| As I promised in the last post, this post is about | | | | range of bright and glossy colors. |
| ideas for creative decoration of the pooja thali. So | | | | - A base of attractive rangoli designs looks very |
| without much ado, here it is. The procedure for | | | | nice. You can even make different section in the |
| decorating the Diwali pooja thali is as follows: | | | | rangoli patterns which will be filled by the pooja |
| - Take the thali that you have chosen. Usually the | | | | materials placed on the thali. |
| thali is covered with paper, cloth or any other | | | | - If you don't have rangoli colors, you can also |
| decoration material, which forms a beautiful base | | | | use sindhur, haldi, rice powder and chandan |
| for all the other decoration materials. There are | | | | powder to make designs. Other than the base, all |
| many ways in which you can create many pretty | | | | these powders can also be made into pastes, by |
| and colorful bases. | | | | mixing water, and can be used to make holy |
| - Next step is to decorate the thali with a paste | | | | symbols like ' aum' or 'swastik' or writing 'shree'. |
| of roli/kumkum/sindhur/chandan or haldi. You can | | | | - Another way is to put a little ghee or oil on the |
| make holy symbols with these pastes and | | | | and spreading the haldi and roli powder on to the |
| powders on whatever base you have chosen.You | | | | thali. Shake the thali lightly, and you will see both |
| can use flowers to make different shapes and | | | | the colors meshing beautifully to form a very |
| patterns on the thali. | | | | bright and colorful base. |
| - Then place the Idols of deities in the thali. One | | | | - Oil paints and water paints can also be used to |
| by one place all the pooja material on the thali. | | | | paint the thali if its an earthen thali, and it can be |
| With a lighted diya placed in the thali, the glow will | | | | further embellished with small decorative mirrors |
| make the thali look very bright. | | | | and colorful gem like stick-ons. |
| This is the basic way of arranging things in a | | | | - Spreading rice grains on the thali and making |
| pooja thali. There can be 100 of creative ways to | | | | designs with vermilion is simplest of all the |
| enhance the look of the Diwali pooja thali using | | | | decoration ways. Place colorful flower petals, |
| various decoration tools and techniques. Below is | | | | diyas, incense sticks, silver coins and other things |
| the compilation of all the ideas that i have across | | | | to add color to the white base. |
| till date. Hope you ll find a few of them useful, if | | | | - Another simple way is to cover it with petals of |
| not all. | | | | multi colored flowers. |
| - You can cover the pooja thali with a bandhani | | | | - Cut out strips of different colored cloths and |
| cloth with a golden lace or gota. | | | | stick them in concentric circles onto the thali. You |
| - Usually bandhani cloth is used, but a velvet or | | | | can also use paper in palce of cloth. Adorn with |
| tissue cloth looks as good. If it's a plain velvet you | | | | mirror, sequins, etc. |
| can embellish it with shells, mirrors and sequins, | | | | - Take out zari borders from your old sarees or |
| which are easily available. | | | | duppattas and embellish. |
| - Glitter powder also comes in handy in the pooja | | | | And if you think, this craft is not your cup of tea, |
| thali decoration. | | | | just go out in the market and buy a thali with little |
| - Designer packing paper sheets are also a good | | | | engravings and designs as you will need to |
| alternative. Translucent sheets are available is a | | | | decorate them much. |