Written by Barkha
On 26th evening, we had organized a ‘Matoli Making’ session with artist Vaishnavi Kamat Shankhwalkar. ‘Matoli’ is a wooden canopy which is decorated with seasonal fruits and flowers, mango leaves, leaves, herbs, creepers etc. It is then installed over the idol of Lord Ganesh before the festival of Chaturthi begins. The matoli is meant to exhibit local flora displaying natural richness of the geographical region. At the session however, we stuck to fruits we see around us and not forest and wild produce. The children set out by cutting out fruits like apple, mango, banana and coconut. We made the matoli frame with board strips and criss-crossed with woolen thread to create a web to hang decorations from it.
The children were very excited with the possibilities of decoration on the matoli. They also made toffees and tied them onto the matoli with ribbons. They added beads onto the net to add more colour. They also stuck shiny golden pieces of paper onto the frame of the matoli.
The children then tied their decorations onto the matoli. They also drew detailed Ganesha images to add to the matoli . It was a great way to keep the tradition alive…
