colorful tops

Perched on leafy grey branches, a pink, yellow and a green sparrow contemplate life’s journeys. Their colorful presence is accentuated over a monochrome background for the front cover of this personal journal. The back of the handcrafted journal replicates an ancient postcard. The screen printed images are bordered by olive green cotton, including the ribbon. From Asha Prabha, the journal features 48 pages of blank handmade paper.

Moonlight warms the night high in the Andes where cool breeze from distant peaks caresses the senses. A musician plays his music, sending clear and sonorous notes into the velvet night. Working on a handloom, Teofilo Choquecahua conjures a song of peace in joyous color. His music summons a dove in this cubist style alpaca tapestry.

A hem at the top permits insertion of a display rod (not included).

Marveling at a garden of flowers and peacocks, Hindu Goddess Radha and Supreme God Krishna leave a trail of love and compassion emblematic of their eternal bond. Inseparable since their love began, Radha and Kirshna exist within each other, making their existence mutually inclusive. Their pure consciousness in the garden scene demonstrates their inner peace, symbolized by each flower, swirl and bird. Krishna's leftward-facing peacock feather crown alludes to the presence of two peacocks who mirror their respective deities, with one looking right and the other left. Each vine of the garden spirals into its own unique shape, providing foliage and a home for colourful flowers and little birds. Kirshna becomes one with this garden, mingling with the spiral vines, seemingly floating across the scene. Bharti Dayal paints 'Eternal Love of Radha Krishna' in a two-dimensional contemporary style to concentrate on narrating one of Hinduism's greatest love stories for a modern audience.

"Madhubani paintings are in fact a simplistic manifestation of the philosophical heights achieved by Indian civilization for the universal power of love, longing and peace; the quest of all beings," Dayal says.