The humble, obstructive tamarind seed

      

Hi folks,
                How r u all?? It has been raining  here off and on and the Software city (previously Garden city:))) is back with windy, gloomy (sleepy) days. Steaming cups of tea with snacks, a nice book,  a corner couch, good backgroud music-if you have all these, voila, heaven on the earth!!
            We South Indians cannot do without sambar, or many other preparations with tamarind pulp. Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) (from Arabic تمر هندي, romanized tamar hind, " Indian date") is a tree in the family Fabaceae. (source Wikipedia).  I remember my mother storing tamarind in ceramic jars (or bharani) mixed with table salt. ( still do not know the purpose of storing like that!!Maybe, for preservation) Tamarind in natural form is seeded. To make the lives easier for working women, we find seedless tamarind, tamarind concentrates these days in all the markets. 
                I don't know why, suddenly, one day, I fell in love with these dark-brown, obstuctive tamarind seeds. It is common to throw away these seeds while squeezing the juice from tamarind. When I closely observed a tamarind seed, I felt it has a shining, bright texture, hardness, smoothness making it ideal for purposes other than throwing away. I keep collecting them so that I can use for art purposes. When I googled for artworks out of tamarind seeds, I could not find much. I would like to share with all of u, some photos of my artworks where these seeds were used. I am trying to bring out more artistic ways of using these seeds.
                     If you have any fantastic ideas about this seed, share them.

Deepa.