Step 1 - Planning

As most of us reading this article will not be doing idol-making as a full-time job, it is worth spending some time first on research. This will give you ideas on what to use, how to start and more importantly how you will want your Ganesha to look and dress.

Step 2 - A visit to your local market

We now need to get the materials like clay "shadu mati", eco-friendly colour etc. The clay is available in different shades of grey, red, white etc. Also, it is recommended to get sculpting tools but it's optional.

Note that apart from clay you can also use any other eco-friendly non-toxic material to create your Ganesha.

Step 3 - Shree Ganesh

In this stage, you are going to start making the idol, so you first start by mixing the clay with a proportionate amount of water and creating the base. You can have your choice of what shape the base would be oval, round, squarish etc. But most importantly this step acts as a warm-up activity and silently prepares you for the upcoming magical experience.

Ganapathi in most cases will be dressed in a dhoti(this is a traditional Indian attire worn on auspicious occasions like puja, marriage etc.). So when you create the lower part of the idol you also need to create the dhoti or the costume as you give the shape of the legs.

Next is the tummy and the chest part, create proportionate round shapes using "shadu mati" and place them one above the other. Now is also the right time to create separate shapes of hands and attach them to the main body. It is vital that the right hand would depict a blessing posture & left hand would have a ladoo(a popular Indian sweet) placed in the palm.

Remember to blend each stage with clear water and a paintbrush before you move to the next.

At this point, You should be proud of yourself to have reached so far but remember there is no time to rest as you cannot just keep the head and trunk to be finished later. All needs to be completed in one go as the shadu mati is moist and sticky.

Step 4 - The head & trunk

There will be many ways of approaching this but the process we used is we created the base structure of the head as a semi-round shape and placed it above the chest. We then attached the trunk and the ears by meticulously blending them such that they all look and feel like a single component. Once this is all in place we need to carve out the eyes and add the tooth.

Before I conclude this blog, here is a poem on Lord Ganesha.

Published on: SEP 13, 2022