Author: Rima Ghosh
Published: 10th October
Karwa Chauth is on 17th October 2019. This is a glorious festival celebrated in many parts of India especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, & Madhya Pradesh by married women specifically. Unmarried women also sometimes
follow the traditions and rituals of this festival. This festival falls on the month of Kartik on Krishna Paksha Chaturthi. It is believed that fasting by married women all through this day would lead to prolonging the lives of their
husbands and would also bring happiness in the family.
During this festival, the Karwa Chauth Pooja Thali holds the most important role. This puja thali contains Baya (the shagun that a daughter in law gives to her mother in law) that contains dry fruits
like almonds, pistachios etc., earthen clay pots or Kalash, diyas and different types of Indian sweets, in their respective katoris and cash. In the evening, the married women follow some important ritual with this Karwa Chauth Pooja
Thali.
1. Mirror Work On Plain Velvet:
Things You Need
Plain Velvet cloth – As per the diameter of your thali
Designer Mirrors of various shapes, sizes, and colors.
Plain Steel Thali
Adhesive or Glue
How to Design the thali?
Take the plain steel thali and spread the adhesive nicely all over it so that the velvet cloth sticks to the thali.
Properly place the velvet cloth of your favorite color.
You can also secure the edges using an elastic lace.
Now make patterns with the designer mirrors on this thali.
For simple design, you can paste the designer mirrors of various shapes, sizes, and colors in circular form. For example, the edges can be designed with round mirrors of pink color, the middle part with rhombus mirrors of yellow color,
and the central part with square shaped mirrors of red color.
Don’t forget to glue the bottom and edges of the designer mirrors so that they stick to the thali and also to each other.
You can also make a flower pattern with these designer mirrors.
You can cut out some rhombus shaped velvet and glue mirrors on them in some designer pattern of your choice. Now glue these velvet on your kalash and make your kalash look prettier.
For decorating your chhalni, you can cut square shaped velvet cloths or simply measure the rim of the chhalni and glue required velvet cloth on it. Now use the designer mirrors in some nice pattern to make it look royal.
2. Painted Thali:
Things you need:
Acrylic Paint for the front of your thali
Spray paint for the back of your thali (optional)
Plain steel thali.
How to design the thali?
For designing this thali, you need to first decide a pattern or design that you would paint on the thali. Once that idea is clear in your head, you can zero on the color of paints.
As the festival is Karwa Chauth, you can choose red as the primary color for this thali decoration.
Along with red, use white, blue, yellow, and blue in various designs.
Firstly choose a light color as the base color to paint the whole thali.
Then draw a bird like peacock, or a lucky sign like Swastika or a kalash with coconut.
In case you want the back side of the thali to be colorful, use the same color that you used as the base color for the front of the thali.
3. Paint & Beads/Mirror Thali:
Things you need:
Acrylic Paint for the front of your thali
Spray paint for the back of your thali (optional)
Adhesive/Glue
Colorful Beads
Designer Mirrors of various shapes and colors
Plain steel thali.
Pencil to draw or mark patterns.
How to design the thali?
Firstly choose a light color as the base color to paint the whole thali.
Now decide a pattern or design that you would want on the thali.
Use a pencil to make patterns on the thali.
Following the patterns simply glue the colorful beads and mirrors on the thali.
You can make a floral design or a glowing diya on the thali using designer mirrors and beads.
Don’t forget to glue the bottom and edges of the designer mirrors so that they stick to the thali and also to each other.
4. Personalized Karwa Chauth Thali:
Things you need:
A plain steel thali
Flowers – Real or Artificial
A couple Picture print out
Acrylic Paint
Colorful glitters
How to design the thali?
Take the steel thali and paint it red as red is the theme color of Karwa Chauth.
Now take some fresh or artificial flowers and decorate the edges of the thali.
Take a print out of the best couple picture you have. The couple picture should be in a heart-shape.
Now simply glue this picture right at the center of the thali.
You can add another heart-shaped couple picture on the Kalash too.
But if you don’t have much time to prepare this thali, then you can order it online.
5. Flower Petals & Mirror Karwa Chauth Thali:
Things You Need:
Flower petals of 4 different colors like red, orange, pink, and yellow.
Round Designer Mirrors
Plain Steel Thali
Adhesive
Pencil and ruler
How to design the thali?
Divide the thali into 4 equal quarters using a pencil and ruler.
Spread adhesive along the intersecting line to fix the round designer mirrors.
Add glue at the bottom and slightly on the edges of these designer mirrors so that they stick to the thali and also to each other.
Now you have 4 blocks to decorate with flower petals.
Spread adhesive in these 4 quarters to make sure the flower petals fix on them nicely.
Use four different colors of flower petals in these 4 quarters and keep your pooja ingredients in this thali.
6. Lace & Beads Karwa Chauth Pooja Thali:
Things You Need:
Fine lace of your choice
Colorful beads
Red soft cloth
Adhesive
Plain Steel Thali
How to design the thali?
Cut the red soft cloth as per the diameter of the steel thali.
Apply some glue or adhesive and fix the red soft cloth on the thali.
Now for the rims of the thali, use nice laces.
Fix the laces using glue on the rims of the thali.
You can also fix some beads at regular intervals on the lace.
Over the red cloth, place colorful beads in your favorite pattern or design.
You can make the design of a diyas, flower, or anything else that you please.
7. Gota Patti Karwa Chauth Pooja Thali:
Things You Need:
Gota Patti
Plain Steel Thali
Craft elements like decorative Stars or Flowers
Adhesive
Red or Pink Soft Cloth
How to design the thali?
Firstly, you have to stick the red or pink cloth on the thali with an adhesive.
Now divide the thali into 4 equal quarters using gota patti.
You can keep the look of the thali simple using only gota patti or you can use craft elements like decorative stars or flowers in these 4 blocks.
Use gota patti to beautify the kalash and chhalni too.
So, implement these ideas to create beautiful Karwa Chauth Pooja Thali at home. You can easily get the ingredients from the local market (for example, if you stay in Delhi, go to the Chandni Chowk market, if you stay in Kolkata, hit Barabazaar
market, if you stay in Mumbai, go to Himalaya Fine Art just opposite the JJ School of Fine Arts or Janata Book Centre – The Art Store in Bandra West). Once you make a designer Karwa Chauth Pooja Thali on your own, you can then use
it for upcoming years. After use, don’t forget to wrap it well in bubble wraps and keep it away from water.
