Meet a mum who is also an entrepreneur who shared on her social media page her practice of having children along with her son making the Ganesha at home.
Sowmya Krishnamurthy, shares, “I was inspired by a friend who made Ganesha with his daughter and started this activity as a yearly ritual with my son – Samit.
We as a family celebrate all festivals irrespective of religion. I wanted to teach my son the symbolism of the event, hence started this yearly activity. We have been doing this for past 5 years, since the time my son turned three.
(Sowmya Krishnamurthy)
(An earlier picture of making Ganesha idol at home. Photograph by Sowmya Krishnamurthy).
(Samit with his latest Ganesha idol). Featured image of the idol and the pictures-courtesy -Sowmya).
Making clay Ganesha teaches a lot of things to children – Both symbolically and eco awareness. Now this has become a fun activity where in Samit invites his friends to be a part of welcoming Ganesha.”
So for making the Ganesha at home, here are the materials required
- Clay
- Toothpick
Steps to make your own clay Ganesha idol.
- Make different size clay balls- 1 big, 2 medium, 2 small & 6-7 very small proportionately.
- Take the large ball, which will be the stomach and place on the base slightly to the corner of the base. Attach it and join towards back – make it smooth together blending them and attaching them.
- Take the small 2 size clay balls and get them to form the shape of the legs
- Take 2 of very small clay balls and bring it to form hands shape.
- Next steps is bend the hands into V Shape.
- Pinch the bottom of the legs with your fingers to make the feet shape.
- Now you have 2 legs and two hands done. Now fix the legs around the belly on the base and smoothen it with the clay on the back to get fixed.
- Then fix the hands resting on the legs for support.
- Then pinch the right hand and push it up to form the hands blessing shape. Left hand pinch to make a flat surface and keep a ball on it representing ladoo.
- Now take the one of the medium clay balls and fix it in the body. Use a tooth pick to fix the head for strong fixing.
- After every step smoothen the back so that all the parts are fixed strongly.
- Take one of the small balls and make the trunk shape in form of a cone and fix it on the head. Bring the shape of the head my smoothening it with your fingers.
- Bend the trunk to the side, towards either hands.
- The the other 2 very small and fix the earls to the head. Turn and fix so that the shapes hold the head firmly.
- Make the shape of the earls by pressing the balls flat with your fingers.
- Take small balls and fix the eyes.
- Make a thin clay rope and fix as thread to Ganesha.
- Make small cones and fix the tusk & with toothpick draw 3 lines on forehead to make Ganesha nama
- Now make a crown to Ganesha based on shape you please.
- Now your Eco-Friendly Ganesha is ready.
(Steps shared by Sowmya Krishnamurthy)
It is interesting to find mums like Sowmya encouraging group activities that help in bringing a new meaning to festivals.
Mums and Stories also also found a video that explains the steps easily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZgSH_kp-cQ
(Video by Sambasiva Rao Koduru).