Simple Lines, Beautiful Madhubani Borders
How much can you do with a line?
I have been playing around with Madhubani-inspired borders lately, and this started as a very simple experiment. [Jump to the Free Printable Sheet, if in a hurry :)]
I wondered: how much beauty can a few lines add to a basic shape?
So I took some familiar shapes – a triangle, a diamond, a leaf-like form, a curve, an almond-like design and began playing with them.
The shapes themselves were nothing complicated. The fun was in what happened when I surrounded them with simple repeated lines.
And suddenly, they began to look like borders.
A shape, some lines, and a little repetition
Geometric shapes are an important part of the Madhubani art form. Shapes filled with bright colours and patterns add to the beauty of these traditional paintings. And when the main painting has intricate patterns, simple borders can give the artwork a neat finish.
Take the first one, in these border patterns. A simple almond or leaf shape, repeated across the strip. Then I filled the space around it with straight lines. The next one uses diamonds. Then came semicircles, triangles and curved leaf-like shapes.
The idea remained the same: keep the main shape simple and let the lines around it do some of the work.
There is something quite satisfying about repetition. Draw one line, then another, then another… and before long, an ordinary shape starts looking rather dressed up. 😀
What happens when the lines take over?
I also tried a strip where there is no decorative motif at all, but just lines.
It made me wonder whether we sometimes make decorative art more complicated than it needs to be. Perhaps a little repetition and patience can take us quite a long way.
And then I made a border around the borders!
This was the part that made me smile.
After making all these little border designs, I thought – why not put a border around the whole collection? So I did. And, of course, that border too is made with simple half circles! 😀
It became a little experiment within an experiment: basic shapes, simple lines, repeated patterns and then another simple border holding them all together.
Want to play with them? Download for FREE
I have put these patterns together as a free printable practice sheet. You can print it out and try colouring the patterns, copying them, changing the shapes or simply using the ideas to create your own borders.
You can find it on my [Free Printables] page — no email sign-up, no fuss. Just download and have fun with it.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE MADHUBANI BORDERS PRINTABLE
Print it, practise the borders, colour them in — and make them yours.
You could use the following for best results:
I am curious to see what these very simple lines can become in someone else’s hands.
These are my experiments inspired by the decorative language of Madhubani art, rather than presenting them as the traditional designs.
