Graining and Marbling Extravaganza

3 Award Winning Teachers in 4 days!!

Painted Faux Portoro and Mahogany

Graining and Marbling are techniques executed in paint that imitate marble and wood. They are almost the foundation skills of the decorative painter. Learning these techniques gives you core abilities in the manipulation of paint that you will continue to use throughout your decorative career.
I have been teaching graining and marbling for a lot of years, in colleges, art schools and private school here in UK and abroad as well as in our own studio.

Class at Lynne Rutter's studio in San Francisco

Graining and marbling can be applied to any surface that you can paint, so make a cheap fireplace into expensive wood or luxurious marble, have marble floors and walls in your bathroom....it gives the decorator the opportunity to really show off and also give the client really high ticket products at a much more reasonable price.

Carrara marbling in a home in St Andrews

Recently we decided we would like to put on a really special class and include some top UK specialists as guest teachers so that the attendee really gets a lot of bang for their buck. 2 classes of 2 days so you can choose to do one or both.

13th and 14th November 2014 - 1 places
Advanced class
15th and 16th November 2014 - 1 places

The first 2 days taught by me (Cait Whitson) is a class that will help beginners get a handle on the techniques and help those that have had experience in traditional oil techniques learn how to use the cutting edge Golden Proceed acrylic products that have been developed in America to meet today's market.You will learn white veined marble, Portoro marble and Sienna marble and then pine, mahogany and walnut. All these will be taught in water based materials.

A montage of some of the water based finishes we have taught in the past

Then we will have the great pleasure of welcoming Jeremy Taylor from Elgin and Roy Makin from Walsall

Jeremy is a traditional painter and decorator with an extensive training and experience in traditional and restoration work. He has a passion for decorative arts and has striven to attain training and projects that reflect this. As well as doing work for Historic Scotland, Jeremy has done work for Architects, Designers and the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust. More recently Jeremy travelled as far as Sweden to develop his skills further by taking a Trompe L'oeil class at Palm Fine Arts, learning architectural elements such as molding profiles and decorative ornaments, this is a wonderful addition to add to graining & marbling and

Roy started as a painter decorator at 17 and went into teaching in the eighties at Walsall College of Art teaching decorating, sign writing, French polishing, furniture restoration and marbling & graining. While at Walsall did some teaching at West Dean School in West Sussex, again teaching Marbling on their yearly summer schools. I was the first winner of the acorn gold award for decorative painting back in the eighties. Started as a self employed decorative painter completing projects  in and around England and France for 20 years, also teaching one to one courses structured around clients needs.




 

The second 2 day class we will be working extensively with these two wonderful guys. Jeremy will teach oak on the Saturday - this is his absolute speciality. Check his Facebook page and his site meantime here is a little taster

A Jeremy Taylor project in oak

 His other speciality is executing trompe l'oeil mouldings and ornament - this is the art of creating a realistic but fake moulding that is purely executed in paint. Here is a fabulous example

Jeremy Taylor trompe l'oeil moulding and ornament

He will be helping us start our career in trompe l'oiel by teaching a moulding on one of our panels similar to the one he has achieved here

trompe l'oeil

Roy Makin will be delivering a master class in marble - again his speciality. He will deliver a class  on the Saturday afternoon and here's a sneak preview of his work

Arabescato by Roy Makin

This is the panel that Roy will be teaching

Finally I will teach some crotch mahogany. This is also known as feather mahogany. It really needs 3 workings and so we will have a chance to execute the first two stages and then demo the overgraining and all students will go home with materials to complete at home....here are a few examples of this technique.

A recent project after 2 workings

Grained door after 3 workings

Close up

Introduction/refresher class
13th and 14th November 2014 - 1 places
Advanced class
15th and 16th November 2014 - 1 places

Cost - £265 each class - £495 for both

For more info click  here and  to buy go here!

General Finishes - What is is GOOOD for? ....absolutely everything

Some time back we had a call from one of our favourite suppliers General Finishes UK to tell us they had moved their warehouse to Scotland and inviting us to pay a visit. The timing of this call was amazing. We had some time earlier decided to concentrate more on contracting and teaching than retailing.......but we still needed product to teach classes with and I needed something new to work with, I felt I was getting a bit stale teaching the same thing over and over and I also felt that people were looking for a new fresh looks so here we are, with a lovely new range to play with.

We have been using the products for an absolute age.....they are a truly professional product range that I never thought to bring to the DIY market but as soon as I had the call it was like a lightbulb moment.

So what does this product range offer the painter? A fully versatile easy to use paint and varnish range.
The Milk Paint was the first product we used about 10 years ago - washes of the paint were applied to beech units and then it was varnished with their High Performance Topcoat. We were so impressed, not just by the ease of use but how durable the system was

Three years later we had a large job toning new woodwork to match old woodwork and it all needed staining and varnishing and we used the water based Sanding Sealer, the Glazes and once again the High Performance TopCoat

before

after

Both these projects have lasted an absolute age...High Performance is really High Performance.


So what are the benefits of these two products over other paints, waxes, varnishes and lacquers

GENERAL FINISHES MILK PAINT - benefits

• Easy to use paint  
• GF Milk Paint isn't actually a traditional Milk Paint it is actually an acrylic paint, based on primer technology so it is self - priming. It will go over and adhere to old varnish, lacquer, paint (oil gloss as well as all others), wood stains, french polish; it can go inside and outside
• Beautifully smooth even when applied by the least experienced of us
• Consistent colours and quality - every tin is the same as the last
• Keeps without loss of quality for YEARS - providing you store it in the right conditions. We have some that is 10 years old and it is still good to go.
• No colour leaching
• Very quick drying
• Easy to touch up with no visible difference in colour - providing this is done before varnishing
• No need to wax or varnish in low traffic areas
• No wax
• Sealed with their varnish it is REALLY hard wearing for kitchens and bathrooms and high traffic areas

So here are a few questions I have answered recently about it -

• Q. Can I distress it?
• A. Yes it distresses beautifully. If you are not too worried about cutting right back through to the substrate then just layer the paint and sand back. If you want to isolate a colour and ensure that one coat only goes through to the next then apply a coat of topcoat between layers. Here is an image of what we produced in a recent class

Distressing

• Q. Is it suitable for painting prefinished kitchens - mine is looking tired
• A. YES!!!! Uber-suitable. Here is a kitchen that we originally painted over 15 years ago. Originally we painted it in oil based eggshell, glazed in oil based glaze and put the most durable oil based varnish we could find on it All these years on we were back to give them an equally long lasting finish in water based paints - using General Finishes Paint. 

• Q. Can I antique something I am painting?

• A. YES!  you use the premixed coloured glazes to put a transparent wash of colour over the surface - here is a tray we antiqued in that way. No wax!!!

•  Q.Can I use it on floors?
• A. YES!! Lovely to use on floors but use a few coats of the High Performance Topcoat. Here is our studio kitchen floor finished in a dry brush technique

Hopefully this gives you a bit of an insight into the new products. If you would like to find out more, then join us for one of our new

Furniture Painting 101 - General Finishes Painting Class

or join us for our Painting Party on the 26th April 2014

The Ultimate Furniture Painting Class

Do you make some or all of your living from painting furniture or has it become an important part of your life? Do you feel like you would like to learn more and achieve more exciting professional finishes, then the Ultimate Furniture Painting Class is for you. The next class runs 19th - 22nd May 2014. Anyone who is in the business of upcycling, repurposing and furniture restoration cannot fail to benefit immediately from this class. Taught by Cait Whitson and Gibson Donaldson, they bring their combined experience of over 40 years working in the field. Cait has been teaching decorative finishes for 25 years.

See more details on our website here and book in the shop here and there is a great discount if you pay in full before April 22nd of 10% off. Opt for full payment and use the code UFP10 at the checkout. 

Exciting gilding finishes

Furniture painting has become a huge trend and it has brought so many new faces into the decorative painting business that I have loved all my adult life, it is wonderful to have so many converted to the painting faith.

a student's cabinet elegantly finished in eggshell,  and gilded and stencilled

But what differentiates the professional from the amateur? These days I often compare painting to photography - everyone's a photographer since digital took the world by storm (well except me I have NEVER been a good photographer) and everyone's a painter, the DIY stores are filled with people ready to give it a go ......yet the message boards and blogs are full of queries about how to resolve things that haven't gone as expected.
Painting things can be easy if you stick to a small range of techniques and finishes but what happens when you want to branch out? It's not rocket science granted, but a little knowledge can make a big difference to how a project turns out and can make a piece look a million dollars

not rocket science - hand painted bee eaters

They say knowledge is power and this is very true in the painting game. If you only know a little bit you will only be able to achieve a little bit. Very simple tips and tricks can make the difference, building a really sound foundation of confidence is based on knowledge and technique. Many people say to me "but I am not artistic"; then we show them a few tricks of the trade and they realise that they are....and that they can achieve a lot more than basic paint finishes.  This class can fast track you to a new level.

students who have never hand painted a design before
free hand carriage lines and hand painting

learning to use professional tools for success

Working with a range of different types of paints and achieving a professional finish can be challenging if you don't have breadth of experience and although you read books and blogs and watch programmes on TV, when it says to "sand" how much sanding does that mean....with which sandpaper? When it says to apply 2 coats what brush to use?

So this is what we teach in the Ultimate Painting Class - we discuss primers and sandpaper and different types of paint and the names for paint. We show you fillers and brushes; how to hold a brush and how to get a brush-mark free finish. We let you play with resists, additives and glazes and we teach techniques from traditional to trendy. There are a whole raft of metallic finishes; stencilling with a twist - enhanced and embossed; freehand carriage lines and decoration; ragging dragging, stippling, linen, moire; gilding, patinating embossing;graining and marbling and finally topcoats.

embossing, foil gilding and glazing

student sample of ragging and moire

Each student brings a piece of furniture and completes an "apprentice piece". If you are a student flying in from afar we source a piece for you to work on.

the big reveal on the finish

glazed and completed with studio dog Rosie's help

a truly authentic looking finish

dragged, bamboo and linen finishes

marvellous marbling

The Ultimate Painting Class is 4 days for 4 students to immerse themselves in paint.

Treat yourself to total immersion here and remember to add your special code UFP10 for a great discount on payment in full

Shopping

While all the world and their wives have been shopping for Christmas I have been doing a different sort of shopping, I have been working on our on-line shop. Not the lead up to Christmas I had anticipated but with an incredibly busy New Year coming up I thought I had better get it done - a now or never situation.
You can now buy Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, and Classes direct from here on the blog. Look to your right and scroll down to "SHOP here" click on a category and the shop will open up in a separate window in front of you.

I am feeling really clever because not only can you buy from here you can also buy from our Facebook Page 
 

and if you haven't liked the page yet.....please do!

 
Finally I have the new classes scheduled and listed. Thanks to a very talented finisher Pat Strong from Texas who I have never met, but have corresponded with for YEARS, we have a range of classes known as Every Second Thursday. She opens her studio for classes and opens studio nights every second Thursday and we loved the concept so...that is what we are doing.
Every second Thursday in the evening, we will either have an open studio or a short class in a specialist subject. Bookings can be made in advance, or it can be made on the night on a first come first served basis. The studio will always be open from 6pm until 9pm on these evenings. Classes are £30 and Open Studios are where we open our studio to you for your own use. Want to try any of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paints? Want to gild some detail with metal leaf? Want to use one of our stencils? For 3 hours the studio is open to you and you can work with any of the products normally used in the Annie Sloan Furniture Painting Class; all our class brushes and tools are available to you and any reasonable amount of other products in the paint store plus coffee and tea for a grand fee of £15.

The first short class will be to gild a 50cm square panel and apply a freehand design to it. No worry if you can't hand paint...we can stencil instead,  enabling you to produce something like this funky piece

Very Rock Chick!

I hope you will check it all out. I still have tweaks to do...fonts, font sizes etc. so don't be too harsh. I am so thrilled to be able to update things now that I have had a lesson from our wonderful website designer Evie Milo and there is so much still to update - I have to treat it as a work in progress.

Tutorial - Quick and Easy Marble Finish

This was a finish I have been meaning to post for a while and I took stage by stage photos while I did it especially so I could do a little tutorial but it has taken me an age to get round to it.
Those that read my blog or follow Carte Blanche on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/carteblanchedecorativepainters) or follow me on Twitter (@paintycait) know that I am in San Francisco now teaching a class in graining and marbling on the first leg of my US tour. I am having a wonderful time with Lynne Rutter and her husband Erling who are the most marvellous hosts.
For those that can't be with us in class here is a real money-maker marbleize to keep you busy. Here was the furniture set we did for a client in this Italianate style marble and it was so quick and easy. This could be done in any colour combination. Here I used Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Paynes Grey on an off white eggshell base coat.

The furniture before it left the workshop

The process was to apply the clear glaze - we used Ratcliffes Acrylic Scumble which is available in UK but you could use Faux Effects Faux Creme or Proceed.

I added in the colours in swathes across the surface loosely blending them -  this could be done with a scenic fitch, a chip brush or a decorators brush

 Then use painter's plastic dust sheet and press it into the paint and do this in a linear fashion to create marbly shapes

Look for shapes like this

and patterns like this

 Using a badger softener soften some of the shapes out but make sure not to lose patterns like the one above. You need to move quite quickly to get the whole area softened before the Ratcliffes Glaze goes off, but Proceed Glaze and Faux Creme will give more open time

Secret Weapon

Next comes the veining and I have found a very nice cheap synthetic veining brush that you can buy in most art stores the Daler #2 liner.

this is the type of vein I think works well - a white one

a darker one too.....soften these with a badger

veining

 and VOILA