A Great New Furniture Wax From Earthborn

Earthborn have just produced a great new furniture wax that goes perfectly with the new 750ml pots of Claypaint. You can now paint and finish a piece of furniture with these two products. It's not totally natural as it contains a little bit of isoparaffin which is derived from petrochemicals but doesn't smell toxic and I was fine when using it. I can tell immediately if people are going to have allergic reactions or respiratory problems with paints and finishes as I have an extreme reaction.

 

I will be showing you how I get on soon here.

Allergies

Children breathing fumes from water-based paints have high risk of asthma, allergies, new study says

Children who sleep in bedrooms with fumes from water-based paints and solvents are two to four times more likely to suffer allergies or asthma, according to a new scientific study. Swedish and U.S. scientists measured the compounds – propylene glycol and glycol ethers – in the bedroom air of 400 toddlers and preschoolers, and discovered that the exposed children had substantially higher rates of asthma, stuffy noses and eczema. The irony is that these compounds are supposed to be healthier than the old, high-polluting, oil-based paints and solvents. See the complete article here www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/glycol-ethers-and-allergies

What's in paint?

Pigment Mixed Into White Clay At IEKO

Pigments. Safer alternatives to the toxic compounds and heavy metals used to color conventional paint include natural pigments derived from plants, insects, iron oxides and minerals. These are usually in powder form at artists’ supply stores.

Binders. Binders keep paint glued to a surface. The acrylic and vinyl binders in commercial paints are derived from the byproducts of refining crude oil. The binders in natural paints rely instead on materials such as starch (from flour), casein (the protein in milk) and linseed oil (from pressed flax seeds).

Fillers. Fillers create texture and add bulk to paint. Common fillers include whiting (powdered chalk), talcum, limestone, silica and marble. Clay is a popular filler to pair with flour, because it reinforces the binding ability of starch, and it’s abundant and potentially free if you have clay soil.

Solvents. Solvents, or thinners, help achieve a workable consistency. The solvents in commercial paints are usually made from organic materials, but they will evaporate or “outgas,” causing that new paint smell. The outgassing of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision and fatigue, especially in areas that are not well ventilated. The hazards are significantly worse for people who paint regularly. Natural solvents such as citrus thinners and natural turpentine are preferable, but they can still emit low levels of VOCs.

Painted Furniture- A Celebration

Chinese Painted Furniture

Painted Furniture- A Celebration

People often complain that faux finishing furniture is modern fakery for people who want their decor aged immediately and have no interest in originality or history. Faux finishing has though been used for millennia, in fact since the advent of furniture.

Secretaire Desk Eau de Nil

Faux painting became popular in classical times in the forms of faux marble and fauxwood. Great recognition was awarded to artists who could actually trick viewers into believing their work was the real thing. 

So we have a great tradition over thousands of years and a history of noble craftsmanship and endevour. The French Secretaire Desk Eau de Nil to the left is a fabulous example of the art of painted furniture and of course there are many other fine examples of the art. Enough to put you off painting furniture for life isn't it!

So here's the thing. As with everything in life there are some traditions and rules that will assist you especially in that initial period of learning but then also rules are for breaking! I've been bending the rules around paint for years. It started with a commitment to using natural non toxic paints to replace all of the techniques using petrochemical paints. So for instance instead of using a conventional Crackle to produce crackle glaze effects I started using Gum Arabic as a crackle medium. Gum Arabic is used as a glaze for cakes and sweets such as jelly beans and therefore completely harmless and in fact edible!

Crackle and Decoupage using Gum Arabic

Also for natural woodstains using things like the water from boiling beetroot (or beetroot powder could be used) or Turmeric Powder and Paprika Powder mixed with a a little water and water based glaze. It also all smells great although you may wonder why you get pangs of hunger whenever you walk past the hall table you stained! Below is what Turmeric stain looks like, although my ability to photograph such a subtle and beautiful effect is severely lacking.

Turmeric and Glaze Mix

I've also used what I have since discovered is a traditional carpenters stain using vinegar to produce a very dark wood stain. You can find out how to do this if you visit our website                                  www.iekoenvironments.co.uk . The stain is made using malt vinegar which has been left to stand overnight with wire wool soaked in it. If applied to oak' the vinegar- which has now turned a rusty colour from the wire wool -reacts with the tannins in the oak and turns it a lovely silvery grey.

Vinegar and Tea Stain

Another process I was so put off by until I broke some rules was Gilding. If done 'properly' and traditionally you will need the following equipment:

Gilding Supplies - Gilding Tools:
Gilder's pad and knife, for handling and cutting leaf
Gilder's tip
Burnishers - tools for rubbing
Gilding Supplies Gilding Materials:
Gold Leaf
Rabbit skin glue (used in gesso and clay mixtures)
Clay (bole)
Gilding materials for toning

Ok great but what if I don't want to spend £150 and be trained over months?

I have found a technique that works and works especially well for an older antiqued look using gold leaf (well actually gold leaf substitute!), a soft brush and some beeswax. Method: spread the wax on the surface, place the leaf on the wax using the paper backing, rub on and then use the soft brush to firm down. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit down and admire! The example below was achieved by placing the leaf (this gold leaf already had a beautiful mottled effect) on wood that had been painted with an Oriental Red Pigment mixed with water and glaze. I then used the same pigment in a little wax and rubbed over.

Guilding With Antique Effect

So what I'm trying to get across here is not a whole new set of rules and limitations but a message to you to break the rules and experiment and above all have some fun with it as this is what will show in the end result. Below is a fabulous example of someone willing to go out on a limb and experiment.

Handpainted Armoire By Lucas Rise

If you are ever in East Sussex an essential thing to do is visit Charleston House www.charleston.org.uk
home to Vanessa bell and Duncan Grant and the hub for the Bloomsbury group of artists, writers and intellectuals.

Duncan Grant Painted Door

The rooms on show form a complete example of the decorative art of the Bloomsbury artists: murals, painted furniture, ceramics, objects from the Omega Workshops, paintings and textiles. There is a real demonstration at Charleston of freedom of expression using an array of medium to paint on practically anything that comes to hand.

The Main Living Room- Charleston

The Fireplace At Charleston

Painted Lampbase- Charleston

Below is a list of some of the traditional painted furniture techniques used throughout the ages:

Neoclassical: revival of the nineteenth century and the Art Deco styles of the 1920s.
Marbleizing: or faux marbling is used to make walls and furniture look like real marble.
Graining wood graining, or faux bois (French for "fake wood") is often used to imitate exotic or hard-to-find wood varieties. It was also used extensively as a way of protecting wood by an imitation of the grain that could be re grained when the wood was damaged or had become worn.
Trompe l'oeil: "trick the eye" in French, is a realistic painting technique often used in murals, and to create architectural details.
Colour Wash: is a free-form finish that creates subtle variations of color using multiple hues of glaze blended together with a paint brush.
Strie: from the French for "stripe" or "streak", is a glazing technique that creates soft thin streaks of colour using a paint brush. It is a technique often used to simulate fabrics such as linen and denim.

Decoupaging

Decoupage—from the French word découper, meaning to cut out—is a craft or art form that entails pasting cut-outs to an object and then covering them with several coats of varnish or lacquer. Up to 40 coats of varnish used to be applied as the greater the depth of varnish then the more integrated and authentic the images look. Normal papers can be used, even news paper. However the thinner the paper the more it will look like it was hand painted onto the object. Specialist papers can be purchased for this but you can also use papers such as patterned paper napkins or tissue papers.

On the above unit I used a high quality wrapping paper which was fairly heavy. I then applied about six coats of water based varnish.

The technique is very simple. Here I began by preparing the unit with an antique paint finish. The instructions for this can be found on our shop website
                                   http://www.iekoenvironments.co.uk/special-finishes/

Then first make sure that you have planned out where the papers will go. Avoid overlapping if possible as the ridges will look ugly and spoil the effect.

Below is how to acheive the decoupage effect:

Paste the back of the paper and leave to stand for 5mins to stretch. Add more glue if it has dried too much. Smooth down in place, making sure that you remove any bubbles as you stick.

When you have completed your decoupage and it has dried then it's time to apply the varnish. The more varnish you apply the more integrated and authentic the images will look. Tradition has been to use up to 40 coats but this is rather excessive. I used just 6 coats here which was enough.

Do natural paints work and why use them?

I started using natural paint after a long period of using conventional paints and them making me feel ill. I would constantly have mild and often not so mild flue like symptoms, sore throats, aching muscles and feeling exhausted. I was also often getting depressed in the day for no apparent reason and also often confused to the extent that I didn't think it safe to be driving. It came to a head when I almost backed my van into a clients lake, only to be winched out by a local farmer and then almost doing it again. I thought then enough!

So what to do? I knew next to nothing about natural none toxic paints and was very suspicious about whether they could match the performance of chemical based paints. I had this vision of hippies mixing up this stuff from liquidised vegetable matter and used chip oil into old peanut butter pots in garages across the nation. Not that I have anything against hippies, having had a stint of that myself in the 70's but the concern was 'would these paints get the job done?'.

So I experimented and at first found out a number of things. Firstly, that some paints claiming to be natural and none toxic -and even organic, were nothing of the kind! Also that some of them had a lovely aroma of natural oils when you opened the can but when you applied them to walls were so overpowering that it became very unpleasant. Also it was costing me so much and taking so long to order them online that I was despairing.

A friend (thanks Jayne) then told me of a shop in Forest Row that stocked this fabulous paint called Earthborn. I started to use it and have never looked back. I threw out all of my horrible smelling clothes and dust sheets (even after washing the smell of chemicals pervaded) and started anew. It really was like my life had changed. Painting became a rewarding experience again and no ill health! Where as before I had come home feeling exhausted, getting showered and changing immediately, now I had my energy back, didn't have that constant smell around me and loved it. I've since found out that all of the symptoms I had experienced whilst painting with petrochemical paints had been distinguished in various studies as being dementia like in experience and that these symptoms were even named in a study in Holland as Dutch Painters Syndrome.

I have also since discovered that the dangers of modern paints not only apply to our health but also to the environment and damage our homes.

So do they work? Yes!!! Earthborn's clay paint has the best coverage of any paint I have ever used, looks beautiful in a way that just can't be matched by conventional paints and is a joy to apply. The water based eggshell is the most durable paint I have ever come across and therefore ideal for painting kitchen units.There are also lots of other natural products that match or surpass the performance of their toxic equivalents.

We will be exploring in this blog how to use them and how to apply special effects to your furniture and walls and give your home a beautiful toxin free look. It's easy and so rewarding!