Published a book on Amazon Kindle.

by Kavitha Balakrishnan on February 20, 2015

A dream come true.

Been thinking of publishing a book on jewellery for a long time. Finally, did it.

The title is “How Terracotta (natural clay) jewellery is made in India”.

A few friends from Orchid too suggested that I publish a book.

Thanks for all your support, especially Hanuman.

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Kavitha Balakrishnan

Kavitha Balakrishnan

Kavitha Balakrishnan

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Silver deity pooja – Varalakshmi Pooja

by Kavitha Balakrishnan on August 31, 2014

This is a very important pooja that we do, especially in South India. This pooja is exclusively done by women to the Lakshmi Goddess. This Goddess bestows good health and prosperity and all other good things on people who do this pooja.

I personally love to do this pooja. It generally falls in August.

In some houses they draw the Goddess face on the wall and do this pooja. This was done predominantly in the villages. Here in cities we get a ready-made deity of Goddess Lakshmi. Again you get this in Silver or clay.

I love all, but have got the deity in silver. It is usually available till bust size. The deity is already decked with some jewellery on her ears, neck and a crown, not to forget the nose ring.
But still we place this deity on a coconut, tie a silk cloth around her and place this in a vessel called “Sembu” ( I have written about this earlier). The deity is also decked with flowers and jewellery.

The sembu is decorated with mango tree leaves, and the coconut is placed and on top of the coconut the deity is placed. I have done it very simply. There are elaborate decorations also.

The entire sembu is placed on a banana leaf that is laid with raw rice. The sembu will contain water, in which gold or silver coins are put. Only one or two.

This time I wanted to get two new silver lamps. The pooja went on well and I could positively feel the energy in the house. The entire day is sort of fasting. And we made sweets and savouries and offered it to her.

We also invited our ladies friends over and gave them “thaamboolam” ( A gift which has a coconut, fruits, and a blouse material) This is a must and it must be given to all ladies that are invited home on the festival day.

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Kavitha Balakrishnan

Kavitha Balakrishnan

Kavitha Balakrishnan

Latest posts by Kavitha Balakrishnan (see all)

Kerala bride

June 12, 2014

I have been wanting to write about some jewellery that Keralites wear for their wedding. Kerala is a neighbour state to my state (Tamil Nadu) in South India. The kerala brides wears jewellery right from close to her neck till her waist. It has always been like that. Most of the jewellery are light weight […]

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Imitation jewellery

May 6, 2014

I was writing about Imitation jewellery in Orchid and thought of sharing some pictures of them. Imitation is the name given to only jewellery that looks like gold jewellery. These types of jewellery has taken the place by storm and everywhere in exhibitions you can see them displayed. Ofcourse there are laks of designs and […]

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Silver for the baby

February 19, 2014

We believe literally in ‘Born with the silver spoon’. As soon as the baby is born, grandmothers and grandfathers are so excited not to forget the parents. They all rush to the jewellery shops to buy jewellery in gold and utensils in silver. Most of them they buy all this in advance and keep! Again […]

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Terracota Jewellery workshops in Chennai

February 19, 2014

Recently I conducted Terracota jewellery workshops in Chennai. There was a good response. I conducted both in Adyar, Chennai and for the MSME, Govt of India. Lots of networking and ideas. It was a good experience.   The little girl in the above picture is a child artist and acts in Tamil TV soaps. She […]

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Bangle jewellery function – Valaikaapu

December 11, 2013

This is another important function held in our state. Every girl who is pregnant will go through this function. This is called Valaikaapu and is conducted when she is 7 months or 9 months pregnant. Valai in Tamil means Bangle. The name itself indicates that this is a function with Bangles. In this function, elders […]

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Bridal Jewellery – Haaram

November 29, 2013

This is a jewellery that is worn by the bride along with the other jewellery. Basically the bride is decked with jewellery from the neck to her waist. In Tamilnadu you can see a bride may be wearing a choker, a necklace, a haram, a Kaasumaalai on her neck.There are some gaps in between the […]

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Popular jewellery – Karugamani

November 29, 2013

    This is a simple chain with black beads on it.  In our community in TamilNadu, the bride-groom’s sister gifts it to the bride. Before even the bride-groom ties the sacred thaali on the bride’s neck, this Karugamani is given by the sister-in-law to the bride. You also get this with pendants. There are […]

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Gold/Silver melting – Traditional method in India

November 28, 2013

Though there are kilns and furnaces in all shapes and sizes to melt metal, I found this method very interesting. Earlier times they used to have the husk of rice, topped it with charcoal and then these crucibles. Then they used to blow with a pipe. And the fire surrounded the crucible with the metal […]

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