Trash Talk Thursday: Repurposed Pu-Pu Platter Pineapples

Festive 1960's Luau parties called for festive Hawaiian serving platters, so nearly every home ended up with at least 1 wooden monkey pod pineapple. Often sold as pu-pu platter serving sets, pineapple shaped serving pieces included bowls, trays, mugs, tidbit servers, condiment cups.
Since the Pineapple has long been the symbol of hospitality, why not repurpose some vintage pineapple shaped wares during the holidays?
After adding a coat of green acrylic paint to the bottoms of some pineapple bowls, I added a coat of crackle medium to just the body part of the bowl. (I've heard that plain white school glue has the same effect, but I haven't tried that myself.) When dry, I covered the crackle medium with mustard yellow acrylic craft paint, resulting in a more primitive pineapple-like finish with the green peeking through. Brown would also be a great base coat, if you'd rather. When the paint was completely dry, I used a cotton rag to rub a coat of oil-based walnut wood stain over the entire surface. Happy with the upgrade, I ventured on to try the same colors on some pineapple shaped mugs & tidbit trees.
I added some pineapple scented wax shapes in some to give as hostess gifts (made from store-bought wax melts and pineapple chocolate molds ~ rubbed in ground ginger) and tied some of the smaller bowls onto holiday wreaths. These also can be used for organizing or displaying so much more than just serving up pu-pu party finger foods!  © copyright 2013 redshedvintage.com