In the making of Atapattam - Part 1

Atapattama = octagonal frame = the basic shape of a Wesak lantern
...


And these are my atapattam, in negative mode!

Remember I said I bought 2 portable atapattam frames last time? The frames were plastic, durable and easy to join... is what they (the sellers) said but.. the latter.. 'easy to join' part.. wasn't quite the case. Me who do things by trial and error had a hard time putting 6 plastic squares together and binding their joints with those Lego shaped plastic fasteners. The hardest part wasn't getting the atapattam shape but trying to fix the fasteners, as they wouldn't even budge! -__-

After scraping and chipping my nails and getting my fingertips all bloodshot, an idea suddenly hit my *microscopic* brain. I searched the house high and low and found an excellent device to streamline the process of fixing the fasteners.

And guess what I found? The super efficient gizmo that can fix any stubborn fasteners super fast was none other than.. my mom's comb! It was slim enough to fit in between the atapattam joints and fix the fasteners quite easily. Within minutes everything was attached and I got the atapattam shape with no sweat. *no pain, no gain*

So.. next came another crucial part. I had to choose colors for the atapattam. Dad bought me the tissue papers a few days before, so I had no choice or say in them. I lined them up and stared at the colors - red, indigo, dark green, pale yellow, pastel pink, dark orange and white. O__o I could only come up with nothing but the weirdest, wackiest combinations and so.. that's exactly what I did!

For starters I chose white tissue paper to cover up the first atapattama. But.. I seem to have forgotten something important. Um.. I didn't quite know how to wrap it up! It's not like wrapping up a gift box you see. My common sense told me that I had to at least cut and paste the paper in pieces. But then I wondered how to measure them up now that I've joined all the parts of the atapattam!

Well you see, we usually buy the atapattam off the market, the decorated ones ready to be hanged. And it was ages ago that I ever pasted and decorated a frame, and that too with my sis' help, so I've practically forgotten the art of wrapping an atapattam. *sigh*

But I didn't give up. First I spread the white tissue on a table, then placed one atapattama on it, with the square side down. Then marked the edges, keeping an extra inch gap all around the square. Then using that as a model, folded the tissue paper into 6 equal sized squares and cut them off. Yes, I cut off 6 squares! O__O

Is that a problem? It IS a problem.. cause.. you don't exactly need 6 squares to wrap the atapattama, since the top and the bottom squares are supposed to be left open! -__- *I remembered that golden rule much later, only while I was half way through pasting the pieces!* Anyway I did the same for the triangular sides and finally set all the cut pieces aside. *phew* *one down, dozen more steps to go*

Next I was supposed to cut the frills.. but.. instead I started testing out paper cut designs. To my horror.. I was out of touch with doing paper cuts too! O__O So again trial and error came to my rescue and finally, after 10 mts worth paper cuts I made a nice carpet of confetti on the floor *yeah, made a real mess* and found a few satisfying designs like...


this... my simplest and most primitive paper cut (the red artwork in the middle).. and...


...this. The perforated design (indigo one) was the toughest but it didn't quite end up the way I wanted. -__-


Then I remembered that I forgot to cut the frills! O__O

So next I started with cutting the frills. FYI cutting frills is my forte. *ya, am bragging!* =P Every year for Wesak I don't miss making festooned frills and chains, all made of tissue papers of vivid colors, so isn't it inevitable that it becomes my forte? My sis taught me how to get the wavy effect to the frills to look like..


this. A nice sleek wavy frill.

It's really easy to make them. All I did was cut the tissue paper into half and then quarter. Take one quarter and folded the lengthy side all the way up (each fold = 0.5 inches thick) until there's a half an inch strip left. Then I sliced only the folded portion (not the left out strip) evenly, into half inch thick slices. And once done just gave it a shake and let the frills unfurl.

The left out strip holds all those individual frills together, that's why you can't cut it all the way up. And the result... is just as you see in the above pic. *phew* * two down, (dozen-1) more steps to go*

So ya, like in the pic I took indigo and pastel pink tissue papers to cut the frills. *this pink was a light color even though my cam shows it as dark* Now.. it was time to paste. So I made a glue called 'paappa' out of (all purpose) flour and water. Too much water and it becomes a batter, too lil water and it becomes a dough. So this glue called paappa had to be somewhere in between.

You'll know it when you see the mixture becoming a creamy, gooey, sticky paste. Off I went on pasting the cut pieces right and left. While pasting I cut off the superfluous paper to make it look neat at the edges. I pasted all the white tissue pieces on all sides. *of course I left out the top and bottom squares* =P

Then hanged the atapattama using twine and started pasting the frills right around its bottom square. Once done I stared at my hands. They were completely covered in a thick coating of multicolored paappa.. which had already become as hard as cement. -__- *three down, (dozen - 2) more steps to go*

And then.. I just remembered that I didn't cut frills for the sides of the atapattama! O__O

...

To be contd. *sigh*

Stay tuned for the next episode! ^__^