Saturday, October 25, 2014

DIY Diwali

DIY Diwali
Last month, the hubby and I took stock of our little wallets and came to a conclusion that we were dealing with not just holes but craters in them. With maintenances and property taxes and insurance premiums and furniture and our unstoppable love for food, we'd pretty much turned a sprinkle into a downpour from our piggy bank. So the usual budgeting and let's cut this and let's cut that followed. The next thing on the horizon was Diwali and of course, we were in the kind of mood where we said, that's it. No gifts this time. But then Diwali still had to be special and fun. So a brainwave (?!) hit and said “I know! Let's make gifts”. So started our Diwali DIY project.

With google and pinterest, the possibilities were endless. I spent many happy hours browsing and shortlisting various things I loved. Always having been extra strong (!) on feasibility studies and planning exercises, I drew up an impressive list of things to make. Hubby looked at me with the resigned look that he has learnt to wear when I am on one of my crazy streaks.

The first day I was off work, I rushed to the heart of the city and raided the stationary stores, paper stores and the like to stock up on all essentials. I wanted to make sure I had everything so I bought doubles as I usually do. This was definitely going to be a super-economical project.

So basics were of course, diyas

For this project, my daughter was super thrilled and jumped aboard. All aboard the chhoo choo train. Off we were. Rushed to the potter's and got 24 diyas for about 40 bucks and soaked them overnight in water to minimize oil leakage. I'd already raided the stationary store for colors, glitter tubes, varnish and the like. A large wooden board covered with tons of newspaper, color palettes, brushes, painting aprons and we were set. The lil one would call out a color. We'd pour it into the palette cups, dip brushes and begin the whish-whoosh; one side and then the other. Turn it over and carefully set to dry. One mistake we made was put them to dry on the paper. So a little bit of newsprint joined the diyas. Nevertheless being super-proud of my amateur DIY'er status and completely convinced of the leeway I took to be my right, I took this in the stride. No harm done. A quick second stroke of color over the borders and we declared the problem solved. I don't think the diyas would agree.  But hey, I declare the 'Done' here. It took us about 2-3 evenings to complete the base coloring and then off to decorating. Squiggles, (a) symmetrical flowers, (un)evenly spaced dots - I just let myself go. Master creative minds at work do not worry about details but just go with the flow. So, we finally had 24 diyas all decked up and ready. A coat of varnish and 2 days in the sun; these are now ready to be packed off


Meanwhile, on the side, what was planned was Utna. Our DIY diwali would not go with store-bought Utna. The search for this was not easy and google for once refused to be of much help. So I reached out to my sister who's an Ayurved doctor. She messaged me the list of ingredients, most of which I'd naturally not heard of. I went to an Ayurved store and confidently listed of all the ingredients that I wanted. The store-owner looked at me and started handing out everything powdered. Now my sister had asked me to get the original ingredients but then with powders, this would definitely be simpler. No such luck. One message to her and a definite answer - 'No, absolutely not. That would not be strong enough”. Luckily the store keeper sourced it for me by the next day. I spread them out on plates. The next morning was to put them out to dry. 1 day of sunshine, not too bright to ensure the fragrances stayed. As luck would've it, it rained the next day, and the next. I was in despair. But finally, the sun decided to make an appearance and I had these dried. Next, what I needed was a mill; a special kind of mill that drills shikakai and the like. Regular mills do not accept these due to the strong odor. I called my local JustDial (mother-in-law) and as always, she knew where one was. FIL kindly agreed to take it to the mill which decided on 2-days of leave for polls and then Thursday (the national power-cut day). But finally, he was able to take it around and we now have one container full of utna - about 0.5 kg.


Moving on to the fragrances, I had no idea these were so difficult. I read umpteen blogs on this and each one had a slightly different way. I knew this one would probably be the Achilles heel for my Diwali project. In any case, we decided to give it a shot.  These are the two blogs that I referred to most since it dealt with mostly procurable (?) materials 

The first challenge, glass bottles to bottle the oil. These are not available in our area and available only in the city. Working weeks and other-priority weekends did not give me a chance to do this. Again, my local JustDial (mother-in-law) stepped in. She’d unused glass bottles that we’d bought about 3 years back for gifting. I gladly stole them from her and set off with my task. The glass bottles were first sterilized. The second challenge was the carrier oil. Most blogs recommended jojoba as carrier oil. Almond oil can also be used but apparently has a stronger smell and can overpower the flavors that you use. Now, in Pune, jojoba oil is still a specialty. It’s not available in local stores easily and that launched another fruitless search. Then on some blog, I saw olive oil mentioned as the carrier oil. It did have to be cold pressed. But thanks to the proliferation of Italian cooking in Indian homes, this was much easier. I went to a cosmetic store to buy olive oil for massage and to my surprise was handed over a regular bottle of Borges EVOO which the label said ‘Used for pastas, salads, dressings’. Hmm, this one for Diwali oil? I decided to give it a try. 

I filled the bottles with coarsely ground clove, cinnamon, chopped mint, rose and golden champa, one in each bottle. I covered these with oil and tightly closed the lids. These were then immersed in boiling water and left till the water turned cool. There was a failed experiment where one of the bottles filled with tuberose had an argument with the boiling water and just lost its cool. It cracked and water entered the bottle. Odor?  Yes. Fragrant? Decidedly, No.


The next was a sun bath. So put them out in the sun for 3-4 days and then let them rest a bit for another 3-4 days in a cool, dry place. Now, the third challenge was small perfume bottles to blend these. Thanks to a super cooperative WhatsApp group, I was able to reach Deepti Chemicals near Vijay talkies and got them. The blending is yet to begin. That is planned tonight. I did a sneak whiff on these and there is a mild fragrance in each bottle. The result remains doubtful since I believe it would need longer to rest.


Then, came the next part. I wanted to make handmade paper lanterns/lamps that could be used easily. I was spoilt for choice with the variegated designs available. But how do you illuminate these? I did not want wires and plugs. I was bent on using handmade paper so that ruled out actual tea lights. There was some information available on fireproofing paper but it mainly made the paper fire resistant, not fireproof. The other option, LED tea lights. However these are fairly expensive in India as yet. More research, led to LED throwies. This may be something I go with, if I do get time. Since now, I am officially behind schedule by about 1 week. 

The designs I loved,
LED Throwies:

I tried the pyramid lanterns and they were mostly simple to do. When I do manage to get them illuminated, will definitely let you know. I also have materials ready for Idea #4. Any takers?


And finally, the part I did not account for. Packing. What do we pack these in? Since I’d done my bit of research and truth be told, was exhausted, I handed this over to hubby. Read: begged him to take over and threatened with dire consequences. So, he got on YouTube and followed video instructions to make simple paper bags. We do need to make these special so Nandini’s handprints will adorn these simple bags. A small pack of utna packed in tissue envelopes, a pair of hand painted diyas, pyramid lamps minus the illumination and a small bottle of very lightly fragrant oil. Not too fancy and definitely amateur. But great fun and hoping for more next year. And here’s leaving you with our own homemade lantern



#Note to self
  • Plan better, plan smarter
  • Involve the whole family (extended as well)
  • How do you light the diyas? :S
  • Use WhatsApp for material sourcing information ALWAYS