Medieval Art of Sri Lanka (Gajasinghe) in Quilling

Gajasinghe is a drawing of a mythical creature, which is part lion & part elephant. This dates back to the period we had kings ruling our nation somewhere in 377 BC or even before.It was in 1505 that the foreigners invaded our country and the end of Kings ruling. Mythical lions paintings at that period was common as the then Sinhala people in our country believed that they were descendants of  a lion and a human girl, who had a son and daughter together. The Lion symbol plays a major role, to date, in our country and is seen in our country flag too. These old paintings can be found even today in ancient temple walls. The colouring they used at the time must have been excellent cause even many centuries later the paintings are still visible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I enjoy turning and twisting the strips as I have got used to doing it now. So expect more of these pictures cause I intend doing more of these medieval paintings of Sri Lanka in quilling

Hansa puttuwa (Entwined Swans)

                Hansa Puttuwa is a traditional and a very important & popular motif coming down from ancient Sri Lanka. May be from the Anuradhapura Era. Probably around the 4th century BC. This motif is commonly used at traditional Sinhala Buddhist weddings, from Jewelry to back drop decorations at wedding ceremonies.The stage (Poruwa) where the couple stands for the rituals,  is decorated with this motif using various raw material like coconut palms or flowers in a very rich manner. The brides necklace is often in silver or gold, engraved with this motif.                                                                                                                                      I have quilled it in line art or graphic method. I would call it creative quilling. The paper of course is A4 and the strips are 1/8 inches. It took me some time cause it wasn't easy to twist the strip to shape. Hope you enjoy it. Happy quilling till I come again :)