NEW items added to my Etsy Shop

I am finally done with my last show this year. The shows sure are a lot of work, but I do enjoy meeting all the wonderful people there. Love the new ideas which people have and surely love the feedback.
With the last show done, I am posting some of my show inventory in my etsy shop. It is not late for Christmas shopping yet.

Diwali is just around the corner

Diwali is a beautiful festival of lights celebrated by Hindus all over the world. We spent immense amount of time cleaning and decorating our homes.

The house is lit with diyas or tealight candles. On this beautiful occassion it is custom to start a new project or get blessings for something new.

My new item are my Incense Holders. We burn incense at home and I have created these burners so the smoke escapes through the holes in soft dancing patterns. They also collect all the ash in the box without creating a mess. Check out this video of the burner.

New work and more new work in progress

Being an engineer, I am always problem solving. And being an artist, I am always striving to be creative and create new work. Seems like a good combo to me and but it can be an overdose of ideas floating in my head at all times.

I have made incense holders in the past and designed them such that the ash fell directly on the tray rather than creating a mess all around. These still work very well and have beautiful stamped patterns on them. A few months back I started thinking of how to make them even more interesting. This is when I designed a lidded incense holder. The lid has holes through which the incense smoke escapes making these smooth curvy patterns. Of course I went crazy decorating these lids. They took me forever but I love the way they look and especially when the incense is lit. I just posted some on Etsy in my shop.

Another I have had on my mind is oil vinegar bottles. I have been struggling to get a form which would work and had made a few prototypes but not to my liking. This is when observing everything around you becomes important. Just be aware and enjoy and take in all that you see. I was looking at the smoke patterns from the incense holders and decided that is the shape I want. I made a new extruder die, got to work and made these oil vinegar bottles. These still need to be decorated but couldn't wait to share my Aha! moment. Looking at the group photograph they look like dancers in Bollywood dance routine. LOL!