Painting TerraCotta Pots

This is the finished product!

Milk Paint on the left, with pure tung oil sealer on the inside.

Linseed oil paint on the right with tung oil sealer on the inside and outside (under the paint).

Milk paint that comes in powder form is all natural, the binder is casein and the pigments are oxides. It has almost no odor when wet.

The linseed oil paint is also all natural. It's from Allback. Linseed oil is the binder and there are no solvents. It has a natural linseed oil smell.

I ordered samples of milk paint, the yellow is what I ended up using.

These are the brushes I ordered from Amazon, they were of decent quality and the sizes were perfect.

The sample sizes of milk paint are perfect for small projects you can buy the on Amazon or on the Real Milk Paint Company's website.

I seal the inside of the pots with tung oil using a rag. I applied 3 coats.

The pot with milk paint on the outside was sealed inside and on the bottom with tung oil.

The pot with linseed oil on the outside was sealed on all sides with tung oil.

I also sealed the saucers.

The tung oil should be pure, 100% tung and with no solvents added. Wipe it on and wipe off the excess.

If you only intend on sealing the inside be careful with drips or smudges!

I made the line with medical tape (shown in a picture below).

I mixed milk paint powder with water in a 50/50 mix and applied two coats. It didn't need long to dry in between.

This is the brush and medical tape I used for both pots.

This white paint is the all natural linseed oil paint from Allback in white.

I applied 3 coats of linseed oil paint and made sure each coat was totally dry before adding the next one (at least 24 hours between coats).

The first coat dried in about 24 hours, the second and third coats took longer to dry. Make sure to apply thin coats.

Medical tape sticks well to terracotta, that's why I used that. The line was mostly clean!

ta-da!

I have more info on food-safe non-toxic paints for terracotta here.

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