My Hand Painted Tray!!

An elephant's picture on packing of incense stick caught my fancy

 and the moment I saw it I wanted to paint it somewhere. 

I painted it on a plastic tray and put all my imagination and creativity to make it look different from what is available easily in the market. How I did it..I chose a bit different color combination, motif and intricate design that reflect true essence of India.

When I started 'Indian Art' series and 'Indian Textile' series on my blog I read a lot about different art forms and textile and was intrigued by the beauty of all art forms and textile around the world. I was determined that I will try my hand on each one of them whether it is art or textile. I have tried art forms like Warli, Madhubani, Gond, Tangle art, Tye-die pattern on terracotta figurine and  now I am trying to paint textile patterns like Ikat, Kilim, Block printing, Kanjivaram and here is one that recently I painted..... Suzani on my elephant. Doesn't it look wonderful. I liked the combination of sienna, pink, black and white.

An year ago I saw a cabinet painted in Suzani pattern and I was inspired to do something like that. So I came up with this idea with my personal touch of course.

I loved the way this tray has turned out. Intricate work that is done with lot of patience.

Leaving you with some more images.............

Let me know how do you like it :) Working on some more interesting projects so stay tuned!!

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Paper Craft: DIY Decorative Tray

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Past few days had been very hectic and I almost forgot to do a post on a Decorative Tray that I made from Newspaper. So here is my promised post. 

1. Gather all the required material as I have shown below.

2. Cut 5-6 Inches broad strips of paper as shown below.

3. Now roll the paper strip with the help of stick. As shown in image below. Remember you have to take out the stick once paper is rolled completely. So don't roll it too loose or too tight.

4. Take the stick out slowly. Now stick the end of paper with glue as shown here. 

5. Make good amount of rolls as you will need lot of them. I made around 50-60

6. Now image for this step is missing. But believe me it's very easy. Take two rectangular card board of same size. Size depends on your choice. On one cardboard start sticking one end of paper rolls around 2 inches should be on the cardboard. Place one after the another keeping space of around 2.5-3 inches between them. Make sure that there is one roll glued on every corner of cardboard.

7. When you are done all around the edges of cardboard then glue the other cardboard of same size on top of it and let it dry.

8. Now pickup one roll and start weaving on the rolls that you glued on the cardboard earlier. Pattern should be once in then out as shown in image below. 

9. When the roll is about to finish then insert another roll inside it and keep weaving until you reach desired height.

 10. Now cut the extra length of roll and secure the end inside woven part and glue it(Refer image below). Put cloth clips on it and let it dry. After half an hour or so it's time to prime the tray.

 11. Either spray paint it or use brush. Wait for primer to dry then color it with color of your choice. Use acrylic colors and after the color is dried completely give a final coat of varnish to make it durable.

 Here is a final product my decorative tray.

Looks no less than wicker basket and is strong enough to hold some stuff :)

I keep changing stuff that tray holds. Have a look........

And my hubs liked it so much that he is taking this tray to his office and will try to be little organized :) Well that's a great reward I got.

I made some small baskets also. Have a look here.
 Do let me know how do you find it.

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