Diya Painting

For the Deepavali festival, we light clay diyas around the house to welcome the festive spirits. Generally clay diyas are bought at lighted with oil & rolled cotton buds. This year, we glammed it up a bit by coloring the clay diyas. I think it turned out pretty nice...take a look.

What you need :
a. Paint (I used some leftover fabric paints)
b. Brush
c. Little water in a bowl
d. Clay diyas

I used some old newspaper to spread while painiting, to protect the floor.

Clean the diyas

Because most of the vendors sell them on streets, it is posible that the diyas are soiled or marked. Dip a cotton fabric in water and clean the diyas.

Remember, if the diyas become wet, you can neither paint nor light them. They have to be dried first, use a hair dryer for that.

Pain them
Choose the combination of your favorite colors and paint them. Some of the popular colors are maroon/red, gold, silver to denote the festive mood. Yellows, green, orange are other favourites.

You can use any combination you like.

Once the diyas are painted, allow it to dry in the sun. I spread an old newspaper to ensure the wet paints don't stain my tiles.

Apply varnish
Once the paint is dry, apply a coat of varnish on the diyas. This is to ensure that the paints don't peel when the diya is filled with oil. It doesn't always happen. I have used diyas without varnish or any coating and they light just fine.

Embellish the diya
Once painted, you can even add some cute embellishments on them. I haven't done for that for my final look, but paisley buttons, glitter or other buttons can be added to make them more glam!!!