Bloomin' Design Studio

Welcome to our Navaratri Golu also known as Bommai golu or festival of dolls. Hope you enjoy our creations as much as we did creating them. Not many scenes were created this year as the main focus was my temple scene and also wanted to keep the overall look clean and simple.

The Golu

Outside Kolam


Just a simple kolam drawn using wet rice flour and an araku border as folks will be stepping on it before entering our house.

First Step

Hanuman, Lakshman, Rama and Sita next to Lord Venkateshwara and Padmavati

Second Step - Vaikunta set

Parthasarathy set with the 12 alwars, the followers of Lord Vishnu

Third Step - Couples

Thallaiaattu bommai, Jaipur couple, the traditional marapatchi bommai which ia a must for every golu and a Delhi couple.

Fourth Step - Aarupadi Murugan Set

Murugan idols from Tiruchandur, Pallamulzhicholle, Tiruthanni, Swamimalai, Tiruparamkundram and Palani

Fifth Step

My Musical Ganesha creations on the left with the instruments in mostly white with highlights of black and red.

Dasavatharam(the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu) can be seen on the right. My daughter keeps switching the idols here and hence will not correspond to the actual order of the avatars. The ten avatars in the right order are Matsya(big fish), Kurma(Turtle), Varaha(Boar), Narasimha(half man and half beast), Vamana(sdwarf priest), Parashurama(Rama with an axe), Ramachandra(Rama), Balram(Krishna’s elder brother), Krishna and Kalki

Chettiar Bommai

These dolls respresent the business community and hence you can see them selling grains and lentils.

Bommai Rangoli

What other rangoli can be more suitable than one which has drawings of dolls for this festival of dolls. Used sand for background, rangoli powder, rice flour, brown rice, crushed tea leaves, rhinestones, sticks and of course my daughter’s favorite embellishment glitter. The rangoli was made to look like a rug.

Park Scene

My 5-year daughter created this park scene and wanted no help or suggestions from anyone. Bench was painted in gold(her current favorite color), barely standing slide, free merry-go-around, silver bench, teeter-totter also called see-saw, a swing set and sand box on the right. This scene is the highlight of our golu.

Temple Scene

All the pieces in this scene was handmade by me with the exception of the coconut tree which was a hand-me-down from a family friend. A little boy monitoring a chappal stand can be seen in front of the temple on the left. A lady selling flowers and coconut can be seen on the right. She is supposed to also be selling bananas which disappeared and must be one of my daughter’s prank. A white elephant was added to this scene on the request of my daughter as she believes that every temple has to have a white elephant (the St. Louis temple has two white elephants in the front).

Boy monitoring the chappal/shoe stand

The boy, slippers and shoe are made of clay here.

Coconut, flowers and fruit vendor lady

The lady, coconut, bananas and flowers(jasmine and others) made of clay except for the jewelry on the lady.

The Ganesh idol inside the temple

The idol was made to look like it was carved out of stone.

The Poojari with tamboolam

The poojari comes with a white dhoti with gold border and has a red angostram with gold border too and is seen holding a tamboolam with coconut, banana and flowers. He also has a shaven head with just a kudumi on the back of his head.

The Navagrahas

The Navagrahas are usually carved out of a piece of stone found in the temple itself. This piece is made to look like something carved out of stone. The configuration of nine idols, called Navagraha, represents the nine principal heavenly bodies. Each of them confer different benefits like good health (Surya - Sun), Victory (Chandra - Moon), Wisdom (Buddha -Mercury), honor (Guru - Jupiter), Vocal skills (Sukra - Venus), joy and happiness (Sani - Saturn), strength (Rahu), personal opulence (Ketu) and family prosperity (Angaraka - Mars)

Some of my creations from my golu are for sale. If you like any of my creations and like to order something similar for your next year’s golu or just for displaying around the house, please send me an email at (bhanu@bloomingdesignstudio.com) or leave me a comment.

Thanks for visiting my humble home to take a look at our golu.