My first Clay Work

Hi Everybody, First of all I am so sorry for not posting anything in a while. Been little busy with life lately. However I will try to post frequently from now on.

I have been exploring about clay decor pieces and came across stunning Indian clay murals which triggered my interest to learn this art. I kept searching for days online looking for tutorials, there are many tutorials on youtube that help you create awesome master pieces from clay but I had several doubts on how to stick them to wooden boards and create textures on board etc., . Finally one fine day, I came across a Free online 3D mural basics art course on facebook and without a second of delay I went ahead and registered myself. My sincere thanks to Mural guru Bharat Rawal ji for teaching me the basics that I needed badly to start off on this new art.

I decided to start with a small and simple art piece of god ganesha mural. And I am happy to share the procedure with you.

Materials Required:

• 9" inch round wooden board
• Saw tooth hanger or anything similar to hang final art piece on wall
• Air dry Clay
• Pottery plaster or plaster of paris
• Few disposable cups
• Elmer's glue all (any strong white glue will work)
• Metallic or acrylic small paint tubs
• Paint brushes
• X-acto Knife
• Small comb piece
• Your handmade clay ganesha idol OR small plastic or ceramic god idol that are available in Indian stores.

1. First attach the metal hanger to the back of wooden board.

2. Mix equal parts of white glue and pottery plaster powder together into a chocolate syrup consistency. Add water if necessary.

3. Spread the prepared plaster and glue paste on the wooden board evenly.

4. Create textures you want for the mural background. I used small comb piece in semi circular movements to obtain the texture shown in the picture. (This is a great tip I learnt from the online course)

5. Roll air dry clay into a thin and long straw and make a circle out of it. Let it dry completely and then place on wooden board with glue. ( Since air dry clay shrinks a little we need to let the closed ring dry and then stick on to board.)

6. Draw petal shape on to a cardboard piece and cut it out to use as a template.
7. Roll air dry clay into 1/4th inch thick sheet using any cylindrical rod (I used a hair spray bottle) and cut the clay with a X-acto knife using petal template. Mark lines on the petals by gently pressing with a paper or knife edge. Apply little glue on to board and stick the petal in place.
8. Repeat the step 7 to create enough petals to cover your wooden board around the clay circle we created earlier.

9. Skip this step if you have a store bought god's idol.
Make a ganesh idol using air dry clay. (Very sorry for not doing a detailed tutorial on this. I did not expect it to turn out good, as this is my first clay work. )
Draw a sketch of idol you like. Put it in a plastic cover ( to prevent paper from drying your clay) and start working with clay on the sketch.  I made mine following basics from this youtube video.

10. Then place the god idol in the center using glue.

11. Make a little mouse and diyas. Stick them on the board with glue.

12. Let your work piece dry completely. Paint the entire piece of work with black acrylic paint.

13. Paint it with your choice of colors using dry brush technique so that the black color still shows out in grooves and give that 3D effect. That's it :)

If you would like to learn this art from Bharat Rawal then be sure to join his upcoming free mural course on Dec 20 and 21.

Hope this post helps you incase you are hunting for a clay mural basics tutorial.

And I am still in a dilemma about changing the color of black border around my piece. Please let me know your color suggestions in comments below.

I love to hear your comments. Thank you for stopping by :)