Nettipatam Making – Traditional Art and Crafts, Kerala Small and big Nettipattams are made with a canvas as a base for stiffness on which the golden paper cut of the required pattern of nettipatam is pasted and kept aside for drying. The extra string of the coloured woollen thread are cut and pasted firmly on the pattern made of Nettipattam. Netti means forehead in Malayalam and nettipatam meaning forehead decorations for the elephants. Some years ago elephant was a part and parcel of life, they used to be grown generally by the wealthy person only at their homes. Earlier elephants were used to transfer the log of wood to required locations. Nowadays it is mostly transferred through the machineries only. Elephants are an integral part of India during festivals especially in Kerala. In other parts of our country elephants are painted on their foreheads but in Kerala they are usually decorated with the nettipatam and other ornaments. They are usually made of copper and finished with gold. Nettipatams are mainly put for the male elephants during the festivals. Nettipattam have also one hindu tradition also. The main boll shows Siva, Brahma and Vishnu and Navagraha and moola ganapathi also with it.