Fauxology: Studying the Visual Magic of Faux Finishing and Interior Design (brought to you by Garay Artisans)

I just realized that our first Book-of-the-Month was exactly one year ago this month.  Books happen to be what I collect so I’m happy to get a chance to tout some of them.  This month I am recommending The Gilded Room by Kerry Skinner.  

Gilding is an art form in which a thin coat of metal (in various forms) is adhered to a proper surface.  That’s a simple description for a technique that presents an aura of opulence and has traditional methods that have been used throughout time with very few changes.  The book offers great step-by-steps for the beginner but I also think it’s probably best to have a basic knowledge of gilding in order to really get the most out of it.   

Ms. Skinner owns a paint design firm in England.  She has traveled throughout the world and has had notable commissions for Harrods and Sir Elton John.  Her book offers 20 projects using a variety of materials such as leafs, powders and papers.   She touches on verre eglomise, water gilding, flash gilding and both oil and water-based gilding.   Surfaces include walls, furniture, wire screens, columns and even shutters.  There is also a section on making your own size, gesso and bole – so interesting to see the process.  My favorite part, however, is all the way in the back: nine (9) full pages of patination pictures and techniques.  Here are some pics:

        

BTW, if you are interested in reading more about gilding, click on the link above with the book and author’s name and it’ll take you to its Amazon page.  On the bottom of that page, you will find further recommendations for books on gold leafing.  You can also learn a great deal by visiting the website of The Society of Gilders, a wonderful organization dedicated to this beautiful art.  In addition to a complete overview (with an FAQ section), they also have a gallery page and resources for classes.  A truly great website and group.  Until next time!

Recently, I had the pleasure of having a professional photographer, Lindsay Pardo, run around with me to several past jobsites to take pics.  On some of them, it was wonderful to see the finished home.  You see, a faux finisher is usually the last trade in.  We come in right before the furniture and all the other accoutrements are delivered so it’s rare (at least for us) to get a great After shot. 

The following pics are two of my fave shots of an exterior we worked on…or as we call it here at Garay Artisans: Going Outside to Play!  

Here’s one of our “during” pics…amazing what a difference a little faux can do, huh?  Down with Plain Paint!

P.S.  Guess what?!?  I wore Lindsay down I nicely asked Lindsay to share some tips with us on taking great photographs of finished rooms (or wonderful shots in general) and impart some other pro tips.  That’ll be coming up soon.  :)  Have a great weekend!

P.S.2.  Happy Birthday, Lindsay! 

Hello everyone! This is Jason Rosales - Guest Blogger (aka Regina’s Brother). I’m excited and honored to have been offered a chance to write a guest post on my sister’s blog and as I type I’m realizing that these words are going to be all over the Internet, world wide!?! A combination of stage fright and empowerment!! LOL. So what to write about….what to write about…..Oh!

Woodgraining. There are some things in life that bring great pleasure and a calming sense of peace and tranquility. Woodgraining is one of them for me…given I have the freedom to take my time and not be rushed with construction deadlines, upcoming scheduled clients, weather, dry line issues, etc., etc. Recently, we had the pleasure to take on a cool project that has brought about that joy that I get from woodgraining without all the other stuff. We had some really great clients, the weather was beautiful and it was stress free…we just enjoyed the work. Here are some pictures.

Semi-Before Shot: Half-way through the cleaning phase I realized I hadn’t taken any before pics, hence the reason why one door looks glossier than the other.

Meet the Floggers: This is the phase where you go straight home from work otherwise you risk being quarantined from all the dark speckles of flying paint all over you. I’m not alone on this, am I?

Remember playing “Tape Ball” when you were young? Good times… Monica wants to save the ball and keep adding to it to see how big it gets. Yeah….LOL

We caught this guy steadily climbing up one of our drop cloths determined to get on top of one of the cars.

On the fin on top of the car - His triumphant photo!!!

Back to work. Ta Da! Wasn’t that easy? LOL. I like this blog thing.

Ready for your close up?

I hope you guys enjoyed this project post.  I’ll be on the look out for the next one to write about!!  Until next time, take care!

What I should be doing is some office work and putting together an estimate.  As you can read, what I am doing is putting together a blog post because it’s funner (…is that even a word?). 

Well, I was going to write about stripes and their perennial qualities but I saw that the Ornate Expressions blog did a very nice version and had some cool pics to boot so I’m just going to show two ideas using paint alone that might excite a client or someone looking to do their own home.  Here we go:

Looooooove this idea — instead of doing just an accent wall in a different color, you wrap it around to the next wall.  Simple, elegant, unexpected.

Here’s something I enjoy seeing because not many would ever dream this up.  This is taking the idea of thinking outside the box to heart.  The look is obviously not for everyone but it does get people thinking and talking.  (…OK, so maybe it just gets me thinking and “talking”, LOL!)

Allright (grumbling).  I guess I’m going to go do office work now…

It’s not often that we walk into a ceiling shaped like this one.  The moment I saw it I (inwardly) jumped up and down and suggested a painted fabric ceiling to the designer and the client.  They thought it was a great idea (Yay!).  See if you agree…

Before pics of ceiling and room.  On the left, you can see how the ceiling swoops down in folds from the center.

This room was a team collaborative effort.  We worked to make sure the colors we used would look good together yet still stand out from one another.  There was added scroll work to the fabric and gold leaf peaking through the shimmery wall plaster.  Here’s the After pics…

Until next time…

As promised, here are more pics of Melanie Royals’ studio and shots of some of the samples produced. Can’t wait to go back!

The one on the left is my FAVE room (see the geisha on the door?) and the one on the right has such nice tones.

                        A work in progress…love the finished border on the left panel.

What a great idea for stairs: a pretty design to see when you go up and soothing alternating colors on the way down.  When you get to the bottom, you are greeted by the gorgeous flooring on the right. 

Additional mirror images…the last one I made when I got home.  Sorry about our studio’s ceiling beams you can see reflected on some of the samples…

I hope you’ve enjoyed the pics and the info.  Check Melanie’s website for more info on this workshop and others.  Have a great day!

A while ago, I referred a good friend, Debbie Parsons, to a designer that needed a furniture refinisher when we no longer offered those services.  Debbie recently contacted me since the designer wanted a repeat of a chinoiserie design done a long time ago and…would I still have the records?  When I (amazingly) found the stencils, it made me a bit sad.  This was from a time when I worked alone and I remember how much time they took me: from dreaming up the design, drawing it, resizing it at Kinko’s and then painstakingly cutting it out of mylar and cleaning it up with an exacto knife.  Technology has given us faster alternatives, but seeing those precious stencils (now packaged for Debbie) made me think that we’ve lost just a bit of that historic magic that brought our beloved industry about.

That’s why I’m going to zig instead of zag in our book choice.  This month we are recommending Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin.  I found this book on Amazon while looking for screenprinting techniques (yum) and took a chance on it.  It teaches how to create handprinted fabrics, papers and artworks.  It’s one of the few handprinting books you will find on the market — and since recently released, the most contemporary one.  She includes the patterns and the spiral inset makes it easy to bend the book when you are following the recipes.  While I have yet to try them, they are laid out in a clean, elegant, easy to understand manner.  I am looking forward to playing around with them!

Here are some pics:

In her introduction, Ms. Corwin writes: “While working as a textile designer at Jill Stuart…I would design patterns for fabrics that would then be sent to Asia to be produced.  And when those fabrics came back — thousands of yards at a time — they were nearly flawless.  And while they were beautiful, I couldn’t help but feel that something was lost in those perfectly printed textiles.  They were missing the imperfections that I am so drawn to in vintage fabric, wallpaper and stationery, those produced when printing techniques were wonkier…I have always found these imperfections charming and enjoyed how clearly they herald the touch of the human hand.”  These words resonate for me in the describing of the beauty of decorative painting: the sheer bliss of having someone come in and — by hand — create works of art specifically for them, their walls, their lifestyle.  I hope you enjoy the recommendation…and anything you choose to create by hand today.

The Wall-Nuts is a group of four women (including myself), with various degrees of expertise in the decorative painting field. We get together periodically to test out different books, videos and/or products. You, dear Reader, get to reap the benefits. Although we will not provide the recipes, we will post our results and also talk about them via podcast. (I’m actually quite proud that with the help of my husband, I was able to wrangle Sound Forge, the software used to edit the podcast.)

To read the bios of each member, please click here. For our initial get-together, we all took on a book by Gary Lord entitled “It’s Faux Easy”. He is one of the most prolific faux finishers and has received numerous accolades. It’s Faux Easy has about 30 projects and the corresponding recipes. But…do they work? Are they easy to follow? Here’s our take:

 

 Wall-nuts Podcast: It's Faux Easy (Gary Lord) [15:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We each wrote our own recap since filming the podcast so that if you cannot access it, you can easily read the results. 

Monica Zeuli: University-Trained Muralist
Hoping to Inspire: All fine artists who have an interest in faux finishing
Recipe: Colette’s Classic (Project Eleven)

Book Sample (Left), Monica with her sample (Right)

Monica: Overall, the recipe was easier than it looks.  I went by the book with every step and the only thing I can comment on is to make sure your squeegee notches are on the small side so it doesn’t come out too linear.  If you want “fat” lines then go wide with the notch.  I used a pre-made squeegee that was wide and I decided to go over the lines a couple of times which made the SofTex leave little knobs which were easy to remove.  It really looks like natural bamboo. As a professional artist, I would recommend to my clients painting directly on the wall of a bath or kitchen with a light tan or gold basecoat to get the same effect and bypass the paper. I think that would give me the best durability for my clients. Taping off baseboards and ceilings would be essential. I do love the finish product and I can wait to sell it! 

PROS
Super easy, great for either a novice or experienced faux artist.
I liked that you put it on craft paper and apply to the wall.  You can have plenty of practice before applying finish product.

CONS
You have to wait at least an hour before applying glaze.
You have to use a lot of the relatively expensive SoftTex.
My squeegee didn’ have the right size knotches like the book had.  I had to go over the area a few times to get smaller lines.
I wish I could ask Mr. Lord if his example (using the finished craft paper in a bathroom), would hold up in condensation and would the background show water stain? Would it tear after getting wet? Would a clear coat help?

Debbie Jackson: New Professional Faux Finisher
Hoping to Inspire: Those who are just starting their faux career or looking to start one
Recipe Chosen: Rawhide (Project Twelve)

Book Sample (Left), Debbie with her sample (Right)

Debbie: All things considered, this finish was easy to accomplish and the directions were very easy to follow.  It definitely gets a thumbs-up from me.

PROS
Easy directions, anyone could execute this finish and it’s fun to do.

CONS
Paper is a little fragile when wet so you must exercise caution.

Sharon Adelman: The Faux Enthusiast
Hoping to Inspire: All the DIYers out there
Recipe Chosen: Linen Strie (Project Five)

Book Sample (Left), Sharon with her sample (Right) 

Sharon: It was quite straighforward once I started painting and getting the hang of it.  Initially, I was very nervous wondering if I was making mistakes.  Quite fun after a while and this really makes you focus.  I actually meditated when I painted. The final result of the Linen Strie was quite nice.  I loved it.  Very simple, very classy.  I like the muted look with the nice contrast on both the horizontal and vertical lines.  I guess once I have a more steady hand, I will do this on my walls.  I am very happy with this experiment.  I am looking forward to more intricate projects.   

PROS
The book consists of helpful steps.  Very good Pro Tips are found on the start of every recipe. These was very helpful for me since I needed more guidance and Gary Lord laid that out for me.
 

CONS
The color palette (pg 39) and printed color on Step One (pg 40) was a lot darker and that totally confused me. But in the end, I just played with the colors and went with my gut on which color to use. I will now be braver trying out other colors.

Regina Garay: Ye (Relatively) Olde-Timer
Hoping to Inspire: Like-minded professionals and anyone with an interest in decorative painting as a hobby or business
Recipe Chosen: Parchment (Project Six)

Book Sample (Left), Best pic of Regina’s sample (Right)

Regina:  I must admit, halfway through the finish I was worried.  It didn’t seem right and my results didn’t look like the book’s pictures.  However, when the final glaze layer went on, it brought it all together and I liked the finish so much it went right into the portfolio.  I’m all for layering and this one is fairly easy to do with great predictable results.  (Plus, that final overall glaze recipe?  Gorgeous color.) 

PROS
Gorgeous layered finish
Colors provided give a nice tone that would work in many home’s designs
Final glaze coloration now one of my faves
The kind of recipe that is versatile enough to handle endless color variations

CONS
Doesn’t really come together until the final layer
Getting an even look with the paint-only softening layer will take a bit of practice for a DIYer

***

There you have it, folks.  All four of us were unanimous in recommending this book, which is available at your favorite online or local bookstore.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the first Wall-nuts installment. We are looking to get together again sometime early next year for our next “test”. (…and if you have any reviews to suggest, by all means please let us know in the comments section.)

Walking into Melanie Royals’ studio is like walking into the faux version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  There is so much eye candy in the two-story space — floors, walls, ceilings, panels, artwork, staircases, furniture, doors…it all flows together and as she gave our group a personal tour, it was mindboggling to note the creativity that flows from her mind.  I am a frequent reader of the Design Amour blog and it was cool to see, in person, the pictures I have drooled over in the past year.  The studio is still a work-in-progress and it was great to hear her plans for filling up the remaining spaces.  I’m so glad she’s in our industry!

Here’s some pics of the studio.  (More to come in Part Two.)

Elegant Reflections is a two-day class that focuses on using mirrors and glass as substrates.  It covers etching, patination, various forms of gilding and reverse painting.  The two days were jam packed – there was a lot of ground to cover.  On the first day, we learned about proper preparation and she advised us that the techniques would be a new way of thinking for us: working in the reverse.  In fact, she let us know when she first started working with glass & mirrors that she basically threw out all her initial samples.  Through her guidance, we started to see what the products do and how they react. 

Here’s peeks into the various processes and samples both around the studio and created for the class.  Pictured is my classmate, Kersteen Anders, who coincidentally was also with me in the Safra course given in Italy for advanced Venetian Plaster techniques. 

I can totally understand the controlled process and how different techniques I use will affect the end result.  I love this new direction!  Once I receive my samples, I’ll post up Part Two with more pics of the studio and some of the created works so you can see the end results.  For years I’ve planned to take a workshop by Melanie Royals — I’m so glad I took this particular one and invested into my business.  It’s wonderful to learn many new things (flash gilding, anyone?) AND have found new substrates to add to my services.  Please note that if you are interested, the next Elegant Reflections class is February 9 - 10, 2009.  I can’t wait to receive my samples and other yummy stuff!