Saturday, August 23, 2014

I Watched This Artist Doing Wonders With His Small Knife!

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We went for a wedding at Coimbatore, a couple of days back.  The wedding went on very well. The food was very good!!! But we still talk about the vegetable carving they displayed at the choultry!

It is a fashion nowadays to display this art during weddings.  I had admired this art at many weddings.   I saw some beautiful art on copra (dry coconut) also here.  It came from Bangalore, which is famous for copra art.  Then we saw this man carving a pumpkin...peeling/scraping the outer skin thinly off from the veg. and then drawing small small squares on it with a wooden pencil-like stick with a sharp tip.  Then started sketching the design for carving. Nearby was a nearly finished crocodile (!) which was created out of bitter gourds.  He has got a couple of small, sharp knives. He holds the knife closely in his fingers and carves these images beautifully.  One assistant was chopping cabbage on the floor, red and green, separately.  When I asked Samy, the artist, 'is it for the cows?' (I thought he was cutting the wastes!), he said that it was for decoration!  I regret for not taking a picture of him when he was working.  I was standing there and watching for a long time! It was magic! Now, to the images.  Click on the pictures to have a better look:


So many images! You can see the cabbage strips on the floor!

The beautiful peacock! All the brinjals, carrots, beetroots, moolis were sliced and pinned.  The feathers were balanced on a couple of banana stems first and then removed or are they under the 'feathers'?!

I think, this was the best image! Half-way image/sculpture of the bitter gourd crocodile...You can notice the scraped pumpkin on the side which turned into Ganesha later! The crocodile is without teeth here, at this stage!
Crocodile with sharp lauki (bottle gourd) vegetable teeth and mooli, beetroot eyes! Now, I notice the carrot bits in its teeth, blood?! Bottle gourd snake is lying nearby! And '(beetroot) smiling rabbit' is sitting happily! Lauki is the main vegetable used here, I feel.
Southekai/cucumber tortoise!
Birds out of mooli, lauki, carrot and beetroot! The flowers were looking very natural!

The penguins out of big brinjal, small brinjal and carrots!
Srinivasa image out of red pumpkin!Beautiful, isn't it?
Ganesha with garland, modak, etc.   Even the sacred thread is there!

I admire this young artist and I would like him to go places.  He deserves it.  I should have taken his picture when he was working...

His address:

T.M.Samy,
Excellent Carving,
Vegetable & Ice Carving Decoration,
30, RR Layout,
New Siddhapudur,
Coimbatore-641044

Phone: 9885281100, 9698981100

Email: excellentcarving@gmail.com

30 comments :

Swaram said...

Wonderful Sandhya! What attention to detail, including the poonal on the Ganesha :)

Nice of you to share his details too :)

Swaram said...

Wow, am first~ Something for coming back to reading blogs after such a long time. How have you been?

SG said...

Super. Thanks for telling us about this and sharing these beautiful photos. I have heard of ice carving and did not know about vegetable carving (till now).

Sandhya said...

SWARAM: So happy to see you here, Swaram! Missed you!

Yes, he might get more jobs. He deserves it, I feel.

Thanks for the first comment!


SG: I saw the ice peacock in my grand niece's wedding reception in London. It was beautiful. This person do ice carving too! I don't know how it stands without melting in our hot country!

Thanks for the comment, SG!

Destination Infinity said...

The crocodile and penguins are very cute!

Excellent carvings, indeed! ? :)

Destination Infinity

Jeevan said...

He has done an admirable job! Enjoyed the beautiful details on the last two... Yes, it has become a fashion these days to display vegetable carvings. My mom too was talking about this after attending a marriage reception sometime back. Instead of being annoyed by the light music in weddings, something like this would be amusing to watch.

Rama Ananth said...

Beautiful carvings Sandhya. This has been a common practice in every wedding. I have also seen it in so many weddings.
Although I admire these artists, but i cannot help wondering what happens to all the vegetables and fruits, i hope they have some way of re-utilising them in some productive way.
Do you know what they do after the wedding with all these artistic creations, please if you know do share it here with all of us.
Each one of these creations are beautiful, and shows the amount patience one needs to be doing it full time.

Rama Ananth said...

Beautiful carvings Sandhya. This has been a common practice in every wedding. I have also seen it in so many weddings.
Although I admire these artists, but i cannot help wondering what happens to all the vegetables and fruits, i hope they have some way of re-utilising them in some productive way.
Do you know what they do after the wedding with all these artistic creations, please if you know do share it here with all of us.
Each one of these creations are beautiful, and shows the amount patience one needs to be doing it full time.

Sandhya said...

DESTINATION INFINITY: Rabbits?! I loved them too! Their faces look as if they are smiling at the camera!


JEEVAN: I too had been seeing vegetable carvings in wedding for the past few years. But this was unique. And I saw them doing this in front of me. If he joins a 5 star hotel, he might get good money for his hard work.


RAMA ANANTH: I noticed the workers sharing the vegetable, the next afternoon after the wedding. Our weddings are made for wasting money, you know?! But this is an art. Beautiful art.


Shail said...

That's really awesome work. I liked the crocodile a lot. All of them are good.

Anonymous said...

Lovely! This is one art thankfully that is actually flourishing! :D

Ramakrishnan said...

Mind blowing vegetable art ! However I have noticed that very few people actually stop by and admire these works of art so skilfully executed .I also hope that the vegetables are subsequently used in the next days cooking and not discarded as garbage !

Sandhya said...

SHAIL MOHAN: Yes, the crocodile looked real!I watched him fix the teeth...real art.


HITCHWRITER: Yes, Dhiren!


RAMAKRISHNAN RAMANATHAN: It was so good that many people were standing there and admiring and discussing about it.

I saw the security people and some women workers sharing the vegetables. I saw them removing the pins and storing the vegetables in bags. The weather was good, so the vegetables looked good.

Rahul Bhatia said...

Very fascinating!

BK Chowla, said...

Very innovative.
I know ,there used to be specialists who did similar images with Ice carving

Avada Kedavra said...

All of them are very nice. This is the first time I saw such vegetable carvings.

sm said...

wonderful seems he is expert

Sandhya said...

RAHUL BHATIA: Isn't it?!


BK CHOWLA: This person does that also, it seems. I saw some ice carvings in London.


AVADA KEDAVRA: This has become common now in weddings. But these images are unique/different.


SM: Yes, he seems to be an expert!

Krishna/കൃഷ്ണ said...

Wonderful vegetable carving...

thanks for sharing

ashok said...

amazing patience and skill!

Bikram said...

THat is beautiful and thank you so much for sharing with us ..

My best wishes to the artist ...


Bikram's

Anonymous said...

Fantastic, eco-friendly work by the artist Mr. Samy!!
It's good of you to provide his contact details. Hopefully, this will help him get some more orders.
I had a small doubt whether the vegetables were being wasted, but you clarified in a comment that you "noticed the workers sharing the vegetable, the next afternoon after the wedding." Of course, even if the vegetables are wasted, it's absolutely nothing compared to the wasting that goes at weddings.

Sandhya said...

KRISHNA: Thank you, Krishna!


ASHOK: Yes, Ashok!


BIKRAM: Yes, his work is too good!


PROACTIVE INDIAN: Yes, too much wastes in our weddings! A huge crowd was admiring his work in the mandap! Hope he gets many orders and go places!

Sai Charan said...

Excellent carvings Sandhyaji, thanks a lot for sharing them!! :) I have seen vegetable carving before, specially as a design work to decorate Ganeshji during Ganesh Chaturthi!!! But this work is amazing is extraordinary!!

Among all the items, the doves look so real and so it the crane!! :)

Cheers,
Sai :)

Sandhya said...

SAI CHARAN: Even I was amazed at the way he was working with vegetables.

Yes, the doves and cranes look very real!

Rachna said...

Lovely! Just fabulous.

radha said...

While I appreciate the carving, I wonder what they do with the vegetables later. Do they discard them ? For if they do it is a shame. This is indeed an art. It is fortunate you observed and recorded it. Most people do not give it a second glance as they go straight to the food.

Sandhya said...

RACHNA: Yes, Rachna, thank you!


RADHA: Welcome here after a long time!

The weather was very pleasant in Coimbatore on that day. The vegetables were still fresh the next day. I noticed the security and other workers sharing the vegetables. And you know how things are wasted in our weddings! This is nothing!

Ankita said...

excellent carvings but i personally dislike this art for a lot of vegetables and fruits get wasted.

Sandhya said...

ANKITA: Our weddings mean 'waste of money'. Here, the security people and other workers shared the vegetable the next day. They were quite good, since the weather was good. Drizzling all the time.

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