The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
The wax will prevent any stain penetrating this portion, and when the wax is removed, the design is left in the natural wood. Water stain is the best to use for staining the wood after the batik. Many colors of stain can be used by waxing all of the portion except the one you are staining each time you apply stain.
When the stain is dry, the wax is removed with a knife and the remaining wax rubbed into the wood with a woolen rag, thus finishing the wood with a semi-gloss polish.
GESSO
Gesso work is very fascinating and offers a wide field for design on wood, metal, paper, glass, etc. This work consists of building up a design in raised relief, so that the finish will have the appearance of being carved. This material can be purchased at any art store. First draw your design on the wood, or trace it as you have been instructed above in batiking. and have a fine pencil brush for drawing your design. Always have a glass of water near by to keep your brush clean. Tn building up the design, keep your brush well filled with gesso and let it flow over the end of the brush. Use your fingers or a piece of wood or bent wire to keep the lines in perfect shape.
More coats of gesso can be applied to build up the design. Your taste alone is your limitation. The beauty of making designs of this kind is that if a mistake is made, the gesso can be removed and done over. After the design has been built up as desired, allow it to stand two hours for drying. You can then paint or stain the article any color you want, and after that you can paint, gild or color the gesso any desired shade, and in some instances the whole piece is sprayed with burnished gold and raised portions burnished with a burnishing tool.
GILDING
First give the article you wish gilded two coats of shellac. If you are working on metal, be sure that the metal is free from grease. To mix the gold size, thin the gilder's oil with turpentine to about the consistency of water, then mix a little chrome yellow and tint it with vermillion to give the gold size a gold color, running the size through a strainer, adding some varnish or a little japan drier, as experience may teach, so that the size will dry tacky. When applying the size, rub well into the crevices with a stiff bristle brush and let it stand for a minute or two so that the excess oil will run down. Then go over the whole surface with a soft piece of cheese cloth, saturated with gold size. Let it dry over night or about sixteen hours. For faster drying, mix accordingly more japan dryer.
