Malachite for Mark

Faux Malachite how to.

My friend Mark of All Things Ruffnerian liked the background I used in my last photographs. 

Malachite looks great with a little gold (or a lot of gold).  

A not so true rendition of malachite also works. 
You're in charge, you're the painter.




You will need black and green acrylic paint, a wide foam brush and about 3 to 4 torn cardboard pieces, different sizes.

Start with black and add green.

I added a little yellow to my green because I didn't have the right green.

Blend a little.

With cardboard pieces start making circles

Overlapping circles and using different sized cardboard pieces.

Practice a few times.  You can add a paint conditioner (Floetrol) for more "open" time  or spritz with a little water. 
You'll find many examples of malachite on the Internet. 

When painting boxes seal paint with clear acrylic sealer for extra shine.   

Paint should not be too thick.  You want a smooth and even surface.

 Same idea (swirling paint around on paper) produces a fine stack of greeting cards.


Happy painting my dear Friends, and have a great remainder of the week.

Gina

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Guests like to be pampered

My Guests appreciate the little extras

My painting buddy is coming for a visit.

We can paint and paint

Gina

Where do YOU hang your Hat?

He said that it was ugly. And I agreed. But it was only a Dollar.

No, not this one, and not the Hat.

But this one, the one on the left. Ugly indeed! But it is hand wrought and it had possibilities.

Don't you agree?

A few paints and a little gold powder mixed with a binder and a wonderful Hat Rack is born. Moral of the story? Look a little deeper, look a little more carefully and you will discover beauty all around .

Wishing you a great Day.

Gina

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Stencilling, a different way

Several of my friends have asked about my "Fresco" technique. It is quite simple. First you paint or stencil a perfectly good image and then you mostly destroy it.



Stencil or paint image onto surface. Let dry. Mix 10 cups of builder's sand to one box of joint compound. With trowell scrape mixture over stencil, leaving a few spaces "open."

With plastic kitchen scrubber (the orange ball type) remove as much or as little of both the stencil and the joint compound for desired affect.

For best results, scrub hard. The sand helps. To enhance the antique look even further, mix a watery solution of beer and several colorants and apply to area with large natural bristle brush.



I believe that this image appeared in "House Beautiful" magazine, many, many years ago. Not only the stencil but the walls appear to have been treated in a similar technique as described above.

Gina

Color - Mood Altering

Need a color lift? Paint a Lamp shade.






I have painted every one of my lamp shades. Either on the inside or on the outside. And all of my wall colors I have painted with at least 3 different shades of color, one on top of the other, leaving open spaces for each individual color to come forward.


Some colors are difficult. Green for instance. Green needs a lot of natural light or the room will feel like a dungeon. Yellow is another difficult color. It can look brassy and needs to be calmed down. I always start with a color that is darker and livelier than the end result should be. The adjustment is made with the next two color applications.


The walls are glowing. The mood of the room is changed with the flick of the light switch. Complexions improve. Faces soften. The sun is always shining.

Gina

FAUX - FALSE

I knew a Gentleman, a decorative painter. He scoffed at the term "Faux Painter". Do you want to be known as a "False Painter?" He said.

The Italians paint wooden stairs to look like marble. Not because the material is too expensive but because marble is too heavy. It adds too much weight to an already very heavy structure.

They left us with a problem. How to conceal the underside of the stairs? We bent wet dry wall sheets around a five gallon drum, we bent them around a tree. Nothing worked. So Gene tacked up a special kind of wire and started filling in with joint compound. Sanding in between each layer. Over and over again. See the glass of champagne? He was celebrating. Finally, the last layer of compound and the last coat to be sanded.



And then I painted the stair treads to mimic marble. I had already painted the iron railing to give it a verdigris finish.

So happy to be a "False Painter".

Gina

Hand Painted Easter Eggs

Let's get out the paints, Easter is just around the corner



The portrait of Odette is a tile I painted for a client. It came out of the kiln this morning. The eggs are hand painted with acrylic paints. Start out with polka dots. Use lots of different colors.

Here is how you attach a string or thread to an egg:

Fold thread over and make a loop. Tie the open pieces to THE MIDDLE of a 1 and 1/2 inch PIECE OF STRAW . Drop straw (with string attached) into egg. Jiggle a little. Pull up string.

Voila! Ready for hanging.

Gina

What is real and what is faux?

Can you tell?



As you enter and leave Mt. Pleasant (a small town next to our town) you will see 2 very large, 4-sided flower boxes. I was asked to paint the cement rocks so that they would mimic the real thing.

A year has passed and no one is the wiser. They look like natural stone, don't they?

Applying a faux finish to cement is easy. I have painted many cement fireplaces so that they look like marble and every kind of stone you can think of. Even applied gold leaf directly onto cement.


The secret? So simple. Only use water based paints. Paint directly onto cement. Use natural sea sponges and goose feathers and paint each cement "stone" seperately. Seal with a clear sealer such as "Okon".


Gina

Very Ugly Chairs

It is the round Table I spied at the Garage Sale

You can cover a table with a pretty cloth, no one is the wiser

The ugly chairs came with the table

Gene promised to take them to the Landfill.....why are they still here?

They are the most comfortable chairs EVER and you can move several of them with one hand.

As soon as the weather warms up a bit the ugly chairs will get a make-over. There is a new spray paint that sticks to anything, even plastic.

What do you think?

Gina

To paint or not to paint.

Is it an antique? Is it valuable? I don't think so! Let me paint it.

It was nothing special, but it was the right size, but so unsightly. Would a little paint make it more pleasant to look at?

A little red paint, a little gold paint, and a few oil paints squeezed onto a palette, several brushes and the deed was done.

(While the panels were drying outside in the sun, the rooster left his signature).

Gina

Tiny Items get the most Attention

I painted these tiny ceramic plates to see if it could be done. The plates only measure 1.5 inches in diameter. See the diamond ring? The little plates had no home, and then . . . . .

I spotted this lovely and old Italian frame. A perfect marriage.

Gina

Verdigris

Verdigris Finish on a Lincrusta Frieze

Lincrusta is a textured wall covering similar to Linoleum

The same piece as above without special paint finish




two resin-based putti one faux finished in wood and one faux finished in Verdigris





















A left-over piece of Lincrusta used as an Architectural Element

When certain metals are exposed to the air they acquire a patina known as Verdigris. From the Greek vert-de-Grece, from the old French verte-grez. The color of Verdigris was used in many Italian paintings of the 16th century.
There are many ways to obtain the green pigment. One of my favorite historic methods was the scraping of Italian church bells.

You can paint an ordinary object and transform it into something very special by giving it a patina. It is the paint treatment that sometimes makes the difference in price. Many surfaces can be verdigried; plastic, wood, ceramic, metal, etc.

The Lincrusta frieze above, was treated with a simple 2-step process. A kit available at most craft stores. It consists of a base paint which contains copper and a clear water-like liquid. Let the first coat dry and then apply as many coats of the clear acid as necessary. The process continues working for several hours.

If you are doing a large project the traditional method is less expensive: painted with oil-based paints, 3 different colors plus bronzing powders.

With very old brush apply dark green (almost black), then cover only some areas with medium green, then very light aqua green, let dry in between coats. Last coat, bronzing powders mixed with laquer to highlight.

Gina

Greeting Cards

Make your own Cards

Background swirls made with piece of cardboard

Block Printed with old Computer Mouse pads

On a large plate, in a circle, squeeze out water based paints (at least 5 to 6 different colors). In the middle of the plate add a water based conditioner (Floetrol). With a torn piece of cardboard, about 3 inches wide, swirl colors and conditioner onto large sheet of ordinary paper.

When dry, cut into sizes appropriate for cards. Glue onto cards. Now you are ready to embellish further. Don't forget to sign your art.

Gina

Bowls! Bowls! Bowls!

I paint many bowls
Large bowls, small bowls, fancy bowls, simple bowls, colorful bowls, plain bowls, practical bowls and not so practical bowls, humble bowls, sweet bowls, extravagant bowls, many, many, bowls.

But I never have any bowls left for myself.

Gina