Project Kolam
Ancient Tamil Floor Art Meets Blockchain Permanence
Every year there are kolam competitions conducted in Mylapore for Pongal. The above picture is from the 2024 kolam competition.
What is Kolam?
Kolam is a traditional floor art practiced by Tamil people for several centuries. It is based on dots and lines where you draw continuous looping lines around a grid of dots, creating intricate geometric patterns. In a nutshell: continuous line patterns around dots.
Kolam has many varieties. This project on Shape focuses on Pulli Kolam which emphasizes dots, lines, and continuous loops creating symmetrical designs.
The kolam starts with the 3 dot kolam. As kolam is symmetrical and starts with an odd number, the up and down dots reduce to the next odd number, forming a diamond grid:
Drawing Kolam at Mylapore Festival
Traditional Pulli Kolam
Example Kolam Patterns
16 Pattern Types
The patterns are classified into 16 types in general. Each kolam can only use these patterns.
Unique Kolams by Level
Fully On Chain NFTs
The NFTs are 100% on chain. The 16 patterns are stored in the contract, and when minting a pattern we tell the contract the placement of patterns based on the level.
Each pattern has a unique deterministic ID.
Deterministic Pattern ID
Mission & Objective
The objective of this project is to create awareness about Kolam and this tradition.
With the increase in apartments and life getting busy, the art of Kolam is gradually diminishing. This project aims to rekindle the passion for Kolam and become the main reference for kolam patterns.
Through content creation and blockchain permanence, Project Kolam will become the top site when it comes to kolam, preserving Tamil heritage for future generations.