Ganesha 2014

Till date, we had not painted eyes on the idol. Because it's a skilled task and also because it is critical to the final look. I have always felt that the idol should be a similarity of the lord, but you should leave some details to the viewers imagination. I would love to leave the idol just like this with minimal detail

We decided to take a shot and paint the eyes, make a detailed 'tilak' on the forehead, and here's how it turned out! 

Added attraction this year was the second idol, the 'Peshwa Ganapati' from the eCoexist range. One that Sona liked the moment she first saw it last year. 

We had a third idol too, made by our friends Priya & Sarvesh. Watch this space to see a picture of that too! We had another fun Chaturthi!

ganesha 2014 : first look

here is the first look of our ganesha this year. and this time the son is at home to make it, so the feeling is even better. we've used two colours of clay, red for the human body and the grey for the elephant head.
the final finish and painting is still pending
may gajanana bring us all joyous times this year!

the second Ganesha, completed.

Shikhar came home, for just about 30 hours, painted his Ganesha and spent some good time with us. Then on the next day, the Visarjan day, the lord went back to his abode, and Shikhar back to his college at Pune!

the second ganesha, work in progress...

Here's the second Ganesha, that I was mentioning in the previous post. Pending some finishing. The colours, brushes et al are ready (but the craftsman is busy completing his college project) and will get completed some other day. Will post that too when it's done.

Here's how we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi before Ganesh Chaturthi!

This is the third year of making the Ganesha idol at home and the learning curve is working here too. Details in this one are an improvement over the previous years.
We enjoy the whole process of making the idol.
Starting from looking for where to get the clay from (till last year, we were reusing the clay of the previous year and we started the year after we got a clay idol from the market, so haven't had to buy clay till now) to referencing for images to decide how the form should be. An online tutorial was of great help this year!
Adding details to enhance (added the pagdi this year since it helped getting the proportion right) and painting the idol.
The last two years, the idol was not painted - reason? Unaware of technicalities like drying time, our idol never really had time to dry completely, which is a pre-requisite to painting.
So, this year when painting seemed to be possible it was an adventure by itself. In order to make it as natural, we've used haldi, kumkum and abir. Each have been mixed with water and gum to make them workable and hold better. Finally the shawl, was another way to add a dimension and correct a flaw.
There is another idol too this year, but you will have to wait for a bit for the pictures!
Like Sona said, the Ganesh Chaturthi days for us are just a culmination. We've already celebrated our festival in the run up to it!
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

our ganesha this year

We made our Ganesha at home this year. Using the clay we saved after the visarjan of last years clay Ganesha. Our first time, so we did not know drying time, and other such details, so the idol is still wet.

ganesh chaturthi 2010

our first chaturthi in the new house.

first attempt

here's my first attempt at playing with clay. done at the pottery workshop one sunday afternoon. the idea -currently farfetched, is to some day make an idol for the ganesh chaturthi pooja myself.

ganesh chaturthi at home

on an impulse we decided to get an idol and celebrate ganesh chaturthi at home this year. it was great fun since there was a very short time to put everthing together.

heere's how our idol looked