Freehand 'Mandna' art on pots

Its been a long time since I posted for IndoorGreens. 
During all these years, I have been asked many questions related to my art work like- the steps I follow, colors I choose, reason for its being so durable and bright and so on...

Hence I decided to write this blog to answer all these questions and share my new creative work with everyone. 

Last week one of our family friends invited us to her home. I wanted to gift her something handmade but quick and easy.
I had some spare terracotta pots which I decided to paint and gift her along with plants.
Though I painted some very simple motifs on pots quickly, my friend liked it so much. 

To convert these plain pots in a beautiful piece of art work, I would suggest the following crucial steps to be taken care of. So that, you get beautiful hand painted pots with nice smooth finish, perfect bright colors and long life.

1) Remove excess dirt from pot using brush or cloth.
2) If the pot has rough surface, you can rub with sand paper for few seconds to make it smooth.
3) Wash the pot with tap water to remove dust completely.
4) Do one coating of Primer(White color) and let it dry completely.

Note: 
For my garden pots(to be kept outside) I use both water based Asian Paint's Exterior Wall Paints as well as acrylic colors.

Acrylic colors give you shiny finish while these water based Asian paint's(or any other brand) exterior wall paints give nice smooth and matte finish. 

If you want to paint only few small pots then go for acrylic colors and if you want to paint large number of pots, then you can choose these kind of exterior wall paints. These exterior wall colors are mostly available in larger amounts(200ml at least) as compared to acrylic colors which are easily available in tiny bottles(about 20 ml) as well. The choice is yours. 

5) After drying, repeat one more coat and let it dry completely.

6) Now you pot is ready to be painted. I usually do most of my paintings freehand. You can get lots of 'Mandana' here. If you want you can draw pattern very lightly with pencil prior to painting.

Traditionally Mandana paintings are done on wall and floor in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh region of India. The ground is prepared with cow dung mixed with a local clay and red ochre (geru- a kind of rock salt which is deep red in color). Lime or chalk powder is used for making the motif. Tools employed are a piece of cotton or a rudimentary brush made out of a date stick. The design may show Ganesha, peacocks, women at work, tigers, floral motifs, geometrical shapes representing heavenly bodies like Sun, Moon, stars and universe etc.
Each pattern in Mandana has its own significance and meaning.