Skill level: Beginner

You will need

• Bowls
• Ceramic paint pens
• Paper to practice on
• Use of an oven

To make

Decide on a couple of colours that you want to use on your bowls and test the colours out on paper to check they work well together.

Try simple patterns on the paper to decide which shapes you want to use across your bowls. The fern shape can be made up of a singular curved line with teardrop shapes working up the stem, don’t be too worried about each leaf being the same distance apart as long as they are roughly the same size it will look like a fern shape. Try different-sized circles spread out in a random pattern, and experiment with different spaces between the circles. Other patterns that would work well are a scallop shape, triangles and coloured rectangles a bit like sprinkles!

Using a navy ceramic paint pen, draw long grain shapes out before colouring them in, the great thing about this kind of pattern is that there is no specific size of space between the elements so you can just work around the bowl with your shapes.

The paint pens won’t be secure until you have baked the bowls, so if you feel like starting again, you can always use a damp cloth to wipe the bowls down. Just make sure they are dry before beginning again. Once you have worked your pattern all around the bowl, leave it to dry.

The fern shape for the next pattern begins with a curved line across the bowl.

Add teardrop shapes up the stem before colouring them in with the green ceramic pen.

Work the ferns across the bowls in different directions until the whole bowl is covered.

For the third design, draw an elongated half-moon shape in the blue ceramic paint pen.

Colour the shapes in and work them across the bowl in different directions to make up a fun graphic pattern.

For the final bowl, use the green ceramic paint pen and draw a larger shaped grain pattern diagonally across the bowl leaving some white space for a different look. This is a good tip if you are pressed for time, use larger shapes and more white space for a quicker design.

Leave the bowls to dry for 24 hours. To set your designs you will need to bake your bowls in the oven on around 150degrees for 40 minutes. Leave to cool and your design will be waterproof and suitable to hand wash. Although the bowls will be resistant to water, putting them in the dishwasher may ruin the design.

This project was created by Becki Clark – www.beckiclark.com