Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu festival, celebrated in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, notably India and Nepal. Raksha Bandhan means "bond of protection". It is observed on the full moon day of the which typically falls in Gregorian calendar month of August.

RAKHI

A sister ties a Rakhi (a sacred thread) on her brother's wrist with a prayer for his prosperity and happiness. This symbolizes the sister's love. The brother gives her a token gift and a promise to protect her.

WHY WE MADE THIS INSTRUCTABLE

Since the evolution of RAKHI, it has changed a lot, From a simple thread to sparkling, glittering fancy wrist band. Nowadays almost all the RAKHIS we get are embellished with fancy, colorful, sparkling plastic beads. Suppose even if 50% of Indian population (which is close to 67,000,000,0_ in August 2017) ties Rakhi, and if each Rakhi contains 1 gm of plastic beads. Than 670 tons of plastic beads has already been used while making RAKHIS.

PROBLEM

Being a sacred thread, Rakhis never goes into dustbin, thus it never goes for recycling. Hardly anyone can relocate their old Rakhi because within few days it breaks and goes into environment. Those plastic beads pollutes our rivers and soil. Birds and fishes inadvertently feed on it, mistaking it for food, and it leads to death.

THE SOLUTION

Always Make and encourage others to make Environmentally Friendly Rakhis . Plastic and glasses are not the only material which can be used for making Rakhis, To minimize the use of plastics in Rakhi making we made this Instructable and a video showing how to craft world’s best looking & environment friendly Rakhis.

Step 1: Things You Need

Things shown here are just to crafts below shown designs only. You can choose thousands of other material tools and techniques your own environmentally friendly RAKHIS.

Step 2: Apply Fabric Metallic Color

Apply fabric metallic color on few selected design elements like seeds, shells and grains which you want to shine or have some special effect.

Step 3: Make Bands

You can Make RAKHI bands using embroidery threads or from any thread which is strong, soft and looks colorful.

Step 4: Cut Handmade Sheet

Take any dark color Handmade-sheet and cut it into 2 X 2 sq inches to paste seeds and other design elements. We have choose handmade-sheet for this purpose it stronger than any other easily available paper material.

Step 5: Paste Design Elements

We would suggest you arrange those seed and elements on any surface without applying any glue to visualize your final ideas, then start arranging and pasting them using any synthetic resin glue or Fevicol. You can use tweezers for better handling of smaller elements.

Step 6: Dry & Trim Visible Sheet

Let it dry for two hours in shadow and trim visible handmade paper using wire-cutter only because wire-cutter can easily trim smallest part from all the corners.

Step 7: Mount RAKHI Tops

Prepare mounting base by tracing and cutting the profile of previously made RAKHI tops using handmade-sheets. Cut RAKHI bands in half and past them on either side of the mounting base. Finally past RAKHI on tops of it.