Spring in Mapua

In our local park Spring is showing its beautiful colours.
Being in the southern hemisphere Spring starts on the 1 September, the day my daughter Rachel was born and it last till beginning of November when we slowly go into summer.
Spring is always a time of lovely green hills in the area I live and because Mapua is situated between apple orchards and vineyards, the blossoms of the fruit trees is just amazing and walking with my dog early evening the air is filled with blossom perfume.

Shabby Chic Gilding

Gilding or applying gold leaf to furniture or other objects can be a bit daunting in the beginning, but it is worth a try, especially if you like a bit of lustre and richness to your work.
Gold leaf is very thin and the 24 karat gold leaf is expensive, so in the course I used the imitation gold leaf or "Dutch sheet" as it is sometimes called.
The gold leaf is applied with gold size, a thin glue that stays tacky for up to 20 hours.
On Wednesday night the ladies didn't use a gilders pad or gilders knife, they are traditionally used for gilding.
We used scissors to cut the gold leaf and a little Vaseline on a soft brush to pick up the gold leaf before applying it to the item.
Gold leaf needs to dry well and is a bit fragile till varnished.
The imitation leaf can tarnish and needs to be varnished.
The gold leaf can be gentle rub down with fine steel wool and methylated spirits and antiqued with burnt umber oil paint.
The little angel icon is antiqued, the colours are toned down.
I love the look of gilding on furniture and paintings. In Italy I was so inspired by the most beautiful art works in churches, often gilded and they still had the most amazing glow even after centuries.

Shabby chic Crackle

The shabby chic course is well on its way. Tomorrow night I will teach how to  apply gold leaf  on smaller items or furniture pieces.
Last week the ladies tried to crackle frames and furniture. There are many products on the market, but we used PVA glue to achieve bigger cracks. The secret is not to let the glue  dry and apply the second coat of paint when the glue is tacky. Also a contrasting colour works better.
Experimenting is the key. The ladies found the process a bit scary, because you don't really know the results, but thats the exciting part.
To achieve a very fine crackling effect I like to use the Jo Sonja crackle medium brand.
You have to apply a few coats of paint and than apply the crackle medium while the paint is not cured.
Very fine cracks appear and will show up more by rubbing a darker glaze into the cracks.
The Jo Sonja product is waterbase, so no yukky fumes to inhale.
The crackled pieces can be waxed or varnished to protect.
The chair has a "shabby chic" finish and will be protected with a matt varnish.
 Again I use a waterbase varnish and let it cure well.
Tomorrow I will photograph results of the gilded items done in the course.