My latest mirror. 18 x 8 inches. check it out on Etsy or come by the gallery  to see all the mirrors. I'm working on another today 

just as I was getting started

ART REPAIR

CLOSE UP OF THE DAMAGE AFTER I APPLIED THE SEALER

This is where I wish I had left well enough alone. The first coat of oil poly urethane went on beautifully. The repair to all the chips in the plaster from 60 yrs of being bumped and scratched turned out so well ..... I was really proud of the work and regretted at that point that I hadn't taken a before picture. Then I put one more coat of sealer on to even out the finish and BAM! it wrinkled!! 

The wrinkle on the 2nd layer may have been due to  the surface not being warmed enough to take the heat of the chemical reaction. The icon is made of plaster and I came back into my studio on a sunday when my heat had been turned down overnight. Plaster is like stone in that it has a lower surface temp than a wood product. This has happened to me on maybe 3 occasions in my 20 plus yrs of painting. Each time has been a puzzle as I am using a very familiar product. 

So this is the final outcome. I am not touching this anymore!! I  ended up scraping off ( very gently ) all the poly finish with a straight edge razor.... this took me several hours and lots of patience . I then had 5 times as many dings and scratches as it had before I started the original repair. Here you see it after the repair to the painting . I am not taking another chance on putting anything over it as it never had a sealer on it to begin with. 

Portrait painting

Portrait commissioned for a surprise birthday present. Acrylic on canvas board. 

painted dressers done

finally completely finished and waiting for delivery

Oil base on the foundation after sanding and priming with an oil based primer. First lesson in completing a piece of fine art is knowing what kind of paint to use and where. I then used liquitex acrylic soft bodied art paints for the decorative work. 

closeup of the design on top of dresser. I used metallic antique bronze for accents and also touched up the old hardware with this paint before putting a clear sealer over them. The decoratively painted surfaces all got a couple of coats of clear satin lacquer to protect the paint.

Another closeup.... when painting with acrylic art paints on furniture you must finish the piece with a clear sealer of some sort, either water based poly urethane ( brushed on ) or a spray lacquer. I used satin finish lacquer that has the same sheen as the satin finish oil paint I used for the foundation color. 

Animal Planet tonight in Cottage Grove!

So the repair is on hold while I sand and chip away at the finish applied. I'm planning on repainting and then trying another form of sealer after the acrylics have completely cured. What I have concluded after talking to other artists who have had similar faux pas..... the icon is plaster which retains a cooler surface temperature . it was very cool in my studio the day I applied the second coat and I hadn't warmed up the room which means the icon surface was very cool. This could very well have made the polyurethane wrinkle in the process. So , what was an hour long fix is now turning into a week. This is where what little patience I have comes from..... gotta keep breathing!

For a diversion you must see what has been happening here in Cottage Grove. featured on Animal planet and will air tonight at 7 pm.cottage grove animal planet preview
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/must-love-cats-latest/.

So this is the boo boo I did the other day. It is now dry and I'm going to attempt a fix today. Here is the deal. Customer brought me this family religious icon that has hung on their wall for probably 50 plus yrs. Made out of plaster and through the yrs had been dinged up considerably. It probably had 30 good scratches and white marks on every part of it. I did the repair ..... put one coat of poly urethane on it to protect it in the future. It was fine but needed a 2nd coat to even out the sheen. All was beautiful and my only regret at that point was that I hadn't taken a before pic when it was all marred up. 

The 2nd coat of poly went on fine and with in minutes it began to wrinkle and pull