DIY Chalkboard Serving Platter – Sushi Style!

This was one of those ideas that grew as we worked on it. We started off as making a chalkboard serving platter as a birthday gift. But, this was feeling a little too simple as a complete gift. So, we wanted to serve my friend’s favourite food on it – Sushi! Now, I’m no chef, which means I probably would have made a mess of the sushi rolls. Which kinda puts a damper on the idea. Instead, why not focus on the materials I do know how to work with, and make chalkboard food!

No, that does not mean the sushi tasted like chalk! It just means, that all the elements of a sushi platter are made using things you would use on a chalkboard! I was inspired to make chalk rolls using this tutorial by Handmade Charlotte for Fiskars (check it out here). From there, we moved onto making foam wasabi and pickled ginger to clean the board with.  Let’s see how it’s done!

Time: 1.5 hours

Budget:  Depends on how expensive the platter is. But, apart from that, it’s quite low.

Chalkboard Platter

Materials: Chalkboard paint, Flat serving platter (the one I’m using is granite), Magic tape/ masking tape, White chalk, a Sponge & Gold paint.

Steps:

1. Make a line about 5 cms above one edge and paste a straight line of tape on it. Make sure the tape is pressed into the grooves of the platter, so that the paint doesn’t spread.
2. Covering your nose and mouth, spray or paint the chalkboard paint below the tape. It doesn’t matter if it goes over the tape. But, be careful of spreading the paint beyond the tape.
3. Once the paint has dried (it takes 24 hours), carefully peel off the tape.
4. Break up a small piece of chalk and dust it over the chalkboard area of the platter. This is important because writing on a new chalkboard directly can scratch it and make permanent chalk marks.

This is totally optional, but you can add a few gold details to the platter by pasting lines of tape and sponging gold paint in between them. This is also a really convenient way of covering up any chalkboard paint that has spread. Ha ha!

Sushi

Materials: Coloured Chalk (Yellow, green, red, orange and white), White and green foam, Green pipe cleaner/ ribbon, Tape

Steps:

This kind of sushi was so much easier to make than the real thing! We made 2 kinds of rolls – green, yellow & white and orange, red & white. Here are the steps:

1. Cut 8 cm wide strips of white and green foam.
2. Place two pieces of chalk on one end of the white foam and the third piece of chalk on top of it.
3. Making sure the edges are aligned, roll the foam over the chalk till the opposite edge and put a small piece of tape to hold it in place. Make this as tight as possible, without breaking the chalk.
4. Similarly, wrap the roll in green foam.
5. To hold the roll together, tie a piece of ribbon or twist a small pipe cleaner.

Wasabi & Pickled Ginger

Materials: Light green and pink foam, Scissors and Glue

Steps:

1. To make the paper, cut a small square of light green foam and add a dab of glue in the middle. Scrunch up the rest of the square and paste it to the centre.
2. For the pickled ginger cut small triangles and a circle out of the pink foam. Paste the triangles haphazardly on the top of the circle, covering it up fully.

For the final touches we added a pair of chopsticks and some water (mixed with brown paint). And it’s all done! A DIY Chalkboard Platter – Sushi Style!

What do you think of our DIY chalkboard serving platter? Let me know your thoughts on the idea, in the comments below! Have a great day!