How to Crackle Finish
Crackle finishes are great for those not so perfect items like old picture frames or a piece of furniture not worth stripping. I found an old steel headboard that was nasty. Sandblasting was too expensive so I "crackeled it with a base coat of deep rose and over coated with white. My daughter used it for many years.
Materials: You will need your standard prep materials,sandpaper, ready mixed spackle, and tack cloth.
Liquid crackling medium which is available in most craft stores . I mix it with about 10% water. Hide glue is another good one and is available at Ace hardware.
Your dark base coat color and a lighter color for the top coat. The fine cracks will be your base coat color.
Paintbrushes, and if you choose to age the finish some you will need a small amount of acrylic wood stain.
Procedure
1. Patch and cracks or big dings with your splackle and when dry sand the surface smooth. Wipe clean with a tack cloth.
2. Paint the piece with one or two coats of the darker base color and let dry. Then apply the crackling medium
or you can use regular elmers white glue using long, smooth, even strokes. You can use a paintbrush or when I am doing picture frames I use a damp sponge. It is great for getting into the carved areas.
Its important that you do not overbrush the glue,just put it on and leave it, thin coats result in fine cracks and thicker coats produce larger cracks.
3. When it's dry, paint the piece with the lighter top color, here again don't brush the paint out too much,apply,lay it off and leave it.
The paint will crackle in the direction it was brushed.
4. If you want to add a little "age" to the piece wait until the top coat is dry, and paint over it with a thinned down mixture of your acrylic stain,about a 50/50 mix with water is good.
Flood it on the surface and remove the excess with a lint-free rag.
When dry you can then seal the paint with a matte or satin-finish polyurethane if it is going to be subjected to a lot of use. Picture frames for example can be left as is.
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Crackle Finish
Subject: Crackling with Elmers Glue
you need to use Franklin Hide Glue for this. Don't think
Elmers will do it. Have used the hide glue (another brand will work
fine) many times and it works great. Base coat, let that dry. Paint
on your hide glue, let dry. Then, paint your final coat in 1 direction
only and using as few strokes as possible so you don't "pick up" any
of the base coat. If you do pick up a bit, you can touch up and fix.
It's a great look.
Crackle Finish with Hide Glue
Crackle Finish::: I too use the Hide Glue. This glue is made out of animal hides, thus the name. However I do not let the glue dry, I let it get tacky, but not completely dry. Then this is when I go about apply the top layer. You can apply this layer many ways. You can use a sponge, paint brush, roller. It is best to use a practice board. I use just a piece of card board that I have painted the basecoat on. I have had some major mistakes but thank God they were only on the practice board. Also I have found out that the practice boards give you too some wonderful new found looks. In all the years that I have been painting I have found out that there is never one way of doing a paint finish. Someone always has a different way, and if the end results are the same, then all is well. I hope that I have helped. Happy Happy Painting FP