A softening layer of age is one of the most sought after techniques in our trade.  Previously on our Sense of Patina series, we’ve covered Verdigris but today we go into greener pastures, so to speak.  Moss is a flowerless and rootless plant that grows in humidity and reproduces by means of spores.  It has a spectacular green color.

Via Sunsurfer

A bit ago, I did a post on Eco-friendly Stenciling which included a recipe on creating a moss stencil. Others try a nice thick coat of buttermilk on the object and then place it in a shady, moist location to encourage growth. Cast stones are a good surface because they are nicely porous – not so liked by moss is regular concrete or plastic.  On occasion, we (and I mean decorative painters as a whole) might get a call on creating a mossy statue or a vase — anything to quickly give something relatively new the look of worn elegance.  Here are some ways moss can make a glorious impact on design.

Via Forever Lovely Designs

Featured in Hue by Kelly Wearstler

Lettering

Left: Etsy, Right: dear lillie

Gorgeous Moss Green

Via Design Sponge

A beautiful fountain we came upon in Giardino Giusti.  Here is the full image.

A 19th-century bust featured in House & Garden (RIP)

Many confuse moss with lichen although they are different – lichen is actually a cross of algae and fungus.  Some lichen may be green but often it is gray or white in appearance and can mostly be found covering stones and trees. The best way to recreate the look with paint is to study real moss and lichen and come up with textures and colors that match them best for your project.  I think both organisms are fascinating and beautiful.  Do you agree?  Have a great day!

A funny thing happened while I was searching for images to include in a future mural post.  You see, I’ve seen gorgeous trees painted in children’s rooms and nurseries but it never dawned on me the sheer variety of trees you could go with.  From faithful to whimsical to retro to simple, there’s a tree for everyone.  Here’s a few I came across.

Starting off with a sweetness featured in Pottery Barn Kids Bedding (above).

A beautiful cherry blossom tree in a nursery.  Interior by Vancouver’s Lord Twig Design – more pics of this beautiful room are on their site.

An unusual but fun take courtesy of Jerry Bussanmas Homebuilders.

The following two showcase very simple designs shadowed in white. Love!

Of course, you can add a bit more to the white like they did in this young girl’s room below… Via Houzz.

Florida artist Juli Simon does a jungle variation above and forest variation below.  Both are just lovely.

The beauty of having an artist come into your home is the fact that you can personalize a young one’s space. Here, Arizona artist Carmen Benoit takes her client’s birdhouse collection and creates something memorable with their “treehouse”.  She also included the family’s pet rabbit and dog! Notice how the birdhouses are either hung on the tree or from a clear wire — SO creative.

I really could have posted so many more images and variations – I sometimes have to stop myself!  BTW, I’ll have you know it took me a loooooong time to come up with this particular title, so I hope there were no eye rolls!  Imagine — you could have gotten stuck with the somewhat boring “Different Branches of Trees” like I originally planned.  I think it’s better that we got twiggy with it.

Ver·di·gris \ˈvər-də-ˌgrēs, -ˌgris, -grəs also -ˌgrē\

House & Garden (R.I.P.)

Pinterest

Beautiful Portals

Hello!  I just wanted to remind everyone that there are three days remaining to submit your projects for the Making a Great Impression contest sponsored by Ed Mattingly and the Sherwin-Williams’ Faux Impressions line.

All you have to do is find a picture in which your work makes a great impression and Enter it Here. 

Easy Peasy.  Actually, you can enter as many projects as you’d like but only one image of each technique/finish.  Last day to submit your pic(s)?  This Friday, July 29th.

Sherwin-Williams’ Faux Impressions as photographed by Houston artist Ali Kay.

So, Recap: 1) Find Great Pic(s) and 2) Submit it/them Here.  Voting will begin over the coming weekend and carry on for the entire week.  All those who enter will receive an e-mail with a link to their specific image(s) so that you can send those to all your friends and family to vote.  All the pictures will be available on the Fauxology Fan Page as well.  Faux Impressions’ Ed Mattingly will pick the final Grand Prize Winner from the Top 3 pics at the end of the week.  I hope you enter — and may the force be with you!

P.S. BTW, your regularly scheduled blog post is right after this…

Recycled Paint

We had a fantastic Giveaway by Metro Wallworks during our Deets post on their innovative eco-friendly product, Recycled Paint.  Readers were asked to comment about their creative plans for the material and one was picked via Random to receive five quarts of paint to start their own faux kit.  Without further ado, the Winner is…

MICHELLE LOPEZ!

Michelle says, “I am a relative newcomer to the decorative painting world, and thanks to the internet and BLOGS (yes, I’m blog obsessed!) I am able to learn from some of the most incredible teachers in the business without ever leaving home.  Currently, I specialize in painted furniture, patinated mirrors and stenciled/faux finished walls, but I will paint almost anything!”  Michelle had just bought a stencil and planned to use the Ice Blue and Stony Gray Recycled Paint colors to create a beautiful focal wall for her bedroom.  It does sound amazing — keep us posted, Michelle!

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I did want to say “Thank You!” to all who left a wonderful comment on the post and also to Ayn Riggs of Recycled Paint for the wonderful Giveaway.  There will be more opportunities to win products and other great giveaways so be on the lookout, dear Readers — have a great day!

A Solomonic Column is one which has all the typical components of a column except that the shaft twists into a spiral and creates a serpentine motion.  They are mostly created from wood, metals and especially marble.  Speaking of marble, today’s columns are made to mimic the look of with a wonderful twist.  They were created by Krista Vind and Cindy Everett Smith of Ufauxrea and the wonderful THE Studio Destin.  Generously, they’ve included the recipe for you.  Let’s dig in!

A few years ago, I spotted this image in an issue of Elle Decor….

The columns installed by designer Stephen Sills were so beautiful that they inspired this 2009 blog post wherein I stated that a decorative finisher could reproduce the columns — but they had to be done extremely well.  Cue to a few years later and there I am receiving the submissions for Column Week.  When I saw these beauties submitted by Krista Vind, they immediately reminded me of my post from so long ago and I knew they would make the final list.  Once I started receiving all her project information, the inspiration pic was sent as well — and it was the SAME pic.  I was floored at the coincidence and it was only then that it dawned on me that they had beautifully executed the finish I had written about years ago.  Love how it all comes around, you know?  Krista shares their story.

“These are the columns in The Country Club of Mobile.  The designer, Tricia Willis, wanted the columns to have a beautiful banding design,” she explains. “We created six of these 12′  tall columns for the entry hall. The color and type of marble were changed to go with the interior design club.  In fact, here is the original “recipe” just so you can see the colors used and how messy I can be!”

“We ended up changing it a bit when we did the columns.  The finish itself has a lot of steps but each is so quick and easy, its amazing to me how realistic they look!”

Hallway with beautiful Banded Columns at end.

Guess what, dear Readers?  The recipe has been shared!

Tumbled Marble Banded Columns

1)  Basecoat with white paint.

2)  Mix 2 paint/glaze mixtures: one in a deep tomato red, the other a dark gray. Cut a few pieces of plastic sheeting into different sizes. Apply a bit of the paint/glaze mix to the plastic with a brush – each color separately. Lay the plastic on the surface to apply the paint.  Using both colors, you are looking for about 30-40% surface coverage. It should look like a positive frottage. Let dry. (This is the really scary stage. Be SURE to warn your clients!)

3)  Using a very light gray color, again “bag” on to soften the look of the red and dark gray. This time, wad up some plastic and just lightly dip it into the paint before bagging on the surface.

4)  Using glaze and dark brown colorant, overglaze the entire surface to tone.

5)  Now, using a thin mix of the same gray as in Step 2 and water, rub onto the surface randomly with a t-shirt cloth.  Do as much coverage as you think necessary.

6)  Now comes the fun part – making the “stones”!  My first go-round with this I used three different glaze color mixes.  I found it really wasn’t necessary, so I ended up using a) a mix of Aquacreme with Brown and Dark Brown colors and b) RS Glaze with a Chestnut color. (If you aren’t certified to use RS glaze, just use Aquacreme.)

7)  Tear brown paper into stoney shapes. Dip in water, dab off on towel and then apply to column surface.  Apply brown glaze all around and add in only the chestnut color here and there, varying the size of the areas where you add it. If you use RS Glaze, use a color shaper to “pull” the glaze and create its unique movement. Pull off the paper. Soften the edges with a paper towel or tool of choice.  Before this glaze is dry, I also like to use the color shaper to create movement in the larger areas of solid glaze. It leaves faint lines that look like fissures.

8)  Topcoat using a shiny water-based material. I used Rock Kote gloss.

Unless otherwise noted, all products used are from Faux Effects.

Krista shares, “This process sounds difficult to me as I write it out, but in fact it is SO simple and creates such a really convincing marble!”  I would have to agree — the columns look wonderful!  Please be sure to visit their websites, Ufauxrea and THE Studio Destin, to see more of their work and available classes.  The studio also has a great Facebook page.  Tomorrow we conclude Column Week with another Florida artist — her first feature here on Fauxology.  The inspiration? The 70′s mystique mixed with Moroccan influences.  Intrigued?  See you tomorrow!

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DAY 1 – Column Week: Ashlie Bickford, Kindra Benge and Sharon Leichsenring
DAY 2 – Column Week: Arthur Morehead
DAY 3 – Column Week: Mindy Hunt Harrell
DAY 4 – Current Post
DAY 5 – Column Week: Lisa Cameron

Columns are vertical structures that are used to safely transmit weight and pressure from above to a strong ground.  The earliest recorded columns were in Egypt and have since been used as both a needed structural element to a purely decorative accent.  Our Column Week starts with a collaboration between Ashlie Bickford and Kindra Benge, of Texas’ A Fabulous Finish, and an old friend of Fauxology, Connecticut-based Sharon Leichsenring, who has previously been featured in our Portrait of an Artist series as well as during Elevator Week.  Here, Sharon recounts the beautiful commission.

These six column form a separation of the dining room from an open-spaced foyer and living room. The work was done by Ashlie Bickford and Kindra Benge of A Fabulous Finish in The Woodlands, Texas and myself, Sharon Leichsenring of Leichsenring Studios in Trumbull, Connecticut. Ashlie had invited me to work on several  murals in this home. The columns gave us a great opportunity to pool our talents. Here are the results.

Below, you can see the columns with the initial coat of texture troweled on.

Next, using the Royal Design Studio Flourish Allover stencil, an embossed design was applied in a spiral fashion. The plaster was then primed.

The entire columns, except for some trim bands on the capitals and bases, were then foiled in Antique Gold. We applied an umber glaze over the foil.

The capitals were highlighted with bands of metallic teal paint.  The scrolls of flowers and flourishes were dry-brushed in a medley of metallic colors including bronze, pewter and saffron.  The pièce de résistance? All the flowers were covered by Swarovski crystals of amber, silver and turquoise.  In case you’re wondering, there’s only one way to apply the crystals: one by one.  The crystals were cemented to overlap each other for maximum Bling! effect.

It’s ironic to call this work—we had a wonderful time. BTW, check out the fantastic wall finish which provides a drop dead back drop (say that 3 times fast) for the columns. That was executed by Ashlie and Kindra. They applied a layer of texture, then stenciled embossed random  damask elements.  The stenciled areas were then foiled in Antique gold with a rich umber glaze toning everything as a finish.

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Dazzling!  I love teamwork — especially between artists in different states! This particular home also won the ladies a spot on the 2011 Top Job Awards given by American Painting Contractor magazine. The prestigious award was for their work in the entire house — this was just one space in the gorgeous home. Ashlie Bickford and Kindra Benge’s site is A Fabulous Finish and they have a great Facebook page. Sharon’s site is Leichsenring Studios and she also has a wonderful Facebook page. Please do be sure to visit their sites and see more of their work. I hope you’ve enjoyed their incredible collaboration — I think we started Column Week in the right way! Tomorrow, we travel back to my home state of Florida to see an amazing “stone” finish.

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DAY 1 – Current Post
DAY 2 – Column Week: Arthur Morehead
DAY 3 – Column Week: Mindy Hunt Harrell
DAY 4 – Column Week: Krista Vind and Cindy Everett Smith
DAY 5 – Column Week: Lisa Cameron