Handpainted diya and Decorative Diya Thali for your colorful Diwali decor

Make these DIY handpainted diyas and matching decorative diya thali to adorn your Diwali decor and tablescape.

Wouldn’t it be so much better when you add your own handmade decor items for your festive decor? I wanted to make different designs of kundan rangoli’s but never got around making them. However I did try out many lights related DIYs and crafts and you can check them out all here. Anyways, for today, here is a simple video tutorial on handpainted diya and diya thali for a beautiful and festive tablescape.

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These days lot of ready made painted diyas are available in market and of course you would ask why go through all the hassle of painting when you can buy them from right across the streets. I am but sure that you would agree that having a different decor piece at your home especially when you can boast about how you made it yourself is must have especially when you have so many guests arriving for Diwali. Not only that, more than all the sweets, lights and decor, Diwali or any other festival is the time to rebond, spend some happy moments and create memories with family right? What better way to do that than by sitting together one evening and getting all creative?

Materials required to make Handpainted diya and Decorative Diya Thali

• Small plain diya (terracotta ones)
• Kundan stones in various sizes and shades
• Fabric/acrylic paints
• cardboard/wooden base for decorative diya thali
• Lace/glitter fabric
• white gesso ( or you can use white acrylic paint)

How to make Handpainted diya and Decorative Diya Thali for Diwali decor :

I had previously shared a similar tutorial on handpainting diyas last year but I think it was a little more sophisticated as there were so many intricate details that needed a bit of patience to paint properly. So this year, since I also wanted to let my daughter help with the painting, I bought rather simple plain small diyas from my local market which I got for Rs.2 per pair!

I have a video this time as a tutorial so I did not click in the progress pics like in my general tutorials. Hope you are able to follow the video, else I have a quick write up below 🙂

• Before you start painting the diyas, I highly recommend that you wipe the entire surface with a wipe cloth so that the dust over it is cleared and it doesn’t get mixed up with your paint. Also, its highly likely that your earthen diya will soak up all the paint and you might need multiple coats to give a good finish, and this can be avoided or rather reduced a bit by wiping with a wet cloth first.
• I prefer giving it a white base shade so that the actual shade shows much better and the diya is really vibrant. You can either use a white acrylis paint but that might require multiple coats becasue as I said, since they are a bit runny, they might get soaked up. I recently discovered gesso and they are great for plain white matte backgrounds especially in one coat. This time I used a white gesso (from camlin), just one coat and topped it up with violet shade acrylic paint from Faber Castell 12 shade set of fabric paints.
• I told you this is a simple handpainted diya, the result is pretty but the effort is really minimal 🙂 Stick contrast shade kundans all across the rim of your diya and see how pretty your diya becomes . You would need a rhinestone picker pencil readily available in market ( or try wax pencil) so  that you don;t make a mess trying to fix those tiny stones.

• Now that the diya is ready, start with your decorative diya thali. Take the cardboard that you chose, a square shape would be good one to work with as you can make symmetrical designs, and make sure it can hold the weight of your diyas. I painted it with white gesso, covered it with the glitter net fabric ( in silver shade) and stapled it to the cardboard edges.
• Next step is totally upto your creativity and upto the supplies you have. First decide the placement of diyas in your decorative diya thali – say center circle, or corner three diyas or whichever maybe and then decide how to fill up the balance visible/bare areas with kundand and sequins. I decided to arrnage 5 diyas at the center in a circle and so I decorated the bare spare with an overall border, a circular design right outside the diya area and some mirror pieces here and there.

Did you like the tutorial? Diwali is here and I’m sure you can try this out in a jiffy and adorn your pooja room or table. Will come up with more designs and patterns to try out, maybe for next year but do try this out with the supplies you have in hand 🙂 Hope you liked this tutorial on how to make handpainted diya and decorative diya thali . Enjoy and try out many more Diwali decor and Diwali craft ideas from my blog.

xoxo Angela