Butterfly Life Cycle - DIY School project

I am sure everyone has studied the life cycle of a butterfly during their school days, drew diagrams and written explanations. However, it is a completely different experience to see this happen before your own eyes.

It is a time consuming process so one needs to be a patient observer. Altough there are butterfly life cycle kits available in the market, but I decided to follow the natural course, economical and zero budget. Their breeding time is during the pre-monsoon/post monsoon season when it's not raining heavily and the weather is cool.

The common butterflies found in India are Common Tiger, Common Mormon, Common Crow etc.

I decided to attract the Common Mormon butterfly.

To witness this phenomenon, we need a host plant like Lemon or a kadi patta plant - The curry tree (Murraya koenigii), for the simple fact that the butterflies are attracted to it. We have to also make sure that the plant is slightly grown up as the caterpillar needs a lot of leaves to feed on.

1st Stage - Eggs are laid on the leaves

(No pics, as it is an ardous task to look through so many leaves) The eggs are laid below the leaves.

For photos click here

2nd Stage - Caterpillar 

The caterpillars emerge approximately after 3 days from the eggs. Their colour changes as they grow.

A young caterpillar

Both young and a fully grown caterpillar.  At this stage we need to take special care that the caterpillars don't get eaten by the birds. We can do this by moving the plant indoors.

Fully grown caterpillar ready for the Pupal stage

 Caterpillar preparing to enter the Pupal stage. 

3rd Stage is Pupa

After 5-6 days, approximately a week later, the fully grown caterpillar becomes stationary and turns into pupa or is covered in a cacoon which looks like this -

Green coloured Pupa suspended from the stem with a silk thread like belt made from caterpillar's saliva

4th Stage is Butterfly

After another week or so, the Butterfly slowly comes out from the cacoon.

An empty Pupa

It takes approximately 2 hrs for the wings to dry. So the newly emerged Butterfly sits on the plant under the sunrays to dry its wings. 

Newly emerged butterfly drying its wings

Then it just flies away to explore the world!

Wonders of nature!
Caterpillar feeding on the lime leaves

Photo credit : Chinmay Deo

Canvas and brushes - 1

(Canvas & Brushes)

Some idle time spent with a canvas and a splash of paint

-Flower Vase-

This is a slightly technical painting. I have used acrylic colours on a ready made canvas. An example of still life painting with approximate 14hrs of work.

On a white wall

Looks good on both dark and light background. Needs a spot lamp on top to enhance the shades of red.

Canvas size: 10"X12" (25cm X 30cm) 

-Cherry-

Cherry

Another still life acrylic painting. This one didn't take a lot of time to make. Understanding the technicalities was a job though. I have never really been good at object painting. This one I learnt from an online tutorial. It looks like a photograph from a distance.

 

Canvas size: 10"X12" (25cm X 30cm)  

 

-Flower Sellers- 

Flower sellers

This one has a lot of fine work. Approxlimately 12 hrs of work. Not much colour mixing or shading, just the fine tip handling was a challenge. Notice the eyes, jewellery and the print on the fabric.

Canvas size: 10"X12" (25cm X 30cm)  

 

-Colours of Holi- 

Colours of Holi

This one is painted by my 6 year old. She named it too. It is a very basic blow painting where the water colour droplets are blown gently at an angle on the paper with the help of a straw.

Canvas size: 8"X5" (20cm X 12cm) 

Another tiny one from those tiny hands :) She has named this one 'Garden'.

5 Innovative Ways to Re-Use an Old Diary

While clearing out my book-closet, I tumbled upon a few old unused diaries. Beautiful unwritten pages. I simply couldn't get myself to throw these out, so there I sat thinking. If I am not going to write in them, why not convert them into something else!

So let's get our things together,
1. Old diaries
2. Old newspaper clippings
3. A pair of scissors
4. Glue

1st idea

DONATE
Never feel shy about giving unused things (in acceptable condition) to someone who really needs it.

2nd Idea 

Convert it into a comic book.
I am sure none of us read those newspaper comic strips daily. So why not just put it in one place for an enjoyable read later. Coose a comic strip of your liking and get going.

Cut out the unwanted pages first. Paste the comics strips.

 Be creative. Give it a personal touch!

 If not Dennis, then perhaps, Calvin and Hobbes

Or other strips, whatever makes your day.

3rd Idea

Make an Activity Book.
You can also paste the unfinished Sudoku cut-outs, i.e. if you are a Sudoku fan.
Or scrabble, or crossword and other such activities.

I have made one for my daughter :)

I have used some random stickers to make it look more interesting.

4th Idea

Convert it into a photo album.

I know all the photos we have these days are DIGITAL.
But for a change, we can convert an old unused diary into a personalised photo album. And it is economical too! :D

On a fine evening, simply switch off that TV/phone/TAB and enjoy peeping in this album together. Trust me, it's fun!

5th Idea

Convert it into a travel journal.
Note down the funny quotes and the places you found them in. If possible take a click and paste a copy on the page with the date. This one definitely would be a fun read a few years down the lane.

Lastly, don't forget to decorate the cover.

Hope you do try out one of these artful concepts!
Doodle, decorate, get creative but don't waste it! :) And do it together!

DIY - mini Flower Basket

Colourful flowers always add to a positive ambience in the house. Recently, my shelf was devoid of a beautiful piece during the process of cleaning. The empty space was staring back at me so bad, that I needed to place something lovely there ASAP. Unable to find a good replacement for my old mini flower basket, I decided to make one!

For this, we require,
1. Any old round container
2. Quilling strips
3. Crepe paper
4. A pair of scissors
5. Glue
6. Craft wire
7. Some pips
8. Cotton
9. Thread

For the basket, I have taken a used cream jar, which we normally throw away after it's empty.
Let's take four orange quilling strips and stick two of them together to make a bigger one.

Apply some glue and roll one strip on the top and one at the bottom of the jar.

 Keep it aside.

Now we need a dark brown and creme/light brown/beige coloured quilling strips to make the outer layer of the basket.

Measure around the jar with the dark brown quilling strip and cut. Also measure the height of the jar and cut some light brown strips. Take one small quilling strip and paste the longer ones on it, as shown below,

To weave the pattern, take the small strips one by one and insert alternately between the longer strips, like this -

You will start to see the pattern, Repeat till you reach the end and seal with glue.

Put the plastic jar on top of it. Apply some glue on the orange strip and roll the patterned paper on it. 

Leave it to dry.

Now, we need to make some colourful flowers. For the first flower, I have cut some crepe paper pieces, 2" x 1" (LxB). Put a pip on it and a small piece of craft wire.

Put a drop of glue in the center where they meet and roll the paper to complete the flower.

 For the 2nd flower, take a strip of crepe paper, fold and make some cuts on the edges. Tie it in the centre with a thread and fluff it to reveal a flower.

For making a rose, again take a crepe paper strip and roll it around a craft wire as shown in the pic. Make sure you apply some glue at the base and affix the flower!

To make the leaves, I have taken craft papers with two shades of green. Cut out the different leaf styles.

Now that the flowers and leaves are ready, put some cotton in the previously prepared basket and arrange them the way you like!

:)