Doodle Tray

This once was a little blackboard for children to draw on it. Plenty of children, judging by the state in which it was when it finally got discarded: even the back of it had messy doodles!
I liked it. And I liked that it showed the story behind it. It was still quite sturdy, but really scratched, with dirty splashes of paint in the wooden brim and no drawings left: just some names written with pen in a corner.

















So I decided to give it a second life -as a tray. A tray that somehow kept the look that the old blackboard had in the past, when it was covered by delightful doodles...
I have some drawings made by my nephew Leo (almost five now! and such a genious with the pen), plus also looked in internet for other sources of inspiration. Then I copied some of them as best as I could -interesting exercise.

I sanded the board and a couple of vintage handles that I atached to the sides; then painted the wooden parts of the future tray plus the back white, and stressed the brims to keep the 'old' look. For the sake of harmony and love for detail, I painted the carving in the handles of the same deep blue than the surface of the blackboard.

The 'doodles' are also made with white acrylic enamel. That alowed me to create various effects, from wobbly but well defined lines to splotches, or even blurry areas filled with the tip of the fingers covered in paint -just like children do. I should have worn an apron, me too!. Finally, I have applied several layers of latex (for the shine finish) and varnish (to make it resistant to scratches).
Now it is a handy tray of 32 by 60cm, but also a homage to kids Art!.