

Please welcome, Mousumi Bhattacharya, the clay jewellery artist whose creations our studio, Aadyaa Originals, shall showcase.......we're terribly proud of the work she has done and love those clay bits she makes for us :) Here are some of her creations:

We hope you'll like her designs! We looooove them! So Earthy, so beautiful and some of them, so very unique!

Pritesh
Creative Head
Aadyaa Originals
www.aadyaa.com

Sketching resurrected

Hello All,

After a long silence, I am back. I have been working on this clock for a while and trust me, bulk of the time was taken by "creation" of that spiral digitally. I wanted it to be done properly and Logarithmic Spiral seemed the right choice to me (Boy! I wish there was a simpler way!!!!). I created the spiral digitally (thank Wiki for explaining what it is!) and printed it. The "rays" are hand-drawn and then, "hand-sketched". Long before I took up quilling, I used to sketch and I must admit, I enjoy it even now :) I loved those sunny colours and sketching them brought back my portrait memories :) The small black dots are done using black metalling 3D outliner.

In some ways, a very simple clock.............(this is just the dial, the time-piece will be fitted tonight) :)

This is Aadyaa Originals' gratitude to Ramesh Uncle, for his help with procuring craft material from USA and being kind enough to bring it all the way with him. Thank you so much, we owe you! :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Beaute Naturelle - Final Edition

Hello All,

Thank you all for so much love and encouragement for my previous posts............here is the third (and final!) part of the order..........4 more sign boards for Meghana's boutique in Pune..........I have a busy few days ahead of me, hence the rush to post them in one go :) If you're in Pune, do drop by for the opening and trust me, the stuff she stocks is WONDERFUL! Just picked up one today :) Go freak there! :)

For her nature-inspired line of home-decor products:

Being Meghana, she is all for promoting individual artists and there is one wall in her shop dedicated to Art! This is what will describe that wall :):

Being eco-friendly needn't be an activity, it can become an attitude........and Meghana announces this is style:

Trust honey bees for collecting the best wax you can get and imagine a flavouring of raspberries and pomegranate in it! THAT is one of the many awesome things Meghana offers in her "Lip Service" section:

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Bid Adieu

Hello All,

A quick post again...............my last order in Sweden. The person wanted a more filled up look compared to what Aadyaa offered, so I had to work out a scheme so that the monogram was well surrounded by colour :) The background is not black, it's a beautiful rich brown but then...........I am not lucky enough to get daylight!

I hope this leads to customer satisfaction and I leave Sweden on a happy and satisfied note! I will pack my quilling stuff away today (no more excuses Pritesh!) and take a good one month break from quilling now!!!!!!!! Bidding Adieu to Sweden :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Hello All,

I have a penchant for losing my pet projects! And I lost this Santa Claus too! :( But well, being an artist has this plus side that you can always make another one (I don't say recreate because I don't think I can create the very same piece again, ever!).

So, here is my Santa! Ho! Ho! Ho!

And also, entering this Santa for Christmas related challenge and Everybody's Art Christmas challenge :)

Happy Quilling

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Bellezza Veneziana con la carta (Venetian Beauty with paper)

Hello All,

 Here comes my entry to the Sweet Spot Cards Blog Hop :-) Lots of leaves.................leaves as leaves, leaves as veins to fannings of the mask...........black leaves, gold leaves..........

A true representation of global unity.........a Venetian mask (bought from Venice, Italy), coloured and quilled on by an Indian, friends Hema from UK, Ann and Katrien from Belgium, Ashwin from Switzerland, Arun from Stockholm and Deepa & Laasya from India.

This project is my entry to the first Emirates National Day quilling exhibition, from 22nd to 24th Nov at Umm al Quwain, United Arab Emirates.

The details of the project:

Mask (bought in Venice) made of Papier-mâché, painted gold with gold acrylic paint
Base of the project: 1000 gsm (grams per square meter) white carton paper, covered with 300 gsm red card paper
Black fannings and Red royal lily petals: 300 gsm card papers
Black and gold 'leaves': 130 gsm papers
Red 'petals' from the flower: 80 gsm printing paper
Red parts of the Fuchsia flower: 80 gsm printing paper
Black and gold 'writing' on the mask: Fevicryl 3D outliners (that came all the way from India for this project)
Red lips on the mask: Rouge acrylic paint
Black swirls: 300 gsm black paper
Gold gilding: Gold acrylic paint

Total planning time: approximately 6 hours
Total working time: approximately 50 hrs (spread over ~30 days)

I wish to thank my wonderful family, my husband, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, my Uncle-in-law and my little son for their endless support while I slogged, working on this project. Thank you ALL for putting up with me. Without you all, this just wouldn't have worked out. A special thanks to my sister, Nitesh, for being that pillar of support all the while and for getting me started with quilling. Without you, I wouldn't even be writing this :-)

A special thanks to Suzana who finally inspired me to think out of the box! I would give an arm and leg to be half as creative as her!

Am entering this one for Anything but a Card challenge :-)

And last, but not the least, thanks Leesandra Diaz, for inviting me to join the Blog Hop.

Here is the list of the Blog Hop members from all over the world.....Happy Quilling...........

Sandy      AFRICA	http://sweetspotcards.blogspot.com/
Jacquline	http://cutekipepeo.blogspot.com
ASIA
Syaz	http://syazcards.blogspot.com/
Suganthi	http://papercraftss.blogspot.com/
Anastasia	http://anastasiaw.blogspot.com/
Lin	http://azlina-lin.blogspot.com/
Thusitha	http://craftsimagery.blogspot.com/
Miez	http://miezam.blogspot.com/
Amna	http://alfardh.blogspot.com/
EUROPE
Cristina	http://cristina-funquilling.blogspot.com/
Suzana	http://quillingwithfun.blogspot.com/
Finnuala	http://quillingowo.blox.pl/html
Pritesh	http://quillingmesoftlee.blogspot.com/ [You are here]
Philippa	http://quilliance.blogspot.com/
NORTH AMERICA
Jennifer	http://www.creativequilledcreations.blogspot.com/
Paula	http://chillinwithquillin.blogspot.com/
Linda	http://www.myquillingnest.com/
Shruti	http://eenzybeenzy.blogspot.com/
Melissa	http://sleeplesswonder.blogspot.com/
AUSTRALIA
Bronwyn	http://quillme.blogspot.com/
SOUTH AMERICA
Regina	http://regina-ribeiro.blogspot.com/
Natilde	http://natiquill.blogspot.com

Santa Claus is coming to town

Hello All,

The Christmas cheer is hard to resist and once you start seeing Santa chocolates all round, it's hard not to infuse quilling into a Santa motif! :D (Honestly, these are all excuses! I have always wanted to try my hand at quilling a Santa Claus :D).......so, here goes and as always, a tutorial is here. This is not the best I am capable of but I have been swamped with things to do.....my patent is nearing publication, family is here and days are getting shorter. Most of the photos are also bad quality, so apologies in advance. I have been clicking with my camera, to save time of having to transfer from my camera memory card! :(

This is the best photo of the lot as I clicked it when we had a few hours of sunlight today :-)

Here starts:

I have used 80 gsm white and red papers and 130 gsm gold and black papers. The different weights are simply because I had these papers with me already! :) The papers (wherever required) were shredded using a Ryman manual paper shredder. The long strip in the photo is for making Santa's body. I had to join 20 of them end to end (total of about 6 m length) to get the desired diameter of the roll for Santa's suit. 16 of them end to end made his tummy roll. The roll for the cap and both sleeves were 8 and 6 strips, respectively.

I have used the quilling coach to make the rolls but you can make them with hand also.

Flatten them out after making them and this is how they will look.

With your fingers (or a 3Dquilling mold) shape the roll for Santa's suit and for his tummy. The one for his suit is the one on the left side and his tummy is to the right.

Fill the rolls with glue and spread it to cover all the inside of the domes. Allow to dry.

From a gold (or beige, if you  wish) paper, cut a small square (I used 1 cm by 1 cm)

Make two vertical slits about 1/3 of the length at 1/3rd the distance. I hope I am able to convey what I mean! Let me try it this way, if you divide the paper into 9 equal squares, cut along the opposite edges of the square in the centre.

Put a 3 mm black strip through one slit as shown

And then, through the next slit. This is how it will look then

Pull from the sides and this will be Santa's belt :)

Along the dome for Santa's suit, make a line of glue.

Now, paste a white strip along that line.

Line the lower edge of the dome with white as well and here is Santa's suit, nearly ready! You just need to paste the belt along the middle of the suit.

Now, paste the tummy dome under the suit dome. And this is how it will look :)

Now, the roll for the cap!
Using a pen or a quilling shaper (I can't remember where I found it from, I think it came free with some quilling supplies!), shape the dome for the cap.

Press the top slightly to reduce the sharpness of the tip. Make the 'sleeves' similarly.

Line the domes for sleeves similar to the dome for Santa's suit and paste the sleeves. I pasted the sleeves and went off to sleep, so they are a little lopsided! :D You can try doing the same at a more reasonable hour (and not midnight :D)!

Bend the dome for the cap and line the lower edge with white. I fringed a 3 mm white strip for making the pom-pom on top.

For Santa's hair, take about 7-8 cm long white strips and cut them lengthwise. You can avoid this step if the strips are like 1.5 mm thin. Mine are 3 mm strips and were too thick for the hair.

Curl the cut ends like this and leave them.

This is how they will look.

Here, I forgot to take the photos! :D But make a 8 strip flesh tint paper roll. and shape it for the face. I have used rolling eyes but you can also draw them with paint/pen. Position the face-roll into the cap such that there is a small slit open for inserting all the hair.

Make a 8 cm flesh tint paper tight roll. This will make the nose.

With 8 cm white strips, make loose coils, these will make the beard :) Paste the hair and beard to Santa's cap and chin, respectively.

And now, come the shoes! I have made a 3 strip (30 cm each) roll for the shoes. This has to be a tight coil.

This part is slightly tricky. To get a good 'boot' shape, I hold the roll with my thumbs under the roll and index fingers over the roll. I hold the roll tightly with my left thumb and index finger and press the roll with my right thumb. This way, only right side will 'pop-up'. And this is how the roll will look. The pop-up part is the front side of the boot. Now, press the roll sideways to make a boot like shape.

I cut a 2 cm red colour strip for making the legs. Using a needle tool, make a tight coil of this.

Paste a black strip on one end and white over the black. The black will be the boot and white will be the edge of Santa's pants. Paste this one the boot roll.

Paste the legs onto the body in a way that Santa is able to stand (it can take a while to get it right). Now, a free Santa is nearly ready! :)

Make two 1-strip tight coils, these will be his hands. Press them to make them oval.

Just as an add on, I made a small bell using a gold paper strip.

I pasted my Santa on the inside of a lid of a transparent box as this fellow has to (literally) travel from North Pole (Sweden) to a warmer and sunnier India :-) And guess what, he is even taking a small gift with him for the receiver :-)

You better not shout, you better not cry
You better not pout, I'm telling you why.......

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!

Ho ho ho..........Merry Christmas

Submitting this to Make it Mondays challenge

Happy Quilling............

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)