DIY Deity Tutorials - Remember Krishna

Posted on December 16, 2022December 15, 2022 by remember krishna — Leave a comment

10 Amazing Flower Garlands You Never Thought of Making

Gorgeous Shri Vanvihari Deity of Krishna, my personal lord. Dressed in royal blue silk with a peach shawl. Krishnas reflection is showin in a silver mirror from another angle. He wears a peacock feather in his hair and a garland of lotus buds like ginger flowers. He has ropes of pearls with rubies and a silver flute with dangling pearls on silver chains. flowers are clustered on either side of the deity of Krishna.

Did you ever think of these flowers for garlands for Krishna?

Whether you are new to making Krishna flower garlands, or a seasoned professional, you may never have considered these flowers!

Agapanthus
Azalea
Blue Ginger
Crepe Myrtle
Geisha Girl
Grevillia
Ginger Flower Buds
Hydrangea
Inoxa
Jacaranda

This list is skewed to Australia, as that’s my mainframe of reference!

Agapanthas

What a rich bluish purple color! Agapanthas have surely waved happily at you from the landscaping of your neighbours!

For a long time it did not occur to me to try garlands with these flowers. As they have no scent, it’s nice to mix the flowers with a scented flower – gardenias make a beautiful addition, and are in bloom at the same season, as are frangipani.

Azaleas – delicate ruffles

Stunning! I was stunned and awed the first time I saw a garland from azaleas. You might have seen them threaded around and around, but have you ever seen a garland of ruffled azaleas threaded straight through the stem? They look like threaded fairy skirts! So adorable. You have to try this at least one time.

I searched and searched, but couldn’t find the one or two photos I have of garlands with azaleas in them! Here’s a photo of my altar instead, with azalea flowers in vases! This was when I first installed my Sri Vanvihari Krishna deity.

Their garlands are made from ground orchids which come in a variety of colors, and also Jasmine

Blue Ginger

These beautiful strongly colored flowery buds are worth seeking out and planting! They seem to thrive on neglect in the ground and are fine in a shaded side alley. The flowers are charming for garlands on small deity forms of Krishna.

You might need to look at the flowers ON the plant to be able to identify them – this seems like the best reference image I could find online:

Learn how to identify and grow this beautiful garland flower here:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/blue-ginger/growing-blue-ginger-plants.htm

Crepe Myrtle

Soft and delicate ruffles, these flowers are best to offer to your smaller deities. Mix them with a fragrant flower for delicate scent.

Crepe Myrtle come in shades of peach, pink, red, white and purple. They are small and timeconsumingly fiddly as the flowers are so delicate, but you can see the heavenly effect they create with their cloud like appearance. Perfect for a flower garland for tiny Krishna deities!

Ginger Flowers like Lotus Buds

Vanvihari Krishna wearing ginger flower bud lotus flower garland

Ginger flowers come in a variety of different shapes and sizes.

You may have commonly seen these ginger flowers threaded up in both Hawaii and Philippines with their spidery flower petals and the way they are woven is totally amazing – but! There is another type that grows locally and they are so beautiful!

When you thread them up they look very much like lotus buds! Perfect for a smaller or medium sized deity of Krishna.

They contain a lot of water so when you are threading them up it’s nice to leave them for a little before you offer to the Lord… unless it’s a hot day and He would enjoy some refreshingly moist garland offerings!

Geisha Girl – Duranta Repens – Verbena variety

The intoxicating smell of the vanilla fragrance Geisha Girl flower mixed with Krishnas personal fragrance must be a heavenly aroma to make the bumble bees drunk and swooning staggering through the air on drunken paths!

Threaded through the central stamen hole these flowers make a perfect delicate garland for a small deity like this 10inch form of Syama Krishna deity dressed in gorgeous complimentary lavender silks

These tiny little flowers grow prolifically. The garlands would not last all day out of the fridge but to prepare in advance are fine.

Threading through the stem to create a fuller look garland works so nicely for Shri Vanvihari Krishna, my 18inch tall marble deity. His garland is interspersed with Chinese Jasmine.

Grevillia

No, please don’t thread in a whole clonking flower! My artistic friend Nadia recently made garlands for Krishna and included little pieces of their delicate curling stamens! Mind – blown!

Nadia made this gorgeous headlei for Krishna for Janmashtami! See the delicate pieces coming out like little tendrils? Highly recommend

An Australian native flower, but I would expect it would also be grown in other parts of the world – it does well in our hot and dry climate.

Native birds like this lorikeet love the Grevillia, and the flowers come in various colors

Hydreangeas – flower clusters

How exquisite the colors of the hydrangea! These pretty flowers can be interspersed with others for fragrance and bring their delicate allure to Krishna’s flower garlands.

Ixora

This flower comes in some beautiful and vibrant colors, from coral, yellow, orange, red and even pink.

The little flowers make perfect garlands for smaller deities too. You can readily pick the flower heads which grow in clusters locally and are often used as bush landscaping where I live.

Jacaranda flowers

These beautiful blooms have such a nice fragrance! It’s difficult to describe, but maybe musk comes close. When they are massed you can smell the perfume more strongly.

When I was blessed to harvest some last year I did a little tutorial of using them for garland making, and also offered my dear sweet Vanvihari Krishna a shringar that complimented them!

It can be hard to find a tree that is low growing enough to harvest their flowers, but it is utterly worth seeking them out, should you find some! Look for trees that are growing on a slope, or leverage your car and stretch!

Cut and offered in flower vases they will last up to 2 days.

Shri Vanvihari Krishna deity my personal lord dressed with a beautiful flowery garland. Honeysuckle and kalanchaoe flowers make the flower mala for krishna deity and deity also wears a flower crown. blue background and deer at his feet

For Good luck, there’s one extra flower garland idea – can you spot it? Honeysuckle in Krishna’s garland -You’re welcome!

Always Remember Krishna & Never Forget Krishna

Love, your friend, Sita

Posted on November 16, 2022November 16, 2022 by remember krishna — Leave a comment

Making clothes for Dressed Krishna deity

Krishna deity dressed form of lord wearing a crown shawl and peacock feather

Different forms of Krishna you can dress.

Have you found that you want to dress and decorate Krishna? Maybe you want to but you have an already dressed deity of Krishna! Don’t dispair tho – much can be offered to ornament the lord, from clothes to jewels!

Seems like many devotees have different forms of Krishna that they want to adorn!

Krishna deity with carved clothes wearing flower crowns and garlands with fresh peacock feathers and a nice shawl beautifully styled — This sweet Krishna – served by Vrindavan Vasi dasi, my mom, gets flower garlands, flower crowns, turbans, shawls and jewels

Krishna deities can have carved clothing, or be in the form of a Saligram Sila, or all sorts of other forms! And there’s almost always a way in which we can offer some worship or decorations.

You can offer little turbans, earrings, flutes, necklaces, eyes, thrones… look at the ornamental silver tilak, smiling lips and utterly charming eyes! wowsers the bliss of serving! – Side note! It is not recommended that we bring Shila out of India… International devotees I do not recommend – approach with caution!

Fun ways to decorate Dressed Deities of Krishna

Back to my main points – I’ve had a few fun challenges recently with making outfits for dressed deities, and I want to discuss ways we can dress them!

Even a dear devotee with a disability affecting mobility has been able to have a pattern style that is easy enough to put on the deity form! (Sometimes devotees have athritis as well which can make fiddly fixing very difficult… but we have solutions for that!)

This week I sent off a custom set of gorgeous clothes to Canada for an exquisite form of Krishna who has carved clothes – but I made some for His devotee to offer and wear over the carved garments!

Then there is the child sized Shri Krishna form living with my mum – He’s the size of a small child! Well she dresses Him in a turban and shawls (as well as garlands and jewellery she attaches using -gasp- bluetack – please don’t do that!* Please use beeswax!)

Beeswax in cute little cakes with a pretty bee mold. Beeswax is perfect for deity shringar. Illustrating how to use beeswax for Krishna shringar — beeswax cakes are soft and fragrant. Try searching for them online – These are from an Australian Honey farm, I ordered on Etsy.

The first thing that you can easily attempt for a dressed Krishna is layering a shawl on! So easy!

Depending on how the form of the Lord is carved, you can attempt various stylings to get the shawl most gorgeously draped. To show you, I’ve added a shawl to this beautiful deity of Krishna who is carved with clothes crown, turban and peacock! (Yes He is still available – order here!)

Even if the lord has a carved crown or headwear, you can layer on a crown or hand wrap a turban.

krishna deity dressed and wearing a special crown

The Lord is wearing some crown styles from my shop – explore more crowns that might suit you here!

Crowns for Krishna deities click through to shop crowns shringar

Crowns – Mukut – flower headlei

Flowery headleis, crowns and mukut for Krishna dolls and Krishna deities

Shop now

Sometimes you can attach jewellery over the top of existing jewellery. Using a simple pair of cutter pliers, you can remove the back of a stud earring, and then use BEESWAX to attach.

Offer Him rings! Earrings can have the back clipped off, or a hook removed, and be attached at His fingers and toes, using BEESWAX.

I made a post a few years ago about quick ways to get Jewellery for Krishna – read it here.

Can He wear a necklace? Sometimes you can get adjustable necklaces, or you can remove the extended chain length to offer a necklace. Again – attach with BEESWAX. Sorry – I’ll stop repeating that now!

adjustable necklace, bracelets, armlets, anklets on wire and belt for dressed deity of krishna

Does He have a carved peacock feather?

That’s ok, add more! Fresh peacock feathers are so charming. You can get them in various sizes. I have ordered very small peacock feathers from Ebay seller – Just try doing a search. You can also find white peacock feathers from albino peacocks – although sometimes they have been bleached white and get a bit ratty.

peacock feathers offered to Krishna deity can be fresh and can also be white

Every now and then you need to refresh Krishna’s peacock feather – they can look quite ratty after awhile, and PLEASE don’t wet them. I’ve ruined a few like that and I don’t understand why it trashes them but it does.

If you want to wrap a dhoti on Krishna you can do that too. Krishna with a precarved dhoti can wear it lungi or sarong style. Depending on His size you may wish to cut the fabrics.

When I stitch garments for deity clothes orders I aim to make them as easy to put on as possible, so I create a fake pleated front facade. I have even been making long side pleats to tumble down attractively.

These outfits were made for a deity who has a precarved dhoti (although no carved shawl).

Krishna deity wearing outfit for a deity without gap in leg - deity of krishna dressed. custom deity clothes

deity clothes for a dressed deity of Krishna with special pleating dhoti

I made a turban which is basically almost a crown and attaches with adjustable velcro at the back. It’s a facade that goes over the carved turban flat so the effect is not too over the top.

The shawls drape easily over His arms and I recently made anklets on wire to form and attach around the ankles.

A cloak is an excellent option to offer a dressed deity of Krishna! I haven’t kept examples to show you on that one form I have, but they would be so sweet!

It has been a delight to work on deity garment orders for your deities – thanks for entrusting me with such a precious task!

If you are interested in ordering custom deity clothes for your deities, please reach out to me for a rough priceguide, including pictures of your deity & what sort of outfits you would like to offer.

Love,
your friend
Sita

Ps. Here’s some of the available deities you get little sneak peeks of above. Click through to explore more. All prices in Australian dollars – use the widget at the top of the page to view in your currency of choice.

Sweet Krishna Statue 15″

$1,250

Add to cart

*bluetack can remove varnish and paint over time. If you have ever pulled down posters off a wall you’ll know how noxious it is! Never use bluetack please! Beeswax is a wonderful substitute (it’s actually the OG) and it has a pleasant aroma.. And doesn’t affect the finish as badly. Unlike bluetack which becomes all melty and gooey, beeswax hardens when it’s applied and pops off super easily. If you try and remove it soon after using it can still be soft and then you need to scrape off. So wait until it’s hardened before removing.

Also – if you have a black deity of Krishna you can color your beeswax with a little charcoal to make a black finish and then you won’t see it against his skin either! Bonus!

Posted on October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by remember krishna — Leave a comment

Home Deity Worship- Made Easy

Sri Vanvihari in peacock blue peach and ginger flower lotus bud garland reflected in a silver ornate mirror

Spring has Sprung! Have some patience and I’m going to tell you how we can easily start worshipping a gorgeous Krishna deity at home… it’s a winding tale, with lots of beautiful Krishna photos, so read on!

With a bit of a stagger and a wobble, our Ozzie weather has swung into Spring!

I am thrilled with our warmer weather, as over the 40 final days of winter, my Lord Vanvihari has worn nearly all of His long sleeved outfits!

Spring gives us exciting new chances for dressing – because Spring here in Australia really means summer type weather for the rest of the world!

Remixing dhoti’s with a variety of shawls, sashes, and turbans, is a beautiful opportunity to really play with color and texture, and show off My Lord’s broad chest decorated with Tilak and the mark of Srivatsa, of course! I just love to see his strong arms and belly button!

On Janmastami this year I finally welcomed Him into regular worship on my home altar.

The Lords Gaura Nitai have been doing a slow dance around the altar as we work out the best arrangement for everyone’s comfort. Here’s some of our crazy configurations!

Lord Chaitanya Lord Nityananda deities with Sri Krishna deity on home altar

One of the things which has come as a slight surprise to me is raising up my Lord Vanvihari Krishna! I didn’t intend to, but as at 18inches tall, his flute is a little in the way of Lord Nityananda, unless I raise Sri Vanvihari up a few inches. Currently He has stood on a beautiful enamelled jewelery box, an inlaid wooden box and a wooden domed suitcase! The suitcase it’s funny, but it’s kind of hatbox shaped, with a flat back so it can butt against the backdrop of the altar, anyway it seems to be the best height and I am working on painting it. It’s had a navy base coat, and then I am going to paint on lotus flowers, to match the lotus flower bases I painted on Sri Gaura Nityananda.

Altar improvements have been going on for the past eternity, and it’s not likely to change!

With the introduction of Sri Vanvihari to my worshipable Lords, the currency (and gorgeous) altar backdrop became too short, so I’m looking at making a new backdrop for them. In the event of not finding something I can buy that I just over the top love, I’m creating my own in photoshop and I will be printing it. (let me know if you love it and want one too, I guess I could work out how to print and ship). Far off plans aside (I hope that isn’t another 10 year project!) I have also got plans to install pillars (columns) and a faux arch.

Bet it’s not that exciting to just HEAR about my plans, you would rather SEE something tactile!

Well, I wanted to talk to you about how incredibly life-enhancing it is to worship a deity of Sri Krishna, and then give you some compelling reasons to consider selecting one of the exquisite Krishna murti’s I have prepared for you!

By seeing the sweetness of Lord Krishna’s Deity form, and by hearing the descriptions of Lord Krishna’s pastimes, one develops a desire to fall in love with Krishna.

I have been completely blissed out dressing Krishna. Daily darshans on my RememberKrishna instagram account (for now, no promises to keep doing this!). How fun it is to dress the one who looks completely exquisite in every outfit?!

Let me tell you about my good friend…

My good friend has had a deity of Krishna for the past 10 years. She’s been waiting for her sister to paint him, and to create a wardrobe for him. I sew, and paint, myself! Yet it’s taken me a full year just to prepare his wardrobe, and I’m sewing deity clothes professionally (Or semi-professionally if I’m humble) for the past 15 years now! It took 3 years of working with sculpting artists to have him perfectly carved with the sort of particular refinements that were important to me.

You can avoid all the drama and serious stress by selecting from the beautiful Krishna murti which I have personally prepared for you. I’ve worked with sculptors and done my own carving to ensure each deity is as perfect a representation of Krishna as artistry can get. To suit each specific form of the Lord, I lovingly prepare a wardrobe of outfits – I call them krishna’s Glory Box, as they come with him to his new home with you!

From deep meditation on Krishna’s transcendental form and names, pastimes, and qualities, with great reverence and love together with a meticulous eye for detail, these forms are carefully and lovingly prepared ready for you to install.

So easy to choose a Krishna deity to worship!

How easy it is to carefully inspect a form of the lord who is already completely fresh and charmingly presented with jewels, hair, flute, accessories and garments?

As everyones support person for deity ordering, I have heard a lot of stories about the difficulties of working with Indian companies and ordering deities. Sometimes they arrive broken! Recently a friend on instagram ordered large marble deities who arrived with the hands and feet completely snapped off. OH MY GOSH the horrible heartache~ Worse! The seller is refusing to refund this friend.

Other people discuss how difficult it is to deal with the companies. Ordering a large 3ft statue the communications for one friend were almost incomprehensible, and the murti arrived only after much anxious nail-biting and stress. Happily, intact, but the painting requests had not exactly been followed!

Many people won’t have my exacting standards. I admit that I do seek perfection, and have a critical eye for detail that some don’t. But even for those people it is so much less baffling to be able to purchase a deity of Krishna who is ready with OUTFITS! HAIR! JEWELERY! A side benefit is being able to copy the patterns I have already worked out for your specific deity!

Easy to keep building His wardrobe!

When Krishna comes to you from my careful selection of lovingly prepared statues, you’ll be ready to easily order backup outfits in the future! Or reference my YouTube channel full of creative and inspiring outfits, as well as DIY tutorials on how to make your own deity clothes.

Currently here ready to come to you is beautiful Murli Manohar – 18 inch tall gorgeous form of Krishna with dewy eyes.

Explore and order here:

18 inch tall krishna deity murli against a forest backdrop wearing gorgeous robes of burgandy red and zardozi embroidery

Do you have some experiences with ordering from India that have left you a little scarred? I would love to hear about it (and may even have some advice to offer).

My YouTube Channel has a variety of interesting videos to support you in choosing a Krishna deity to worship,

CLICK HERE

along with LOTS of previews of how beautiful this specific currently available Murli Manohar Krishna is!

Posted on October 10, 2020October 10, 2020 by remember krishna — Leave a comment

My WOW! DIY Altar Decor – Lighting

diy altar decor lighting using silver morroccan lamps for a krishna altar lights with power plug cords and switches

Our Aussie climate is so very hot, that it was super important to me to choose a light and breezy altar that let in lots of light and air circulation too.

My altar has slats all around – they DO get dusty at the bases where the slats join the frame, but are so airy. I line them with a lightweight Chinese paper or lightweight cotton.

I have my altar set up with internal lights- I turn them on early if I’m going out for the evening, and they are great to help me remember to put my Lords to sleep. I know it’s stupid that I should need to a reminder, but as I don’t put them to rest until just before bed myself I would hate to forget them! (the reason I do that is so that they are not disturbed by the household sounds while resting)

I used these lightbulbs with plugin cords and hung them inside silver morroccan style lanterns (after detaching the handles). You can buy similar bulbs with plugin cords online, on ebay like I did.

altar lighting DIY silver moroccan pendant hanging lights in silver softly illuminate krishna altar

You can find these gorgeous lights online or locally.

If you are interersted, I have a whole Pinterest board with incredible lighting – check it out here

You can buy a bulb/socket/cord that plugs into the wall, & it was important to me to get one with a switch.

Make sure it’s got the correct plug for your country!

Reject harsh lighting, and illuminate your altar with a soft glow. Ensure Krishna’s comfort by making sure that your lighting choices aren’t glaring and bright, angled in Krishna’s and your deities faces like a spotlight.

I have a large picture of Krishna and Balaram running at the back of my altar, I love this inspiring cowherd boy playing picture! Although I’ve been planning for years to add the Krishna and cowherd boys playing on the swing picture in the background. I’m still working on getting that printed to the appropriate size for my altar.

I also want to create some pillars, one for either side of the altar backdrop. Because I don’t want to loose any of the space, I was thinking of making these out of foamcore board, painted, and fixing on to the backdrop in a temporary way.

So my goals for the altar I think are to create a bit more pretty and soft vibe than I have currently, including possibly freshening the curtains I have on the side of the altar, and I’m toying with some ideas for the ceiling.

I really like the idea of having it painted in traditional Indian palace style with scenes from Krsna’s pastimes, or an abstract pretty colored decoration.

For you I have created some DIY Altar inspiration, browse through these completely charming photos & be inspired afresh!

If you have not set up an altar yet and are wondering where and how to start, then view my post which goes into a fair bit of detail on the various types of altars you might want to consider, and some ideas about how to make your altar work for your specific space!

Thanks so much for reading, I would LOVE to hear from you, whether you had a different lighting approach!

Coming up next I’m putting together lighting round up for you – as I know that electric bulbs are definately NOT the only options!

Until then,

Always Remember Krishna & Never Forget Him,

Love

Sita

Posted on March 22, 2020October 10, 2020 by remember krishna — 4 Comments

Home Altar Round up – 10 Inspirational Home Altars!

diy inspirational altars for home deity work vaishnava devotees of lord sri krishna

Appropriate use of the desire to beautify your home is fully realised in setting up Krishna’s altar.

I’ve created a round of inspirational home altars that you will love to look at!

This is more like candy for your eyes than an instructional post – for HOW TO then you can refer to my post covering some of the fundamentals.

In no particular order:

Oh Krishna! Calling the gopis by the moonlight!

Dreamy moonlight and glorious Krishna! Worshipped with sweet Gaura Hari on this most lovely of home altars!

Keeping Syamasundar company

the Gopis of Vrindavan keep Krishna company here, what a riot of beauty!

Srimate Radha & Sri Krishna

Radha and Krishna most beautifully worshipped in this home altar with a custom painted backdrop of Vrindavan. This pujari regularly changes the backdrops, to match outfits, and seasonally, with festivals. I was fortunate enough to make their wigs and paint them!

Krishna & His Animal Friends

Look! A peacock fan, artificial grass, lots of animal friends, and sweet Krishna in this home altar !

Looking for a guide on how to set up an altar for home deity worship? View this post!

Festival season decorations

A glorious fresh leaf backdrop with diy peacock feather fans … so sweet! Home altar worship so fun when involving the family to decorate. You can see all the little carved cows and inhabitants of Vrajabhumi.

Sidelong Glances & their parrot friends

I love how sweet this little Radha and Krishna set is. The way Radha is delicately smaller than Krsna and most especially the parrots on the little swing! Their delicate elaborate altar temple is most charmingly carved and painted. I would lOVE to apply some of this to my altar!

Sri Sri Radha Krishna most lovingly worshipped

Everything of perfection! Little decorative lighting, Krishna’s surabhi cows, a charming cloth on the home altar platform, and oh so many more beautiful considerate finishing touches, how marvellous to see all the care gone into worshipping their wonderful Lordships.

Jesus Appearance Day altar!

candlelight, palm leaves, garlands, and flowers galore – what more do you need!

Showing that an altar can be incredibly simple and yet, so nice!

Finally, not specifically on the home temple topic, but sweet little Krishna deity resting in a charming canopied bed!

I love how much thought has gone into creating this special resting place for Krishna, the little curtains with decorative beading, the pretty and silky bedding, and all that ornamental silverwork which is simply astonishing! You might take off his crown before sleep tho, for ultimate rest 🙂

Setting the mood

with beautiful backdrops! View my post all about backdrops here;

Develop your personal relationship with the Lord!

If you want to know how you can nicely care for Krishna on your home altar, I’m delighted to recommend this series of videos put together by a very nice Vaishnava devotee of the Lord.

Thanks so much for reading, if you have a special altar you would like to see featured in another round up (because who can ever get enough?!) please get in touch with me! You can contact via the contact form or reach out on instagram!

Love, Sita