The beauty of Bauernmalerai

November is about all things vintage at Folky HQ as part of our #funwithfolkit painting challenge.  This week, we thought we would indulge in a little Bauernmalerai painting - a version of folk art originating from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Using the round brush, it uses our beloved comma strokes as well as the c and s strokes.  If you have some of our Flat Brush kits you may have learnt these brushstrokes, the only difference is that in this project you paint them using the round brush.  If you are up for the challenge, it certainly is a lovely design to paint. 

For this project, you will need:

Liner brush 

No 3 Round Brush 

DecoArt Americana in:

True Ochre, 

Tomato or Country Red, 

Warm White, 

Antique Green,

French Grey Blue, 

Burnt Umber

To Antique and complete the tray you will need:

DecoArt Drying Time Extender 

DecoArt Metallic lustre in Copper Kettle 

Soft, lint free cloth

Your chosen varnish

Once you have transferred your design, begin by base coating your roses in Red and Ochre.  

To paint the roses load your brush with Red/Ochre and side load with warm white. 

First, paint 2 comma strokes to the bottom of your rose then fill your circle using C strokes to create the rose as shown above. 

To paint the Tulip, load your brush with French Blue Grey and side load with Warm White. 

Using s strokes, paint the outer petals before using comma strokes to paint the centre.  

Using your liner brush (loaded with Antique Green) apply the stems. 

To paint your leaves, load your brush with Green and side load with the True Ochre.  Paint your S strokes to the tulips.  

Next, using the same colours, paint the comma strokes around the centre and edge of the design. 

Next, paint the edge pattern around your tray. (If you are choosing to do this on a different project, you could use this design as a border or leave it out).

We have painted our flowers with the blue/red side loaded with white. Finish by painting the comma strokes with green side loaded with white. 

Once we were certain the tray was completely dry, we decided to complete the Vintage inspired project by Antiquing the tray.  To do this we mixed 3 parts Drying Time extender and 1 part Burnt Sienna before applying this to the tray.  You can check out our video tutorial here. 

Next, apply a little metallic lustre to the edges and handles of your tray.  Leave to dry before varnishing.