FROTTAGE FAUX

Frottage is a glazing tech-nique that can recreate avariety of looks rangingfrom leather to stone. Youcan use a variety of “tools”to get these effects. Theyinclude crumpled rags,plastic wrap, natural andartificial sponges, to namea few. The key to this ef-fect is to mist some Min-eral Spirits onto the wetglaze or the tool beforeworking it. The glazewants to crawl away fromthe Mineral Spirits at thepoint of contact. This iswhat gives the effect sucha natural look. You canlayer more than one colorglaze and even use differ-ent techniques for eachlayer. Just remember touse a light coat of vinylsealer between each layerof glaze.

The surface is misted withmineral Spirits and theplastic wrap is applied intwo directions.

ARTISTIC EFFECTS

By Ron Bryze

This is the fun stuff. Experiment with differ-ent materials and techniques. Sometimes achange in solvent of dry time can create adramatic new effect. As you try differenttechniques don’t forget to take notes so thatyou can recreate the effect at a later time.

FROTTAGE FAUX II

Prime, paint, and then acoat of vinyl before glaz-ing.

When wiping the glazeleave some areas a littledarker than others.

Mist some Mineral Spiritsonto the painted surfaceand on to a crumpled rag.

Dab the rag onto theglaze. Rewet with MineralSpirits as necessary.

FROTTAGE FAUX III

After priming, painting, anda coat of vinyl apply theglaze in streaks and swirls.

Mist on a coat of MineralSpirits

Apply plastic wrap to thesurface.

Smooch the glaze andmove the plastic aroundbefore pulling off in onequick movement.

FROTTAGE FAUX IV

Apply a dye stain and then acoat of vinyl

Make a dauber by rolling upa paper towel or wiper andthen cutting the end intostrips. Fan out the strips tomake fingers.

Dip the tips of the fingerslightly into glaze. I use thetop of the glaze can. Dab theglaze randomly on to thesurface of the board.

Mist some Mineral Spiritsonto a piece of crumpled upplastic wrap and dab theglaze.

Using a small piece of syn-thetic sponge that has beensoftened in water and wrungout gently wipe some of theglazed areas to createstreaks.

FROTTAGE FAUX V

After priming, painting, anda coat of vinyl apply theglaze.

Brush it out

Dip tips of a natural seasponge into some MineralSpirits and gently dab ontoglaze.

Apply a light coat of vinylsealer and glaze with a sec-ond color.

Again dab on some MineralSpirits from a sea sponge.

Notice how the glazepulls away from the

Mineral Spirits.

Thin out the glaze forlighter lines. Here theglaze is stroked with asponge that has beendampened in water andwrung out.

STRIATED FINISH

Striated is just a fancyword for brush strokes.The glaze can be appliedfull strength or thinnedout with Mineral Spirits,depending on how in-tense you want the effectto be.

Applying the glaze uni-formly is key. Strike outthe glaze with a softbrush. Spraying on theglaze is a good way toget the glaze on evenly.

CERUSE

Traditionally Ceruse finisheswere defined as an open porewood with a black backgroundand a white pore. Today theycan be any combination ofcolors with the only require-ment being that the back-ground and pore are in con-trast. The color in the pore canbe obtained by using glaze orpaste wood filler.

The key to Ceruse is to insurethat there are no gaps in thecoloring of the pores and thatthe background color is nothazy from the glaze. The wayto achieve a full fill pore is towire brush the pores beforesanding. This opens them upso that they will readily acceptcolor. Ceruse works best onsolid wood. Veneers are usu-ally too thin to allow good colorretention in the pore.

When wire brushing watch outfor cross grain scratches.

The background is a blackdye. A wash coat of vinylsealer is sprayed over the dyebefore glazing. Try differentstrength washcoats to find theone that will allow the glaze tofill the pore while minimizingthe penetration of color intothe background.

After wiping most of theglaze off you can cleanup the background bygently wiping with a softrag damp with MineralSpirits. Sometimes ithelps to wait a couple ofminutes to let the colorin the pore set up beforewiping with the damprag.