GregShelton
Established Member
Hi,
I am a cabinetmaking student working on my last project of the year. Lately, I have been obsessed with Japanese lacquer art and I decided to spice up my work by attempting to recreate the black and gold motifs and art with black acrylic spray paint and gold acrylic and poster paint bought from art shops. Though the real art is done in lacquer, I imagined I could recreate a similar style with matt paints finished with a clear satin or gloss varnish to achieve the same reflective quality. I used a combination of 2 gold paints applied with stencils and brush painting then scratching with a scalpel to get some decent results but now I fear I may destroy it all during the finishing stage.
I went into the project with such drive and ambition to recreate the style that I never once considered the compatibility of the paint and varnish - plus the fact I have never had classes on this very important subject and have only started reading up on it myself very recently. My first test was worrying, my teacher brought in a water-based cellulose varnish and we had a go with a brush first as getting the spray loaded up would have taken more time than we had. The wet varnish applied by brush removed or moved most of the designs.
We had an idea that the varnish may still work out but only if applied by spray, it may dry and seal in place the artwork before anything has a chance to go wrong but frankly I am still worried!
Can anyone chip in with any suggestions on varnishing delicate artwork - i.e. varnish types, application techniques, tricks of the trade?
Thank you very much,
Greg.
I am a cabinetmaking student working on my last project of the year. Lately, I have been obsessed with Japanese lacquer art and I decided to spice up my work by attempting to recreate the black and gold motifs and art with black acrylic spray paint and gold acrylic and poster paint bought from art shops. Though the real art is done in lacquer, I imagined I could recreate a similar style with matt paints finished with a clear satin or gloss varnish to achieve the same reflective quality. I used a combination of 2 gold paints applied with stencils and brush painting then scratching with a scalpel to get some decent results but now I fear I may destroy it all during the finishing stage.
I went into the project with such drive and ambition to recreate the style that I never once considered the compatibility of the paint and varnish - plus the fact I have never had classes on this very important subject and have only started reading up on it myself very recently. My first test was worrying, my teacher brought in a water-based cellulose varnish and we had a go with a brush first as getting the spray loaded up would have taken more time than we had. The wet varnish applied by brush removed or moved most of the designs.
We had an idea that the varnish may still work out but only if applied by spray, it may dry and seal in place the artwork before anything has a chance to go wrong but frankly I am still worried!
Can anyone chip in with any suggestions on varnishing delicate artwork - i.e. varnish types, application techniques, tricks of the trade?
Thank you very much,
Greg.
