வெள்ளி கோலம் · drawn on a 5 × 5 pulli grid
Velli Kolam · Friday kolam
Dot grid
5 × 5 pulli
Difficulty
Intermediate
Draw time
About 7 minutes
Best for
Aadi Velli and other Fridays
Fridays, and especially the Fridays of Aadi and Margazhi, call for something fuller than the everyday design. This one layers diagonal petals over the double diamond and rings every outer dot, corner and side alike, so the finished kolam reads as a dense, generous lattice. Traditionally drawn slightly larger than a weekday kolam.
How to draw it
- 1
Place a 5 × 5 grid of dots.
- 2
Join the outer midpoints into a large diamond.
- 3
Draw the inner diamond through the middle ring of dots.
- 4
Loop a petal on each diagonal between the two diamonds.
- 5
Circle every outer dot, corners first, then the side midpoints.
- 6
Finish with the centre bindu.
Tradition note: kolams are drawn at dawn on a washed threshold and swept away by evening. Rice flour is the traditional medium, so the drawing doubles as food for ants and small birds.