Lakmini Adikari, an Arts graduate of University of Kelaniya has a greater interest in creating art using beans and seeds of all colours, shapes and sizes.
Adikari a resident of Kallanchiya, Galgamuwa is currently working as a development officer at the Galgamuwa, Base Hospital. She creates crafts whenever she gets the time.
Adikari likes to make pictures of birds using the seeds. “I love the idea of drawing the shape of a bird and then filling them with seeds,” she said. Her parents said that even though they are living a life amidst great difficulties, their daughter’s talent and passion for art has kept them going without any regrets. They further expressed that she was so keen to make those pictures perfect so she would spend hours making one craft.
“Since I was a kind I was so interested in making crafts by pasting together different things. It was in grade seven that I started to explore different seeds and the wonders they could do to my pictures”, she said.
Adikari said that she first started with making crafts of her favorite birds and so far she has completed around 15 crafts.
“I hardly get time to concentrate and do these crafts now. It is not very easy managing my time with my job. But whenever I get free time, I spent on making these crafts. So far I have made pictures of several kinds of birds as well”, she said. She said that when a normal person sees it, he/ she might think that making this was not a big deal at all.
“But it is not easy as everyone thinks. I was able to finish all the crafts very neat because of my patience. I am very keen even about the smaller features of the birds. It is very interesting to observe them. The seeds are also in different forms and shapes, therefore it is not easy to paste all of them according to the shape and unique features of the birds. Every bird has a unique feature and I always wanted to enhance it using different grains and seeds”, she said.
Adikari make her crafts on a piece of cloth and she expressed that it was not easy to paste them neatly and added that she had to put a lot of effort to make it look perfect. She said that she draws the pictures of the bird on a cloth and then start pasting the seeds on it and added that she would first get the shape of the bird and the hardest parts are its neck, beak and wings.
“One of the specialties in my craft is that I don’t paint the seeds in different colours. I like the natural color of that and I like to keep it that way”, she said.
She further said that she also finds all rare seeds to make them look more real and natural.
“I don’t color the seeds but would somehow find seeds in different colors to make the picture look more attractive and colorful. One cannot use all the rice seeds also. I usually use Samba, Naadu, sewadhel and heenetti grains to make crafts. ”, she added.
Adikari said that a lot of people in her village also help her find these rare grains.
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