9 DIY IDEAS FOR NAVRATHRI

Navrathri is a Indian Festival which Hindus celebrate to honour Goddess Durga who symbolizes Purity and Power. Navrathri or “Nine Nights” of festivities and celebrations involves a lot of prior preparation right from the decoration of the house, kitchen, food, clothing and celebrations. A lot of effort goes into gearing up for the big festival where people meet up at huge gatherings for Bhajans and satsangs(prayers), at temples and even to play garbha(folk dance).

With so much of festivities at this time of the year, I wondered if this was the right time to handcraft and make things myself. So, I put together 9 craft ideas for Navrathri!!

1.POTLI BAGS:

Make a desi style using a wide colour range. I worked on this using the techniques of applique work and liquid embroidery. These potlis can be a quick last minute accessory to go with your Garbha outfit or a great eco-friendly idea to pack sweets and gifts for Navrathri.

You can also have a look at another set of these Festive Potlis

2. COLOURFUL JOOTIS:

How about adding your art, heart and soul by hand-painting jootis for your sole? It’s a great idea to beautify sandals for a grand and festive occasion like Navrathri. It becomes easier to match things with your outfit.

Make these Painted Jootis

3. PAINTED RICE SIEVE:

Down south in India, married women invite other married women home and offer a thamboolam to honour the women power/shakti/Goddess Durga, which they believe resides in every lady. To offer Thamboolam, one can paint these rice sieves and add a dash of colour to the Thambool.

Paint a Rice Sieve for Navrathri.

4. PAINTED POTS:

A quick DIY to decorate pots for the beautiful festival. How about painting some chai matkas to serve hot chai? You could also go ahead and paint a huge matkaas a decor piece for the festivities.

For Navrathri, you can Paint Pots.

5. HAND MIRROR:

In a few communities, young girls are invited home, honoured and showered with gifts as part of Kanya Puja. This again is to offer prayers to Goddess Durga/Shakti, which they believe resides in every girl. A wonderful gift for this occasion would be a painted hand mirror like this one.

Paint your Hand Mirror

6. JEWELLERY BOX:

During Navrathri, a lot of gifts are exchanged. This quick jewellery box can be made using simple Decoupage techniques, filled with sweets or dry fruits and handed over to your relatives and loved ones this festive season.

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Make a Jewelry Box to give away Navrathri gifts

7. DECOUPAGE TRAYS:

A couple of trays can be easily decoupaged to hand over as gifts for Navrathri or as part of Thamboolam.

Decoupage a Tray for Navrathri

8. PAPER MOSAIC TRAYS:

Creating a mosaic on a tray to hand over gifts for Navrathri sounds like a great idea.

Make a Paper Mosaic Tray for Navrathri

9. PAINTED POUCHES:

Women love purses, clutches and pouches. Here’s and easy technique to paint pouches which can be used for gifting this Navrathri.

Make a Painted Pouch

Navrathri involves 9 Days/Nights of festivities which is followed by the celebration of “Good over Evil” which happens on the 10th day. The celebration on the 10th day is known as Dussehra.

Here’s and additional 10th article with different Indian art forms. Hop onto the following link:

INDIA IN COLOUR