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Abalone Crackle
CONNIE & RANDY COTITA
Abalone Crackle is one of our organic iridescent finishes. It works best as a furniture finish. It could also be used on small walls such as in a powder room or an accent wall. Here, we’ve used a small, wooden, barrel-shaped garden seat for this finish and added some upholstering tacks for detailing. The garden seat looks very eye-catching outdoors where the sunlight brings out all the colors of the iridescent finish.
MATERIALS
Primer: AquaBond Black or an equivalent color of 100% acrylic paint
Basecoat: Modern Masters Metallic Paint: Silver
Golden Acrylics: Interference Blue (fine), Interference Green (fine), Fluid Interference Oxide Green (BS), Fluid Interference Oxide Violet
Blue Pearl metallic waterbased glaze: Verdi Bordeaux
Plaid FolkArt Metallic Peridot acrylic paint
Plaid FolkArt Floating Medium
FauxCrème Clear glaze
FauxCrème Color: Black
Zinsser Bull’s Eye 1-2-3 clear shellac
C-500 Urethane (gloss)
AquaGard
4-inch (10cm) foam roller
Chip brushes (small)
4-inch (10cm) badger brush
Round stippler brush
Terrycloth rag
Textured plastic trash bags, cut up and crumpled
PRO TIPS
1. Preparation
Make sure that the surface, especially furniture, is clean and free from dust, wax or oils. Prime the piece with black AquaBond or a 100 percent acrylic paint, then paint the Metallic Silver basecoat and let dry completely. Most metallic colors look better with a black basecoat under them.
2. Color and Brand Selection
For this finish, particular iridescent colors and products were used, but you may use any iridescent and/or metallic glazes or paints you desire.
3. Top Coats
Using a clear glossy top coat enhances iridescent colors.
4. Using Chip Brushes
If bristles release from your chip brush during application, remove them immediately or they will hamper the badger brush softening process.
5. Blending Colors with Plastic Bags
Rotate and frequently replace the plastic bags you are blending with in order to avoid muddying the colors.
STEP 1: After your prepared surface has been primed with black acrylic paint, then basecoated with metallic silver (see Pro Tip #1) and allowed to dry, apply iridescent glaze colors to the surface in a loose wave-like pattern using a different 2-inch (51mm) chip brush for each color. Use the Interference Green and Blue first, to form the structure of the finish, followed by the Verdi Bordeaux, then the Metallic Peridot thinned with floating medium. With a 1-inch (25mm) chip brush, apply sparingly the Interference Oxide Green and the Interference Oxide Violet. Continue on to the next step while these colors are still wet.
STEP 2: While the iridescent colors are still wet, use crumpled-up pieces of textured plastic bags to pounce the edges of the colors into one another, slightly blending but still maintaining the individual characteristic of each color, so as not to become muddy.
STEP 3: Let the colors sit for a short while (until they start to look “waxy”), then use a 4-inch (10cm) badger brush to lightly soften, creating a strata-like appearance. Let dry thoroughly (overnight if you don’t have drying room). Using a brush of your preference, coat with 2 layers of clear shellac and let dry for 2 hours. Do not permit to dry very much longer as it will lessen the crackle effect.
STEP 4: Using FauxCrème Clear glaze, mix it with FauxCrème Color in Black to create two colors: a medium-to-dark gray and a darker, almost black, gray. With a chip brush, apply the almost-black glaze randomly to add areas of more contrasting interest. Using the 4-inch (10cm) roller, immediately roll over the entire piece with the lighter gray glaze, being careful not to overwork. Using a stippler brush, lightly remove any application and/or tool marks and expose some of the iridescent colors underneath. Use a dry terrycloth rag to delicately pick up some of the glaze to reveal the more interesting patterns underneath.
FINISH: Let dry thoroughly and the crackle will appear. Seal with an isolation layer of AquaGard and let dry. Apply several thin coats of C-500 Urethane gloss. Do not overwork the C-500. Let dry.