Hello!

In this instructable, I'm going to show you how to make a warli themed wall clock.

But what is WARLI ?

Warli is one of the oldest forms of Indian folk art and has its origins in the Warli region of Maharashtra. This beautiful folk art mainly makes use of geometric shapes such as circles, triangles and squares to depict social life.It was traditionally created by the tribal women.

The paintings are beautifully executed and resembles pre-historic cave paintings in execution and usually depict scenes of human figures engaged in activities like hunting, dancing, sowing and harvesting. This extremely rudimentary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary: a circle, a triangle and a square. The circle and triangle come from their observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to obey a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land.

The Warli people believe in harmony between nature and man, and these beliefs are often reflected in their paintings. Warli art is a depiction of their daily routine and the nature in equilibrium. Human and animal bodies are represented by two triangles joined at the tip; the upper triangle depicts the trunk and the lower triangle the pelvis. Their precarious equilibrium symbolizes the balance of the universe, and of the couple. One of the most popular themes in Warli art is a spiral chain of humans around one central motif. This in accordance with their belief that life is an eternal journey, and it has no beginning and end.

The beauty of Warli art lies in it’s humble nature. The paintings are done using natural materials only. They are done either on walls or cloth, smeared with red mud, cow dung or ash for base. White paint is made with rice flour mixed with natural gum from tree. Paintings are done, merely with hands or thin bamboo sticks.

So let us gather all that we would need to get a gist of this lovely Indian folk art into our own house!

Supplies

1.Canvas Board (12 inch X 12 inch, in case you decide to use a different size all the measurements mentioned below will differ)

(You may also use a pre-stretched canvas)

2.Clock Movement Machine and Clock hands

(If you use a canvas board like mine, then make sure that the length of the threaded shaft of the clock movement machine is greater than the thickness of the board. In case you are using a pre-stretched canvas, you shouldn't have any problem finding the right clock movement machine!)

3.Artists' Acrylic Colors (We are gonna use a rainbow color scheme here!)

4.White acrylic paint ( I'll be giving the entire canvas a white paint coat first)

5. Paint brushes ( One large size, 12 or 14 should be good enough and a small size, 0 or 00 sounds about right)

6.Scissors

7.Ruler

8.Geometry Compass

9. Plain paper (Lets make our lives simpler by cutting out a stencil first)

10. Screwdriver (To fit the machine and get our clock working.)

11.Glue

12.Clock Hook (I'll be using something I got from an old clock )

13. Black ball Pen / Marker

14. Detail Pen Knife (Be careful!)

15. Pencil

16.Drill (optional)

Step 1: Planning the Layout! (optional)

The first thing we shall be doing is ascertaining what comes where!

So we start this by marking 0.5 cm from each edge and making a border (this will become the black border)

Next I'll be drawing a diagonal by joining any one pair of opposite corners

Taking any one of these corners as center,draw an arc of radius 3 cm.

Then measure a distance of 15.5 cm from the same corner along the diagonal (this point shall act as the center of the clock)

Taking this point as the center , draw two circles using a geometric compass, of radius 7 cm and 10.5 cm.

Now take the other corner as the center ,and draw an arc of radius 14 cm.

Finally draw arcs of 7 cm radius at the remaining two corners.

And the layout is ready!

P.S. - In case you decide to skip this step, you just need to mark the center of the clock at 16 cm (0.5 cm edge + 15.5 cm) from any one of the corners along the diagonal.

Step 2: Make a Hole

Next, we need to make a hole at the center we just marked in order to facilitate the fitting of the clock movement machine later on.

I'll be doing this using the geometric compass.

You may use a drill, if preferred.

Make sure that the hole is neither too big nor too small for the clock movement machine.It should fit perfectly.

Step 3: Applying the White Coat

Cover the entire canvas with white acrylic paint.

Its better to use a large sized brush(12 or 14 as mentioned earlier), that would make your work quicker and easier.

Once you finish applying a thick paint coat,keep it aside and let it dry.

Step 4: Making a Stencil (1)

So we are all set to make our first stencil.

To do this, I'll be taking a plain paper.

Taking any point as the center, draw 4 circles of radius 7 cm, 7.5 cm, 10 cm and 10.5 cm.

In the innermost circle, draw lines at 0, 30, 60, 90 degrees and so on.

(refer figure 1 for a better a understanding)

Now, we shall look at each of these sectors individually

Divide each sector into two halves (by drawing a line at 15 degrees), extend this dividing line till the outermost circle and using this line as the guideline draw a pair of triangles as shown in the figure 2.

Once you finish, you should have a total of 12 triangle pairs.

Each pair will act as the body of a cute little warli human figures.

Step 5: Making the Stencil (2)

Now we move on to the second stencil.

To make it we shall take a common center and draw quadrants of radius 1.5 cm, 3.5 cm, 5 cm, 7 cm, 8.5 cm, 10.5 cm, 12 cm, 14 cm and 14.5 cm.

Draw the bodies of the warli human figures (triangle pairs) as shown in the figure.

Step 6: Cutting It Out!

Carefully cut out the the triangle pairs using a detail pen knife

(Be very careful while handling it, in case you are not used to using it please use all safety measures)

Once you are done cutting out the warli figures, cut out all the extra paper.

And both your stencils are ready!

Step 7: Let's Paint!

Now let us start painting our clock in a way that is easy and quick.

So for this ,we shall tape stencil 1 to the canvas such that the center of the stencil coincides with the hole we drilled in step 2.

Once the stencil is taped properly, start painting the figures.

I shall be using the rainbow color scheme.

Starting from the doll to the right of 90 degree at the top, we shall color the figures in the following order:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Yellow, Violet

And then repeat the same order.

Let it dry for 10 minutes and then remove the stencil carefully.

Next we shall tape the stencil 2 to the corner right below the drilled hole and paint the figures in the order Green, Yellow, Orange, Red starting from below.

Once the paint dries, remove the taped stencil.

Tape the same stencil (stencil 2) to the other 2 corners and paint the figures in Blue and Violet.

Let it dry and carefully remove the stencil.

(Refer the figures for a better understanding)

Step 8: Finishing Touches

Using a thin brush/black pen/ marker (whichever suits you better) outline the body of the warli human figures .

Also draw their hands, legs and head as shown.

(in Warli art , heads are represented by a circle, while legs and hands are usually drawn as lines)

P.S.- Note that 2 different kinds of heads have been drawn in this artwork.

Step 9: Adorning Your Clock a Bit More!

Let us now beautify our clock further,

First, taking the drilled hole as a center , draw two circles of radius 6 cm and 5.2 cm.

Now draw the pattern shown in the figure inside the ring that's formed.

Once you are done with this, add a tiny pattern at the only corner that is left vacant

You may or may not draw the same pattern. However if you wish to draw your own pattern ,keep in mind that it made up of circles, triangles, squares,dots and lines only so as to not to lose the essence of the warli folk art.

Paint the edge of the canvas black, so as to get a 0.5 cm thick black border.

Now the only thing left to be done is to paint cute little spirals in the gap between two warli figures which make up the central circle. Each spiral should be painted in the same color as that of the warli figure to the left of it.

These spirals will act as the numbers of the clock!