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Furniture Finishing
THE BACKGROUND COLOR
The first step in reproducing the oriental effect is the application of the body or background color which may be black (jet), red (an orange tone), green (lettuce or jade), brown (tan or chocolate) or yellow (champagne).
For materials there is a choice of enamel undercoater, oil enamel, japan color and lacquer enamel, all of which may be used up to the point where the oriental decorations are to be applied. After these have been colored in or bronzed and antique glazed or stippled, flat or rubbing varnish, flat or gloss lacquer may be applied as desired. It is also possible, of course, to follow the eighteenth century English method and build up with colored shellac coats, finishing with clear shellac over the decorations and rubbing, but this is not popular.
Where oil enamel is used three or four coats are customary, all of undercoater, sanded down smooth, or the last of oil enamel, semi-gloss or gloss, rubbed down. These materials may be brushed or sprayed. If the wood is so smooth as to require little filling, japan color may be sprayed, one coat being sufficient for all but very light shades. The oil enamel system calls for a three- to six-day schedule, the japan color, including clear varnish or lacquer finishing coat, one to three days.
LACQUER ENAMEL
If production is a consideration, however, a complete lacquer enamel system is undoubtedly the most desirable. As with japan color, the wood should be close-textured, sanded to extra smooth- ness and primed with lacquer pigment first coater, since lacquer enamels do not fill to the same extent as oil undercoating. One coat may be applied each four hours, two to four coats being customary, with the last allowed to stand twenty-four hours prior to rubbing. If not desired to rub, flat lacquer may be applied as a finishing coat after decorating.
A background scheme for oriental decoration even more upto-date than any of the foregoing is embodied in the spidery pattern of the new crackle finish. Yellow crackle over brown lacquer enamel undercoat, black over red. red or green over black, and black over gold or silver are appropriate combinations. A typical example of this system calls for one coat of lacquer pigment first coater, one coat black lacquer enamel, one coat Chinese red crackle lacquer, mottled all over with a sponge wet with a thin glaze of one pound each burnt umber and lamp black in japan to one gallon turpentine, followed by a thin coat of gloss lacquer, decorations in gold, yellow, brown and black and a top coat of flat lacquer.
