Decorative Painting Crafts & Materials

Painting gives a chance for color, just as varied and as bright as possible. And when once you are deep in the paint-cups no end of things about the house will present themselves for reclaiming or turning into something new by the magic of a fearlessly wielded brush. Many of them will be the things you have always hesitated to throw away, but knew would accumulate beyond the storage capacity of the attic or top shelf in the closet. Candy-boxes, hat-boxes, the big and little boxes that once held pills, fruit boxes and baskets; in fact, every well-proportioned and neatly made box of cardboard, wood, or tin may be transferred into an acceptable gift or a charming and useful appurtenance to some room in the household. For instance, make the guest-room dressing-table a powder-puff box out of a large pill-box or a small, round candy-box. Paint it a fresh apple-green with a wide violet band around the edge of the cover; inside the band add two finer lines of yellow. Glue to the center of the cover, for a knob and to please your fancy, one of those strange fruits that may be made out of a scrap of silk stretched over a ball of cotton. Use a bit of taffeta the color of the violet band, touch it with a brush dipped in red water-color, thrust a clove deep into its cotton filling to make the blossom end, and then add a dash of leaves from last summer's hat trimmings. When fruit and leaves are glued in place, paint the inside of the box yellow or turquoise blue, and finish both inside and outside, including the fruit, with several coats of shellac.

But now to begin in the very beginning, at the paint-shop getting a supply of materials. For painting on paper or cardboard buy tempera water-colors, sold also under the name of show-card colors. Those prepared with sizing are more permanent. They are simply opaque water-color and may be washed off. That is why one may be so fearless and dash on any colors one's imagination prompts. Of course, washing cardboard boxes must be done with care, not allowing them to become soaked, else they will blister. The show-card colors may be had in black, white, and a variety of hues, and they come in two-ounce bottles or larger quantities. These colors are for the small things or for picking out a pattern on furniture.

For painting furniture or large surfaces use automobile paint. It is put up either in paste or in liquid form. The former needs thinning with oil and turpentine. These make two more items to be added to the stock-shelf of the home decorator. Boiled linseed oil will also be needed for "rubbing down" in a later stage of the painting. No definite proportions can be given for the thinning of the paste, because the required quantity varies with the condition of the paint. Begin with a little color, pour in about a teaspoonful of oil, rub it in and then thin down gradually with turpentine. More turpentine than oil is required. If too much of the latter is used the paint remains sticky for days. Turpentine will also cut the gloss of any liquid oil paint in case it has too much.

There are several reasons for advising automobile paint instead of the ordinary kind: it is smoother, is mixed with a "drier" that shortens the time needed for drying after its application, and the paste form is a condensed way of keeping it - a way that not only takes up less space on the shelf, but is economical, since just the required amounts may be mixed as needed.

Ordinary paint, even a good quality, is cheaper than automobile paint and will do very well for garden and porch furniture or even with more critical work. This, too, comes in a condensed form - i.e., ground in oil - and needs thinning with turpentine. Add Japan drier, in the proportions of one ounce to a quart of paint, if you wish to hurry the drying so that the next coat of paint may go on.

Round wooden cheese boxes are easier to get and quite as attractive as these when decorated.

A Japanned paint must be applied with a camels-hair brush, not bristle, and spread lightly. A rubber-set brush costs more to begin with, but does not shed its hairs or bristles in a short time, as will one set with glue or cement. Bristle brushes are suitable for a paint without drier and cost less than the hair brushes.

The best size to get depends upon the nature of the painting. Small boxes may be done rapidly and easily with a three-quarter-inch brush that is not too thick. Of course, pattern must go on with a smaller one. The Japanese brushes, the kind they use with their ink stones, are good for decorative work and are so inexpensive that one can well afford a generous supply, one for each of the show-card colors. This saves time and the trouble of cleaning a brush for every new color.

Larger surfaces require a wider brush, one about one and a quarter inches wide for the work of average size; that is, chairs, tables, chests, and window-boxes. By the way, one of those most useful "cedar chests" may be made of a wooden shoe-box, the kind that shoes come packed in from the factory. Paint and decorate it outside. Sandpaper the inside smooth and then treat it to sprinklings of cedar oil at intervals of a week until it is strongly aromatic. This makes a most satisfactory substitute for a real cedar chest.

Add two sizes of sandpaper to the stock-shelf if any wood-painting is to be done, No. 1 for the first rubbing down and No. 00 for finishing. Always rub with the grain and wipe off the powder that collects from the rubbing. It fills up the crevices, deceiving one into thinking the article is perfectly smooth, and the truth is not discovered until a first coat of paint washes the sandpaper dust free.

There are two very good final finishes. One is prepared wax. It comes dark and light, but the latter is usable for either kind of paint. Only a little need be rubbed into the surface of the wood with a cloth after the last painting is done. It must be allowed to dry for at least an hour; overnight is better. Then the surface is polished by rubbing with a soft cloth, old linen is excellent.

Wax cannot be used over tempera colors. These should be finished with shellac. And be sure to get white shellac, for the whole color scheme would be changed upon the application of the amber kind. If it is too thick, thin down with denatured alcohol. The consistency of thin cream is about right. Apply it on a dry day, if possible, else it will go on "clouded." That effect disappears in time, to be sure, but is annoying while it lasts, because the colors do not show through true. Some of the color in a pattern usually gets dim or rubbed off with the first application of shellac, but this may be touched up before the next coat goes on.

A real English lacquer finish may be got by almost an indefinite number of shellac coats. The more that are put on the deeper will be the color effect and the harder the surface a paper box becomes quite like wood when treated in this way. So it is entirely practical to spend time and effort on paper foundations. After the first two coats of shellac, a rubbing .down with powdered pumice and boiled linseed oil must be given the surface before another coat is spread. Simply saturate a soft cloth with oil, dip it in the pumice powder, and rub the surface gently. The object is to get off any small irregularities and rough places. Wipe away the powder with oil and then dry the surface before shellacking again.

You see there are a number of items besides color to be got at the paint-shop, and for convenience in reference they have been listed at the end of the chapter. When it seemed possible, quantities were suggested. However, the amount of paint could not be estimated because that depends upon how much surface is to be covered. The salesman in the paint-shop should be able to advise there.

Two more items are mucilage and talcum both for the lacquer-work, to raise some of the pattern above the rest. Upon close examination of old work one frequently finds this treatment on details of the design. To reproduce the .effect mix talcum and mucilage to a consistency where a tiny bead of it dropped from the end of the mixing match-stick will retain its shape. Then apply it on the pattern to be raised, let it dry, and after this it is ready for the color. One must be careful in shellacing a surface that has been raised. Shellac is apt to collect in the crevices as it runs off the promontories. Use a fairly dry brush.

The list of supplies for the home decorator's paint-closet follows:

• Automobile paint - paste form advised.
• Tempera colors - sized.
• 1 pint boiled linseed oil.
• 1 quart turpentine.
• 1 pint white shellac. 1 quart denatured alcohol.
• 1 pint spar varnish, as light as possible.
• 1 camel's-hair brush.
• 1 bristle brush.
• 6 Japanese ink brushes, small.
• 1 pound powdered pumice.
• 1 pint prepared wax, white.
• 1 box containing small bottle of gilt, mixing oil, and brush.

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