First of all, give your frame a good dust down and lightly sand the surface. Now is a good time to get the vacume cleaner out and give the frame and your work surface a big clean-up so that when you start painting, everything is dust free.
Undercoat - Start with an undercoat - I am using a white one for wood. When it is dry, apply the first color coat :
First Color
I prefer an Acrylic (water based) Mat Emulsion that is used for decorating, it is easy to find a huge range of colors in your local DIY Store. The two colors I am using, are left over from decorating my bathroom last month, I had them mixed at the store after choosing from the extensive number of shade cards there. Just be sure that you buy a MAT emulsion - NOT satin or gloss. Using water based paints also has the added advantage of being quick drying and less smelly!
Put a few spoonfuls of the first color on your plate, dip your brush in the water and stir the paint around - perhaps do this twice - in other words, we are diluting the paint a LITTLE, but not too much.
Brush the paint onto your prepared frame with light strokes and cover all the surface, pushing the paint into all the little nooks and crannies if your frame is very ornate. Don't worry if it looks a bit streaky, remember that this is the first coat.
Well, we are waiting for the paint to dry now! What are you going to do for the next couple of hours? Go shopping? Off to a Football Match? Work Out at the Gym (I prefer Yoga myself), or perhaps start preparing lunch or dinner - lots of food ideas in our 'DELICIOUS' section!
Second Color
OK - It's 2 hours later! Let's apply the second color - put some of your paint on the (clean) plate, diluted as before, by dipping your (clean) brush in water a couple of times. Now, with your damp sponge (I buy a washing-up sponge and then cut it into 4 pieces), dip it into the diluted paint and very lightly tap the sponge onto your frame, highlighting the relief and the sides. Feel free here - don't be afraid, let your spontinaeity show through - we are doing the 'arty' bit now!
What next? Your efforts probably look a little 'thin' and transparent, mine needs more depth, so with a small paint brush, start to paint over some of the highlights to give more emphasis to the relief. Respond to your work, does it need a bit more sponging now? Mine does, so that is what I'm going to do, but every piece of work is different - JUST RELAX & ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE. If you make a mistake don't worry about it - you can always paint over and start again - but is it a mistake? Perhaps not, perhaps the 'mistake' is adding a new dimension to your work, so don't be in too much of a hurry to paint things out - think about it for a while!
Now, I I'm going to finish there with this frame, it is so ornate I don't think it needs anything else added paint wise and I love the 'stone' look that has evolved. SO - 'LET THE PAINT DRY'!
Hope you had a nice lunch, did you football team win? Had a good workout? I hope you left that computer alone!
Just to finish off - you need to put some protection on your work of art! There are two ways of doing this, either with a final coat of Transparent Mat Polyurethane Varnish, or a nice Bees Wax Polish gives a lovely soft sheen and feel that is well worth the effort of all the elbow grease that is needed in all the polishing.
On the other frame I am doing at the same time, I'm going to add a little extra before the varnish or polish, but I'll leave that for Part 3, so see you soon!
