Materials: sandpaper; soft cloth; oil or alkyd paints, glazing liquid; mineral spirits; paint brushes; plastic wrap; turkey feathers; disposable gloves; high-gloss polyurethane. Fill in any holes or irregularities in the wall; sand until perfectly smooth. If you working on wood, remove any prior finishes completely and sand until smooth. Wipe the surface clean with a slightly damp cloth. Paint the base coat in your background color Prepare your other colors. Mix five parts paint with one part glazing liquid. Add mineral spirits as needed until the paint is the consistency of whole milk. Paint areas with color -- first paint areas with a darker shade of your color, once that process was completed, the next color. While the glaze is still wet, use a wadded piece of plastic wrap to blot and lift some of the glaze, exposing some of the pink underneath. While you can use a fine brush for this next step, a turkey feather is the ideal tool for details. While the glazes are still wet, hold the feather by the quill and dip the wispy end of the feather into the dark color glaze. Let excess paint drip off. Lay the feather against the glazed surface, dragging it in patterns such as shown above. Flicking your wrist slightly as you drag will create a variation in the thickness of the lines. Add depth by lightly brushing across the wet lines with a dry, stiff brush, blending them into the background. Let the paint dry completely -- from several days (for alkyds) to a week (for oils) depending on humidity. The paint can feel dry to the touch but the underlying layers need a chance to dry thoroughly. Coat with two or more layers of high-gloss polyurethane. Technically, this technique could be done with acrylic paints but using slower drying paints allows some time for manipulation to the paint layers. Work in sections if you’re working on a large wall space. Paint the entire surface in the background color. Let dry. Lightly mark off manageable sections of 1-2 square feet using a yardstick or T-square and pencil. Work progressively on the wall sections, carrying through the pattern from the adjoining section.
haha! You made me choke on my coffee with that one! You two should go on the road telling "tie-dyed balls" jokes.
actually, that is marbling, a really cool technique I'd not thought to take vertical...oh the visions I have. gracias
My bedroom in my parents' house was so cool. The floor was a painted hardwood floor, but I took up this rug that my dad had put down a long time a go and there was a big peace sign painted on the floor! It was at least 4-5 feet across. It was so awesome... I wish I could have met the cool person that put it there. But my parents made me paint over it a couple years ago right before I moved out. That was a sad day.
