Craquelure Technique

At all, craquelure is the cracking of a colorful or varnished layer in a picturesque work. This effect is sometimes achieved artificiallyway to give the product a certain charm of antiquity. To do this, use a special cracery lacquer, which when cured cracked. Then these cracks emphasize, rubbing in them paints, pastels, mascara or special compositions for patination.

Technique craquelure is often used when creating products in the style of the shebbie chic. However, the very name of this style, translated as "shabby chic", tells us that all kinds of scrapes and cracks are only welcome.

The technique of craquelure is quite simple in execution. You do not need to have any specific skills, it's more important to be accurate. In addition to the usual materials for decoupage, you will need Crackle lacquer and pigment for the development of cracks.

Technique craquelure can be single-phase and two-phase (one-step and two-step, one-component and two-component). With a one-step crackel on the product at onceit is applied кракелюрный a varnish. When two-step, first you need to apply a yellowish varnish, which creates the effect of antiquity (it is called "varnish for aging"). And when it will slightly dry, but still will be sticky, put krakelyarny lacquer.

Let's try, for example, to understand what the technique of craquelure is (on the example of a two-phase craquelure). Decorate in this technique, you can almost any product. First you need to cover it with a matte primer, so that the paint goes on smoothly. This is especially important for wooden products that can absorb paint.

Then we paint the product with acrylic paint of the right color. You can use several colors and make smooth transitions between them - as you wish. When the paint dries, carve motif with decoupage napkin, wet in water and gently glued to the product decoupage varnish.

By gluing a picture, it needs to be smoothed from the middle to the edges, so that air bubbles do not form under it. If desired, you can put a shadow on the drawing with a thin brush and acrylic paints to make it look more expressive.

Now you can apply varnish for aging (first phase / component of craquelure). The layer should not be too thin, but not too thick. Then you should wait until the lacquer hardens a little and will not be wet, but still sticky. Here at this moment we put varnish lacquer (second phase / component of craquelure). To the technician craquelure justified your expectations, apply the varnish in one direction, uniform strokes. Dry lacquer will be for about two hours, but cracks will start to manifest earlier.

To highlight cracks, make them more visible, use patina. To do this, we immerse the brush in the solution of the patina,we apply the solution over the entire surface of the product. When cracks become more visible, the excess patina needs to be quickly and carefully removed with a clean cloth. The color of the patina can be very different, from black to gold. The drying patina will be about 36 hours.

After it dries, cover the product with a protective layer of varnish for aging. However, the technique of craquelure It does not necessarily involve the use of patina, so immediately after the drying of the varnish, you can apply a protective layer.

If the single-phase technique of craquelure is used, the order of work changes slightly. First, the object is degreased, primed andwe cover with a paint. It is desirable that the paint is contrasted with the final color of the product. When the paint dries, we apply a varnish varnish. When it dries, but still will be a little sticky, we cover the object with paint. After the paint has dried, we paste the motif for decoupage. Completely dried product is covered with acrylic lacquer in several layers.

The effect of krakle can be created with the help of an egg shell (egg craquelure). To do this, the product is made of egg mosaicshell, covered with paint, and already on top of it is made decoupage. Of course, the result will not be the same as when using a lacquer varnish, but it can turn out very funny.

The technique of craquelure combined with decoupage is a great way to create a product with a touch of antiquity, simple and effective at the same time.