Paper Pottery Bowl Tutorial Part 2

This is Part 2 of my Paper Pottery Bowl Tutorial, Click here for part 1.

What you will need for Part 2(in addition to the "part 1" stuff);

paint brushes

gesso*

acrylic paint*

Sand paper (optional)

Polycrylic*

(*You can purchase the brands I'm using through Amazon)

Alright, so if you've been following along, here's where we are after part 1;

The glue's all dry and we're ready to continue.

Give both the inside and outside of the bowl a thin coat of gesso (paint with the ridges on the paper-not against them). You don't absolutely need this step,
but the gesso does several things;
It primes the paper and glue for painting, fills in small gaps,
and give the bowls a texture that makes them look
and feel a littler more like pottery.

If you only used glue on the inside,
you'll notice the the gesso is cracking as it dries, as shown here.
If you used glue on the outside, it's probably cracking there too.
School glue is actually a great way to get an age/crackling effect which I sometimes use, but if that's not what you want-Good news!
That's why we're using gesso before painting.

Gesso is the stuff you use to prime glass for painting.
It can give just about anything a smooth canvas quality surface to paint on.
So if its not going on even, or in this case, cracking, 

wait for it to dry and then add a few more coats.
You can sand between coats too, if you want. 

Yeah, there are still a couple of tiny holes here,
but they should be small enough to fill in with paint.
(you're welcome to sand/add another coat to yours though)

The rest is all in the painting. (make sure the gesso is dry first)

Keeping it simple, I'm painting mine blue.

Start from the inside and work your way out. 

Remember to paint with the ridges.

 These are miniatures, so any fingerprints in the paint are really going to show. Paint the inside, wait for it to dry, and then do the outside. I could hold the larger bowl a little better, so more of it could be painted, but my fingers pretty much covered the outside of the smaller one.

The number of coats you'll need depends on whether or not it looks streaky when dry, but once you're happy with it,
you're done. One last step, seal them with Polycrylic.
It protects the paint, and gives the pottery a glossy glazed look.
(I recommend the Satin finish for miniatures)
These photos don't include the Polycrylic(all the pottery I post/sell is sealed though) because while working on this I had a neat idea. So before I seal mine...

...I'm going to paint in some tiny goldfish.

So there you have it.
You now know the basics of how to make paper pottery bowls,
just like I do.

^_^

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Looking for more Tutorials and other useful info?

Paper Pottery Bowl Tutorial Part 1

Paper Pottery Bowl Tutorial Part 2

Mini Wire Shelving Tutorial

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Wonderful Stuff - Polymer clay, Part 1 

Wonderful Stuff - Polymer clay, Part 2