A WAY OF

EXPRESSING

LOVE

HAPPY RAKSHA BANDHAN AND FRIENDSHIP DAY

Rakhi is the physical symbol of the emotions involved with the festival. The emotions of love, affection and care. It is the sentiments that matter on this day and what can be a better expression of the sisterly love than a self made rakhi.

1. Rakhi is generally a decorated silk thread. It may be a simple thread or it may be decorated with beads or designer motifs, religious symbols or even studded with jewels. Here are a few tips on how you can create your own rakhi.

Material required1. Silk threads-multi-colored 2. Cotton thread3. Beads, sequins 4. Scissors5. GlueTake a bunch of silk threads, multicolored if you want a colorful rakhi. Red and yellow are considered auspicious colors. You can also use a strand or two of golden thread. The threads should be around 30" long. Fold the length of the thread bunch to half. Tie a tight knot at one fourth of the length using the cotton thread. Cut the loops of the folded thread and fluff the open ends with a hard brush.

Divide the longer part of the thread into two halves and plat them in desired way. Tie the ends with the cotton thread and fluff the open ends. These two strands will be used for the tying.

Decorate the upper part with sequins, beads or religious motifs. If you are using multicolored threads arranged in some specific way, cut them short to a suitable length not more than ½".

Your Rakhi is ready!

Buy some embroidery floss. Embroidery floss comes in a variety of

colors and is usually 8.7 meters long. You can choose as many

colors as you would like, but know that the more you use, the

wider the bracelet will be.

Cut your embroidery floss to the appropriate length. One way to

measure how much you will need for a bracelet is to drag a piece

of floss from the tip of your fingers to the top of your shoulder,

and then double this amount. Do this for each string that you will

include in your friendship bracelet.

Hold all of your pieces of floss together at one end, so that they

are evenly lined up. Then fold this in half so that when you pinch

the middle, you have two of each color hanging down. Create a

knot where you are pinching the middle.

Push the safety pin through the knot you have created and pin it

to either a pillow or the leg of your pants.

Make your first knot. The typical knot for friendship bracelets and

hair wraps is a forward knot. Spread out all of your threads in a

fan-like manner. Start with the first two threads on the left. Take

the left-most thread and make a "4" shape over the next thread in,

so that it is crossed over the second thread. Loop the outermost

thread under and around the second thread, pulling it through the

hole of the "4." When you pull it up, it will tighten into a knot.

Repeat this on the same thread. Then, move on to the next

thread, still using the outermost thread to create the first row.

For each thread "in line", do two forward knots before moving on

to the next thread. This will create a row. Start your second row

by, again, choosing the outermost thread, and starting the

forward knot on the second thread. Continue this until you have

reached the desired length.

When you are finished, create a knot at the end to hold all of the

strings in place. Use the remaining strings to tie the bracelet onto

your wrist. Create a tight knot, so that it won't come off. Then use

scissors to snip any extra threads hanging off of the knot.

SEJAL AND PAAWANI