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The White Hindu has moved! This blog is no longer updated, but Ambaa is still writing The White Hindu every weekday at Patheos.com.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Travel Altar

This little craft came about because of a couple of different things.

First, I lost my ipod touch, so I no longer have the cute apps with Gods on them. (It's been missing for almost a month now, I've cleaned my apartment and my car and retraced my steps to everywhere I went the day it went missing, and it really does seem to be gone for good).

The second thing is that last night I was listening to one of the knitting podcasts I like, the Knitpicks podcast, and Kelli mentioned making little craft kits out of empty Altoid mint containers. Then she said that if you Google Altoid tins you will find some amazing art and crafts and different kit ideas.

I love little kits, so I did the Google search and it inspired me to create this:

001

This is the inside of an Altoid tin. I glued in a little Krishna pendant that I've had for years, which is meant to be a necklace, but I think actually this project would work better printing out a picture of a God and pasting it to the lid.

I glued in a tealight candle and a bunch of paper flowers from a craft store. I took two beads and glued them together to make a holder for a stick of incense. The incense can be laid flat in the tin and I plan to get a little box of matches. I found a tiny bell in the craft store, too.

So now I have a tiny altar that I can take with me in my purse where ever I go!

14 comments:

  1. Aamba,

    I think that this was a really great idea. Not something that I would do for myself, but definitely very creative.

    Maybe you should find a way to sell stuff like this!!

    Hope All is well.
    Kat

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  2. Hmmm, I wonder if I could fancy it up a bit and sell these things on Etsy... Interesting idea, I think I'll look into it!

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  3. creative and impressive idea indeed . but hindus will make one for themselves following your idea.so drop the idea of selling them--surya

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  4. Amba i am asking you this in hindi"tum apni sari mein fhaal to lagati ho na?"

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  5. What is "fhaal"? I understand that you're asking something about me in my sari, but I don't know what :/

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  6. It means you are not using it. Look when ou buy a sari you alo bua matching fhaal. you stich it on the downside of ur sari from inside ,so that when you wear a sari it looks nice. I dont know how to tell you in english . You check the sari of Ammaji and ask her. A fhaal is must in a sari like blouse and petticoat .Here in India when you buy sari this service is proided for free otherwise there are seperate shops for them. Always phaal ur sari Amba.Buy them in India.

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  7. Ah, okay, I understand. I couple of mine do have that, I was surprised the first time I saw it! Several don't, though. I'll make sure to look for that in the future. Thanks!

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  8. What Ela meant was 'Fall'. It is a strip of cloth,about 10-12 cms/5" width, of either cotton or nylon material,which is half as long as the saree[about 3m.]If your sari is of a very light-weight material,the fall will help it literally fall into place.It also acts as a protector for the thread work border of Hand-woven sarees and also as protection against dirt and tear generally.Usually "Two by one" material [a weave which has two threads in the warp,for every single thread in the weft]similar to the weight of the fat quarters available for patch-work,or a light,loosely woven Poplin ,[lighter by weight than the material used for the cotton "in-skirts"/petticoats] are used as 'fall' material. It is stitched on the wrong side of the saree along its border and in line with its edge.You can use plain cloth of a colour matching the sari after finishing the cut edges with a single fold of 1/4" seam allowance [as is done with Patches],as fall,if you can't get ready made ones,which may be available in some Indian Stores.You can also use the fat-quarters themselves,if they match your sari colour. I don't use Fall for all my saris.Some kinds of sarees need it more as protection.

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  9. p.s.: I meant the plain coloured fat-quarters.

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  10. Did you mean "Travel Alt'A'r"?

    -Puzzled

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  11. Yes, actually, that is exactly what I meant. God, how embarrassing. I'm changing it now.

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  12. The picture no longer works but the description is brilliant!! I just traveled to France last weekend and I'm heading to the US next month for 4 weeks (involving three mini trips during that time) so I've been wondering what to do!

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  13. You're right, I really need to get a new copy of the picture in here.

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