Rangoli Design - Paisley motif

Paisley designs are one of the most sought after patterns.  Not surprising that I have used a few so far in Rangoli-sans-dots.  It is called mango design in Tamil as it resembles a mango hanging from a tree. Paisley patterns are used in sarees ,  curtains, jewellery ( mango necklace is quite popular in Tamil Nadu ) and of course rangoli or kolam designs.  It is called mango design in Tamil and Wikipedia says that this got its name from Paisley a place in Scotland where textiles with designs were manufactured. While rangoli or kolam themselves are considered auspicious (rangoli are drawn daily in some parts of India at the entrance to welcome guests, to improve the ambience, colourful rangoli decorate the house on special occasions ) certain patterns that are part of a rangoli are also considered  favourable or bright and paisley designs, mango leaf

lotus are among them.  So this series of rangoli will focus on the use of paisley designs in rangoli ( and not jewellery at least not at present because a post on how to make artificial jewellery is long over due ).

The first rangoli  (free hand design ) is a simple example of how butterflies can be drawn using paisley motifs.  (Please note that when you use rangoli powder with your fingers you can achieve perfection as possible by us humans ).  Draw the eight paisley designs on four sides with a pair of designs forming one set of wings.  Since the thorax is already there formed due to the intersection of the paisley patterns add the head and the antennae.  The area at the centre is filled with colour and some floral patterns (after all butterflies and flowers have a symbiotic relationship ).  Fill the colours of the wings as you wish.  Nature has taken the liberty of giving beautiful and variety of colours to butterflies with so many different patterns on the wings.  So we can also take some liberty and add colours to the butterfly design.

   Borders at the bottom of a rangoli or around it are part of decorating a rangoli design.  While borders can be drawn with dots or free hand . Rangoli-sans-dots should have some borders without dots.  Hence a border relevant to this post a jewel (necklace ) like border with a paisley design at the bottom.  These borders are actually inspired by necklace designs that are used in jewellery in India.    Festoons ( or toran or thoranam in Tamil ) are an important part of festival celebration in India.  So it is natural to have some rangoli borders or designs that depict festoons as they are used in India.  The mango leaves as they are strung and hung at the entrance above the doorway is shown through the design below drawn with rangoli powder.  Mango designs have also been added for this post since it is a rangoli.  Hence the possibilities are infinite for paisley designs.
Paisley designs are also used in rangoli with dots.  They can be drawn using a portion of the dot pattern or can be drawn free hand outside the dot grid.  In this rangoli I have used three dots on each corner of the dot grid to draw the paisley design.  It is a 6 by 6 dot grid.  The rangoli is show in three steps.  In the first step the patterns shown are drawn leaving the central dots and the ones at the corners for Paisleys.  The dots at the centre have been used to get lamps designs.  The completed rangoli is shown in the third step.  The next rangoli design in this theme on paisley motif - It has two layersof paisley motifs.  One inside in orange around the central free hand floral design.  This is covered with a green and white border.  The second layer is outside encompassing the patterns inside.  Colours for the central floral design and other designs are added to suit the design or according to our imagination.