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Organic Rust

GARY LORD

If you love the uncontrolled look of a natural organic rusted finish, this may be your dream finish. As the artist, you can only control certain aspects of the technique and then it is up to the beauty of nature to complete the process. Because this finish uses real steel along with a rapid rusting agent, what normally takes years to create you can watch happen overnight.

MATERIALS

Basecoat: “Sensational Sand” eggshell latex paint (Sherwin-Williams) or an equivalent medium brown color

LusterStone: Charred Olive and Royal Jade

Stainless steel trowel

Whizz Roller

Magic Metallics Steel Metallic

Magic Metallics Rapid Rust

Pump sprayer or plant mister

Large natural sea sponge

PRO TIPS

1. Using Steel Metallic
The Steel Metallic material will settle at the bottom of its container. Make sure you agitate it and mix it continuously throughout your application process. This process is messy, so protect all surrounding surface areas by masking them out with plastic first, then putting something absorbent on top of the plastic to absorb the run-off.

2. Rust in Transition Areas
If the rust is stronger than you want in your transition areas, re-skim LusterStone over the rust to set it back or in some cases remove it entirely by burying it under a new layer of LusterStone.

3. Altering the Look of the Rust
If the rust ends up being too even in color and you want to have more character in the finish, you can respray the surface with Rapid Rust even after 24 hours or more and it will alter the look of the rust. Sometimes I will be selective with my next day’s spraying and will spray only in certain areas with a very heavy concentration of Rapid Rust. Very cool things happen when I do this, with varying colors of rust and movement.

STEP 1: Basecoat your surface with Sensational Sand eggshell latex or an equivalent color. Let dry. Load a stainless steel trowel with Charred Olive LusterStone, apply a skim coat, then remove most of it by holding the blade at an angle between 45º and 90º.

STEP 2: Wipe off your trowel and load it with Royal Jade LusterStone. Apply another skim coat, then remove most of it as you did in Step 1.

STEP 3: When loading your trowel blade for a knock-down finish, butter the bottom of the blade with an even, thin amount of material. Pat the Royal Jade LusterStone on your surface randomly, then come back with the blade at an angle and knock it down using curving motions like “S” shapes and “C” shapes. Let dry completely.

STEP 4: Pour some Steel Metallic into your paint pan and load your Whizz Roller into it. Roll it onto your surface for 100 percent coverage at the top one-third of your area.

STEP 5: In the middle third of your area, using a damp, rung-out sponge, pick up a little Steel Metallic and tap it onto the surface with a heavier concentration on the outer edges of your transitional zone. As you move into the bottom third of your project area, use a lighter, more broken amount of the Steel Metallic material. A little of the steel goes a long way and will rust far more than you can imagine. I will often use a damp rag to push out the steel very hard into my open areas to soften the transition from my edges into the field of the project. It is far better to have a hint of the rust versus a strong edge.

STEP 6: Using Rapid Rust in a disposable pump sprayer from the paint store or a plant mister, spray along the top, allowing the liquid to run down the surface creating drips. (Wear a respirator. Also, any steel or iron surface this spray touches will rust!) Heaviest concentration is at the top, but you do want to have a mist of the Rapid Rust over everything. Let it react. It usually takes 24 hours for full reaction to take place. After 12-16 hours, if you wish to have some areas rust more, respray with Rapid Rust, and vice versa: if you wish to have more of the steel color showing, apply more Steel Metallic. Let dry.

FINISH: The steel paint will start to rust within 4 hours of spraying on the Rapid Rust, but it will not look like this finished section for at least 16-24 hours. So be patient and let nature make your organic rust finish beautiful.