Gilded Box

[RudeDog]

I went for a gilded look. This was my first CarveWright project, made for the wife as an offering... it got her to accept the noisy machine.

[www.go3d.us]

Beautiful!!!
HT

[Amonaug]

Wonderful!

[mtylerfl]

You did a fantastic job!

[Spanglerg@hotmail.com]

Great Job!

[CustomWestCoast]

Excellent looking box. Did she let you keep the noisy machne?

[DocWheeler]

Very nicely done!

[rue]

(Jaw on floor)

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What did you paint that with? That's unbelievable...Well done.

[Gunner]

I like the dragon, well done!

[twinpeaksenterprises, LLC]

Very Very Nice..... I like it! I would like to know about the paint job as well. Whatever it is it works well and a nice choice! Keep up the good work!!!!

[RudeDog]

I would like to know about the paint job as well.

I finished and sealed it with medium stain at first, but was unsatisfied with the look. To my eye, the composition was disharmonious, because the wood grain was too pronounced and did not complement the carvings, but rather distracted from the overall design. The machine did a great job on the carvings, and I knew the box could look much better with just the right finish.

I headed off to my paint cabinet. Humm...here's some metallic gold spary paint I never finished. Let's try that. This stuff is like a translucent clear coat that appears to contain a suspension of small golden flakes. It took about 5 light coats to remove all signs of wood grain and to leave a smooth mirror like finish with a nice metallic luster. Modern chemistry is amazing.

Man this really brought out the carvings, but everything looked a little too perfect, almost like plastic. So I'm back to the paint cabinet for some black glaze to simulate a little tarnish here and there, in and around the valleys of the carvings. Not too much, because I didn't want it to look antique, just a little more natural and uneven. You paint on the glaze, let it sit for a spell, then remove some of it with damp clothe to suit your tastes. You can use water paint for this step, because you are going to seal over it next.

For the last step I sprayed on 3 coats of clear high gloss polyurethane. This leaves a really smooth and shiny surface, boosts the specular highlights lost in the previous step and provides the final protective layer. It looks just like gold from a short distance away. I was surprised and pleased with the results.

[rue]

Well you did a phenomenal job with it. I actually have a strikingly similarly designed jewelry box that I haven't put to woodwork yet. I'm definitely going to give that stuff a try on mine and pray it looks half as good as yours. Thanks a ton.

[RudeDog]

Thanks for the compliments.

Another techinque I read about, but haven't tried yet, is to cover the carved wood with a few coats of gesso after sanding. Then when the gesso dries you polish it smooth back down to the high spots in your wood. Gesso is chalk based and much softer than wood, so you can easily produce a perfect surface with very few imperfections. You then finish paint the gesso and seal over it. I'll probably try this one next.

[Kenm810]

Gesso is fine base and does a nice job of hiding small imperfections in a carved project,
But be sure to use it sparingly, it has a tendency to puddle and fill in detail.
Going over the spots with a dry brush will help lift the excise out of the fine detail and carved text.