Making jewellery

I love beading. Those who know me, know that I love designing and making jewellery, and in fact it was my job back in New Zealand. So you can imagine how happy I was when I got involved in making jewellery here.... and guess who for?!?

Yup you guessed it. Their Lordships themselves. Check it out.

Earrings made by yours truly.

(Click for a larger view)

(I didn't actually make anything for Madhava, but I couldn't really leave Him out now could I)

Yasoda-Mayi

I was given a chance to dress Yasoda-Damodar this morning. There was no way I was going to turn down this opportunity - Kartik only runs for another week or so, I may never chance again. So this afternoon at 1pm saw myself at the temple along with a few others for instructions from Balaram Priya. There were two of us, myself and Chaitanya-Lila Mataji, assigned to dressed Yasoda, and two assigned to dress Damodar. I was so excited.... this is the closest I'll ever come to dressing large deities, at least for now.

I struggled with sharing the task, I wanted things done my way and the way I saw fit, which tended to clash a lot with Chaitanya-Lila's ideas. I liked the blue sari, yet she liked the pink. I had to learn to accept that sometimes Krsna (in this case Yasoda-Mayi) wanted things a certain way, and although it may seem like we were dressing her, nothing was done by chance. We'd (finally) agree on a pair of earrings - only to search without success for the matching pair. We would put flowers all through her hair, only for them to fall out after a few moments. Krsna really was in charge, despite what we thought.

Overall she looked gorgeous, and Shalini and Nandini did a fabulous job dressing Damodar.

That evening, as I offered my lamp to all of the deities, I smiled to myself quietly when I got to Yasoda-Mayi.