When I was little, almost all the girls had such a plastic basket (today it’s already one of those vintage toys) that was hard to destroy and we all just loved it. I remembered the basket when I was making this bowl because the plastic it was made of was exactly as flexible as the hardened glue from the glue gun.
You will need:
- a bowl (from ceramics, metal, wood or plastic)
- some solid fat (I used vegetable fat for baking)
- glue gun + glue stick
- acrylic colors – I used the Pebeo 352 iridescent gold
- brush
- scissors
Turn the bowl upside down and smear it with the fat. This will make it possible for you to peel off the glue later. Be careful, the glue will not stick to the bowl itself but it will stick to your fingers if you touch it and it will probably ruin the pattern.
Make a bigger glue dot in the center of the bottom. Then make a circle around the bottom.
Choose any pattern you want and painting it with the glue connect the center and the circle.
Start working on the side. Pain your pattern in rows, the first row has to touch the circle around the bottom. As you can see, I painted petals and all of them touch the circle.
Then paint the second row, it has to be touching the first row.
Paint as many rows as you need to reach the edge of the bowl.
I also filled some of the petals with glue. Let the glue dry and carefully take the glue bowl off the basic bowl (starting from the edge).
You might have some very thin strings of glue left, just take them off with your fingers or cut them off with the scissors.
The pattern inside the glue bowl is a bit more neat so if you want that to be outside, flip your new bowl inside out. You cannot do that if your basic bowl didn’t have a flat bottom (mine didn’t but I wanted the messier side outside anyway). Paint the bowl from one side.
I applied first layer of paint just stroking the bowl with the brush. Then I made another and thicker layer by tapping the bowl with the brush to create more plastic effect.
Let the paint dry.
Paint the other side (in my case the inside) and let the paint dry and you’re done.
The bowl is a great decoration. I wouldn’t use it for fruit or other edibles since it’s painted with acrylic colors), if you want to use it for edibles, make sure you use a finish that is ok to touch what you eat.
