DIY Handpainted Serving Tray Tutorial

Check out this easy tutorial for handpainted serving tray inspired by designs from Jaipur blue pottery. Painting is not my thing but this is really easy!

 

Its been a while since I did a DIY for home so I just decided no matter how much time it was going to take, I am going to finish this once and for all! I am talking about this blue pottery inspired DIY handpainted serving tray tutorial 🙂 I bough this wooden tray couple of months back and it has been collecting dust ever since! I finially got time to make that special decorative tray that I had in mind ( although less attractive :P)!

Jaipur blue potttery inspired handpainted serving tray

I bought this paper mache wall plate from Jammu during my last visit and they had such intricate designs that I really wanted to try something similar. While searching for such designs I came across these beautiful blue pottery works and the designs especially the colors are so lovely! I decided to paint a design similar to ones from the images I browsed through but well what came out is no where close to the original ones but the amateurish paintworks looks good thanks to the brilliant blue shade 🙂 Read on to know the full story :

 Materials used in DIY Handpainted Serving Tray Tutorial :

• Asian paints apcolite white 
• Wooden/MDF tray ( you can try in Itsybitsy/Craftslane)
• Acrylic paints of your choice ( I used only one shade : mange blue form camlin)
• Varnish for top coat/sealing

Step by step tutorial for DIY Handpainted Serving Tray :

I am sharing few blue pottery images that inspired me to recreate a similar design on the serving tray. Blue pottery is a distinct creative art from Jaipur although of Turkish-Persian origin and they are just so mesmerising!

” The name ‘blue pottery’ comes from the eye-catching blue dye that is used to color the pottery. Some of the pottery is semi-transparent and most are decorated with animal and bird motifs. The pottery has a unique appearance as it is made using Egyptian paste, glazed and low-fired. This is an artform that stands distinguished from all other forms of pottery owing to its usage of a special dough prepared by mixing quartz stone powder, powdered glass, Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth), borax, gum and water. It is the only pottery in the world that does not use clay. The technique beautifully produces decorative items like tiles, door knobs, pots, vases and plates.”¹

 

 

 

 

 

I actually chose a design to work on but the by the time I had handdrawn the same in the tray it turned out to be entirely different ! Here is how it all worked out :

• Prepare your serving tray with wood primer or you can directly paint it white like me. I used asian paints apcolite emulsion in white shade and its a super nice shade which dries to matte finish. The number of coats depend on how much you diluted the paint. Basically you need a white base so paint accordingly.

• Once your base is dries ( all sides white or combination of your choice), start drawing the outline with a normal pencil. I would suggest you to take a print of the design you have in mind or atleast draw it out on a piece of paper and then trace it to your serving tray. The mistake I did was to be to confident and straightaway draw out the design with pencil!
• I have very bad control over swishy painting brushes so I actually decided to  paint the background area thus eventually painting the entire tray. Dint get it? You will when you see the pics 😀

 

• See now you get it? So there are two ways – paint your inner tray area blue and draw the design in white or leave the design untouched and instead paint the background are with blue. As I said since I am not good with painting, I thought painting the thin lines on blue might not be a very good idea plus if I have to two coats or so imagine how I have to go over the same lines over and over! I chose to stay safe and color the background happily 🙂
• I drew the design with blue paint and then coloured the outer areas.

• Keep painting till you finish. You can use different brush size for different areas so that you can paint faster and more precisely.

• I haven’t coated the tray with varnish yet but I think it would be a good idea to give a coat before using it for actual serving purpose.

 

 

So my advise to your if in case you are planning to try this type of handpainted serving tray would be to finalise a fair copy of your design and transfer it to your base instead of drawing them freehand.Lot of patience would be nice if you want it perfect ( unlike mine :D) Oh by the way here is my daughter helping me with a little painting while I was working on the handpainted serving tray. Well that was supposed to be another DIY container recycle but okay whatever!

Did you like this handpainted serving tray ? Frankly speaking my home is a mess with hardly any beautiful thing around. I want to spice it up a bit but before that some purging is pending. So watch out for all the home organisation posts to come up in near future 🙂 If you liked this tutorial, do pour in your views I would love to hear them. ( btw second serving tray in under decoupaging 😀 keep waiting for tute :))

The pillows you see in the background- they are handsewn. Unfortunately I lost the pics for tutorials but shall post whatever I can!

xoxo Angela