New Deities...

I recently found myself purchasing a new set of Radha Krishna deities, lol it seems to be my general trend at the begining of the year for the past few years. Well I hope I've matured enough and that these will be the last set of deities I own in this lifetime. Actually this urge to worship Radha Krishna deities again started around September last year where i had found myself sculpting and 8inch pair of Radha Krishna deities which I intended to have a mould taken off and have them cast in marble dust.

Krishna Deity I sculpted

Heres a shot of them when I had tried on clothes. Radharani is on a lotus base hence appears taller. I had mad one base to replicate for both deities.

The deities in a pink outfit

So I Found myself in great anticipation for the moulding and casting of these deities only to find out that the artist couldn't complete this task. This was much to my dissappointment at that stage because I had expected them ready in January 2013 and had prepared some outfits. But however Krishna had his own plan.

A few days before Diwali last year, after sme convincing, I attended the Durban Diwali Festival and was going through the stalls and what they had to offer. Amidst the various puja items and gemstones to my surprise i found a tiny deity of Srimati Radharani, this was probably the tiniest deity I'd encountered thus far. Out of curiousity I enquired if there was a matching Krishna for Her and the assistant found Him. I enquired the price and turns out the guy managing the stall was known to me and gave me a price that was below normal, I had no intention of purchasing more deities let alone such small deities seeing that I already have two sets of 4inch Radha Krishna deities lying unworshipped. Somehow i compulsively agreed to take them.

The deities as they were when I bought Them

I had painted them the following day, the day before Diwali. The day of Diwali was a bit busy for me seeing that i spent most of the preparing offerings and then doing puja. On the day of Govardhan Puja I bathed the deities for the first time and put on some clothes. My university exams were on so I barely had time to make any outfits or jewelry.

 

 

Over Time I grew attached to these deities despite their small size (Krishna is 3.5inches tall and Radharani is 3 inches tall), I was wary of having deities too small because of the difficulty sewing and finding outfits small enough and jewelry of good quality for small deities. Im not very fond of the stiff starched outfits one generally find. This was the reason I had not worshipped the 2 sets of 4inch deities I have. One of the sets a black Krishna and brass Radharani was the result of an order gone horribly wrong. At the begining of 2012 I had paid the Indian supplier with the intention of recieving 8inch Radha Krishna deities however to my surprise upon arrival they were 4.inches tall. After some heated email converstaions there were agreements to send a 6inch set which never materialised. However I somehow see how in the long run how these failled atempts have led to me acquiring these new deities. I previously had the good fortune of worshipping 24inch marble Radha Krishna deities and grew attached to Them knowing that sooner or later I would have to part from Their prescence, somehow I see these deities as being an expansion of them for me to worship on a permanent basis. I guess for every person inclined to deity worship having bigger deities are a dream come true. However I've realised over time its actually the attention that one gives the deity thats satisfying irrespective of the size. I found myself making crowns that fit my 3.5inch deities perfectly something i thought would've been difficult, I've even made custom sized outfit with bead work that fit them to size! So i guess it boils down to the amount of time one is willing to spend.

 

So I am expecting the deities soon. Lets hope all goes well..