The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

These finishes are sometimes employed on the Spanish type of underbracing and overlays where wood instead of metal forms the base, supplemented by touches of green and red glaze on any projections or leaf and vine carving. The same is true of lamp stands which are stippled in a twisting figure, and overlays colored ivory and antique glazed, or colored in brighter tones and color glazed in a harmonizing or contrasting shade.

LACQUER STIPPLING

Lacquer stipple paste must be sprayed on and should be purchased ready-made. Most brands come ready to apply and require a very low pressure on the nozzle with a very high one on the material in order to force the material out in "blobs," somewhat as with spattering. Though the depth of the stipple may be varied by regulating the air pressure and amount of material going through the gun, it is not possible to secure effects as coarse nor patterns so varied as with hand stippling.

Lacquer paste is speedy, however, requiring but an hour for drying and no sanding and hence is popular for furniture work. The coloring and decorative processes are the same as for the paint paste (See also Chapter XI).


Stencils and Stenciling


BRIEFLY denned, a stencil is a design or pattern cut out of a thin piece of paper or metal in such a way that by the application of paint over it a clear cut impression is conveyed to any reasonably smooth surface. Furniture stencils may be traced on stiff paper and cut with a sharp knife on glass or purchased ready-made in special or stock designs. With proper care a single pattern may be used on almost any number of pieces.

TYPES OF STENCILS

The simplest form of stencil is known as the ordinary onecolor type, meaning that the entire impression may be conveyed in one operation. It is extensively employed on juvenile furniture, kitchen cabinets and certain classes of semi-utilitarian household furniture in metal and wood with plain one-tone backgrounds. It may readily be rendered more interesting where desirable by filling in different parts of the same design with harmonizing colors. If a rose spray, the rose may be filled in pink or red, the leaves light green and the stem dark green, thus more closely approximating nature. To carry this idea further the colors may be shaded out with a small artist's spray or by hand while still wet before or after the stencil has been lifted.

Background stencils are handiest for use in transferring allover designs as where a complete surface is to be decorated in a filigree or network effect. In making the stencil the background instead of the design is cut out and when sprayed in light blue over a dark blue painted surface, for example, a very pretty medium blue effect is secured through the harmony of the two shades. Harmonizing rather than contrasting shades are preferable, and if the stencil is skillful}' cut and a good arabesque or similar design is chosen, the result often closely approximates an elaborate marquetry inlay pattern.