Wax resist to prevent paint sticky

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Not your average framer
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Wax resist to prevent paint sticky

Post by Not your average framer »

I've never done this, but I am thinking of creating holes in a distressed paint finish by waxing the bits, where I don't want the paints to stay stuck. I think that's probably quite an old technique, but I'm not sure of the best way to do this, or the best type of wax to use. Pete Bingham used to do something a bit similar by putting too much paint on in some places and heating the paint until it produced a blister and then removed the blister with his finger nails before the paint could harden,

I thinking that maybe I can use paste wax and heat it a little bit, before painting over it, so that the wax spreads a little and gets a smoother outline to the area where the paint is not intended to stick. If the wax is then heated under the paint, will it create gassing from the wax and blow a hole in the paint? I'm not really sure how to get this to work best.

I've seen this technique on some itailian hand finished mouldings, where the moulding has been washed and some of the wash has collected inside the edges of the holes where the paint is missing. It's something that used to be seen on some older, but quite pricey hand finished mouldings and I am thinking about reproducing the effect.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Re: Wax resist to prevent paint sticky

Post by prospero »

It's eezy-peezy Mark. And quite enjoyable. You can't really do it wrong.
Any old wax will do. :D
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You just have to make sure there are no loose bits that might drop off later.
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Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Wax resist to prevent paint sticky

Post by Not your average framer »

Thanks Peter,

That's what I was hoping! Some of these old style italian hand finished frames are so well worth taking some inspiration from! I generally like to give old ideas a bit of a new twist. Some older finishes can even by simplified and adapted to use on cheaper more basic frames as well. If this Covid crisis,is going to make it harder to get a worthwhile volume of sales, I don't mind making that extra little bit of effort to keep potential customers interested.

I've only just acquired a smart phone and when I've figured out how use it, maybe I might be able to manage the odd video to demonstrate how to do a few of these hand finishing techniques as well.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
JFeig
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Re: Wax resist to prevent paint sticky

Post by JFeig »

Another method is to use liquid latex AKA frisket material as used by graphic artists to keep paint from the paper / illustration board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn8FxtNy2io
Jerome Feig CPF®
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