New Urn…Aged to Fabulous Imperfection!
We had so much fun creating a chippy, crusty, imperfectly aged finish on this new, ceramic urn!
You too can achieve this look! Artisan Enhancements user-friendly art finishing products make it possible for beginners and experts alike to produce authentic, complex looking finishes with ease! The key to a finish like this one is layering! Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of steps we have used here. Each one is easy to tackle and in fact is just fabulous on it’s own, too!
We began by painting our urn in French Linen. Once dry, we stippled Fine Stone in various places to create dimension and texture. The round brush works well for stippling or pouncing the product onto the surface, as we’ve done here. You’ll notice that we’ve used it to apply most of our products for this finish. You don’t need a large arsenal of tools, just a few quality, key pieces like this one!
We stippled Florence onto the dry areas of Fine Stone only, once again using our handy round brush.
As soon as that paint had dried, we applied a thick layer of Crackle Tex to the entire urn. See photo on right for a visual of how thickly the product should be applied.
As we had applied the Crackle Tex thickly to produce dramatic texture, it took a few hours for the product to dry. At that point we brushed on a quick, thick coat of Old White.
As soon as cracks began to appear in the white paint, it was time for the Crackle Tex “pull-off” technique. Here we used a damp sea sponge to push, twist and lift off the paint, revealing the French Linen, Florence and Fine Stone texture underneath.
We then mixed a custom glaze using 1 part Graphite to 5 parts Scumble. This glaze was brushed on with our round brush after the previously applied paint and product had dried. The Scumble glaze was wiped back with our damp sea sponge, allowing the dark glaze to settle into the crevices and details of the piece. We could have stopped here and sealed our urn at this point but decided that a little copper foil would put the finish over the top!
With an inexpensive chip brush, we dabbed a little Leaf and Foil Size to just a few strategic areas on the urn.
After allowing the size to “tack up” for about 20 minutes, we pressed a piece of copper foil, shiny side up to the areas where the size had been applied, then burnished the back with a stiff brush. We find that our stencil brushes work well for this step!
In some areas the foil finish was a little too perfect for our “aged to imperfection” finish, so we distressed it back with a damp lint-free cloth before applying our sealer.
We used our Topcoat Brush to apply two thin coats of our matte, exterior grade Clear Topcoat Sealer to complete our lovely, crusty, aged urn!
It may seem like a lot of steps, but each one is doable and fun and we think the end result is well worth the effort! Don’t you agree?
If you love this finish as much as we do, we would like to know what other types of pieces you envision it on? If you give it a try, please hashtag #artisanenhancements so that we can see your creation and share the inspiration!
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