My first painted planter

My very first painted plant pot. This is how it looks from indoor.

As I have mentioned in ‘About Me’ I like painting. But I have not mentioned my love for gardening.I have been gardening and self-learning the do’s and don’ts for three years now and have accumulated quite a few terracotta and clay planters. This spring I decided our patio needs a makeover. And I wanted to achieve that by indulging in what I am obsessed with now – painting terracotta planters or pots.

Although I love acrylic and canvas, this is another aspect of painting that I thoroughly enjoy. Let’s say this interest of mine has stemmed out of my love for gardening. Don’t get me wrong! I really like the earthy terracotta color. But plants in colorful and designed pots and planters? That’s a steal-my-heart-away combination.

So I started on Project Patio that is pottery painting along with gardening for spring. As I go along with blogging, I will post more on this topic. For now, I decided to start with the very first one I painted.

You can create a colorful plant pot/planter too! Go ahead and give it a try. You can use the following things and make your own. To paint this planter, I have used :

a terracotta pot 8” (from Orchard Supply)

a saucer 6” (from Orchard Supply)

a sandpaper (from Michaels)

Craft Smart Outdoor Acrylic Paint – red, blue, green and white(from Michaels)

metallic gold acrylic paint (that I used for my Ganesha painting)

regular soft bristle Artist Loft paint brushes (also from Michaels)

Krylon UV Resistant Clear Spray (Gloss)

First I scraped the surface of the pot and saucer with sandpaper to make it absolutely even. Then, I wiped them both with a damp kitchen paper towel. You could use a damp cloth, same thing.

As I thought and thought what design I should do, I painted the whole pot and saucer white. White makes the darker paint colors really stand out. The natural brick red color of the pots may overpower the paint color. So white is the solution. I did not use a sponge paint applicator. Feel free to use that for the base color if you want.

I thought, “What do I like? Sari? Sari design? Kanjivaram saris? Silk sari design?” (The credit for this thought process goes to my discussion about South-Indian silk saris with my friend, from Tamil Nadu, a few days back!) I didn’t think beyond that. Picked out the colors I wanted. And that’s it. I came up with my rendition of a Kanjivaram sari border design for my terracotta planter!

Please note: I have added the very-Bengali laal-teep. (‘red bindi’) 🙂

After leaving it to air-dry for a day, I sprayed it generously with the Krylon Clear Gloss spray and let this dry for at least a couple of days. Then of course, I planted it with a plant I got from Orchard Supply. Now watching the plant grow from just one baby leaf to a big, lush and beautiful one!

 

This is how the end product turned out to be 🙂

 

The green saucer. Simple gold dots for it..

 

The white gives a beautiful contrast to the bold blue, gold, green and red in the sunlight..

 

A closer look ~ in sun and shade

 

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