I had bought few plain terracotta lamps, lantern few months back and thought to make it fancy for this Deepavali festival. Due to overtime on the Internet and thousand other things I could not complete them in time. Hopefully they are ready for the next year.
I wanted something similar to the ones that we get in the shops like ExclusiveLane, Jute cottage .The normal acrylic that we use from brands like Camlin, Fevycril etc., were not giving me the desired results. These paints apparently give a glossy look to the finished product.
There was an exhibition during Deepavali near my residence. The painted terracotta hanging bells were cute and I bought one for home. Soon as I showed it to my family, their unanimous reaction was that why did I buy it since I could color them myself. But there was a selfish reason behind it, I wanted to know the type of paint she used. But to my disappointment the she didn't part with her trade secret.
This incident made me more determined to find the paint. And to some extent I found it I think. I used the left over Asian Paint premium emulsion paint( Matt finish) from our painting. The results exactly matches what I had in my mind.
How to paint
For the terracotta lamps, soak them overnight in a tub/bucket of water. Next day take a old unused tooth brush and brush off any dust/mud in the corners or holes. Let it dry thoroughly in the sun light.
Apply a coat of terracotta primer. It would fill the small holes or cracks in the lamp and you would require less of the main paint. I used Fevycril Terracotta Primer and diluted a little adding water. This primer comes in 1 kg bottle( they didn't have lesser than this, while I was buying).
Let it dry in the sun.
After it has completely dried start painting with your choice of colors.
For the lamps after they are primed, I have used yellow shade of Asian Paint Premium Emulsion Paint for the base color and later for the designs I have used acrylic colors. I didn't want yellow but I had no choice since that was the only one left out from my house painting.
Here for the lantern I have used three shades of Fevicryl Acrylic colors. It looks OK, bit glossy, and I plan to use in my balcony garden, lighting it with a bulb.
If you are not confident with directly painting, you could draw using color pencil initially(very lightly), as you can see it here.
I have painted these only for decoration purpose and thought it would look cute among lighted diyas. You cannot really find much difference between the lamp and the lantern here in the photos but they do look different in real. The lantern is shining in color while the lamps are not.
Please feel free to suggest or any other tips you have.
I wanted something similar to the ones that we get in the shops like ExclusiveLane, Jute cottage .The normal acrylic that we use from brands like Camlin, Fevycril etc., were not giving me the desired results. These paints apparently give a glossy look to the finished product.
This incident made me more determined to find the paint. And to some extent I found it I think. I used the left over Asian Paint premium emulsion paint( Matt finish) from our painting. The results exactly matches what I had in my mind.
How to paint
For the terracotta lamps, soak them overnight in a tub/bucket of water. Next day take a old unused tooth brush and brush off any dust/mud in the corners or holes. Let it dry thoroughly in the sun light.
Apply a coat of terracotta primer. It would fill the small holes or cracks in the lamp and you would require less of the main paint. I used Fevycril Terracotta Primer and diluted a little adding water. This primer comes in 1 kg bottle( they didn't have lesser than this, while I was buying).
Let it dry in the sun.
After it has completely dried start painting with your choice of colors.
For the lamps after they are primed, I have used yellow shade of Asian Paint Premium Emulsion Paint for the base color and later for the designs I have used acrylic colors. I didn't want yellow but I had no choice since that was the only one left out from my house painting.
Here for the lantern I have used three shades of Fevicryl Acrylic colors. It looks OK, bit glossy, and I plan to use in my balcony garden, lighting it with a bulb.
If you are not confident with directly painting, you could draw using color pencil initially(very lightly), as you can see it here.
I have painted these only for decoration purpose and thought it would look cute among lighted diyas. You cannot really find much difference between the lamp and the lantern here in the photos but they do look different in real. The lantern is shining in color while the lamps are not.
Please feel free to suggest or any other tips you have.
