Writing on the wall

Making a style statement on the wall appears to be the order of the day. If you happen to be passing through the underpasses and government buildings in Bangalore, you simply could not have missed out on the exotic murals that reflect the flavour of our state.

If you can spare a little time and imagination, you could decorate your home in an eco-friendly, economic and aesthetic way without much ado!

Try terracotta

You can experiment in a small way by trying out your skills on terracotta plates. You can buy these plates at throwaway prices from the roadside vendors along the highway.

They come in all shapes, sizes and designs. For creating your own wall plate, you could just buy a couple of plain terracotta plates. They could either be of the same size or they could be of different sizes.

Once the initial purchase is over, make sure you buy enamel paints. As you need very little paint, you could buy sample paint tins, which are sold by most leading companies.

You will need a black, white, red, yellow and blue for a start. The other colours can be mixed with the help of these basic colours according to your whims and fancies.
You will also need a flat brush numbered two and a round brush numbered one. Keep a cup of thinner handy. All the materials needed for the painting portion will be easily available in any hardware shop.

Once you have the required material you clean the plate thoroughly with water and scrub it with metal mesh or sand paper to smoothen out any unevenness.

Then decide on the background colour of your wall plate. The colours that are usually favoured happen to be black /white. Of course, you can choose any colour of your choice. Then paint the plate entirely in the chosen colour. When the first coat of the paint dries completely paint the second coat. 

Try some glitter

If you want your wall plate to look glamorous you could blow gold, silver, copper or bronze powder evenly on the plate  before the second coat dries completely. You will have a smooth shiny terracotta canvas ready at your disposal. 

This is the time to let your imagination run wild. Beginners can paint floral designs on them. Even children can be encouraged to try out this art. It is not very expensive but you have to have an eye on them to avoid a possible mess.

A message or two...

Usually these plates lend themselves for inscription of messages. You could paint out relevant, proverbs, sayings, warnings, and instructions like ‘No Smoking’ or ‘Silence Please’ in a contrasting colour. 

Then you could work on a suitable floral or ethnic border. You could also paste brightly coloured sequins or small mirrors to enhance the effect. Once you acquire painting skills,  you can try to paint landscapes, faces, figurines, cartoons pictures of birds, animals or flowers on the plate quite like the exotic walls that have become the new pride of Bangalore!

The next question is how to mount it on the wall. As mentioned earlier you have to choose the point of display. Then fix it on the wall with the help of M-seal. It will be fixed in that spot forever. 

Maintenance

Cleaning will not be a problem. It can be dusted from time to time and wiped over with a wet cloth occasionally.

Let us say that you will be vacationing out for a while at such times you can cover the plate with a plastic cover to discourage lizards and insects to settle down behind it, or even accumulation of dust.

Now that you have an idea as to how to go about creating your own wall plates you could do up your walls. These wall plates have a special appeal on porches and the little balconies overlooking the streets or the lawns in apartment homes.

They also can compliment your child’s room, office spaces, long corridors in public places among other art spots.