TIP & TRICKS No.6

Do you remember the custom vase i made a little while back... The one i made from sections of pizza box cardstock...This one below?:

I was going to paint it black then put an embossed dragon on it. Then add some red & gold trim in paint. Instead i tried an experiment with it using my 'bone mix' dragon skin. My dragon skin was made to make my first ever large dragon heads as thin as possible in paper, but then add a shell like coating to make them as as light weight but as super strong too. Anyway how to make the basic mix is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFhUEVQDs1M. You can add colour during or after the mixing of it & 'bone mix' is simply made using slightly more PVA glue than flour. The basic mix & the bone mix CAN be altered to suit any/all needs.

If you look more closely at the vase above you can just make out a series of relatively similar sized cracks running through the surface skin of dried bone mix dragon skin. Here let me blow up a section for you to see it better:

Here is how to create this simple effect::

STEP 1: Watch my HOW TO video on YouTube to learn how to make some dragon skin up. It only takes a few minutes to do & you only require water, plain flour & PVA glue to make it. YES ANY 'white craft PVA based glues will do & you CAN keep it for several weeks in the fridge too.  You would not believe how many times i have been asked that.

NOTE: The shown mix in my video makes a large batch so half the mix shown to make a more manageable amount. The mix is 'adjustable' so do not worry about making it identicle to MY shown mix, it WILL still be useable dragon skin lol.

STEP 2: Use slightly less (around half less) plain flour in the shown mix to make a 'bone mix' dragon skin mix.

STEP 3:  Mix up an 'undilluted' PVA glue with a suitable 'base colour' for MY vase for instance i mixed up some PVA & black paint. Now paint the whole project with the PVA/paint base paint you just made. A nice even coating not too thick, but thick enough to handle being painted over once dried fully.

STEP 4: Paint over with undilluted PVA (no colouring or water added). This will create a seal that allows the bone mix dragon skin to bond whilst NOT having total cohesion... It sticks & slips forming the cracks basically!.

NOTE: If you use a brush on varnish or clear gloss spray sealer then the dragon skin WILL react differently looking more like raised up rust clusters on the surface. You can see the 'rust effect' as i call it below on my wall mountd grim reapers scythe blade. I sealed the blade with metalic silver spray paint before adding the basic dragon skin mix. I still have to add the rust (& aged blood) colours yet, but the 'wrong' effect WE want for the cracking effect can be seen clearly enough. 

STEP 5: Now paint on a very thin layer of your bone mix dragon skin, less than 1mm if you can. Just a realy 'thin' coating ALL over. Then place somewhere where the temperature is cool & steady. I placed MY vase on the floor in the corner of a medium sized room & left it there until TOTALLY dry.

The dried dragon skin SHOULD slip slightly on the sealed under coat evenly forming the cracks as shown in MY vase above. Once FULLY dried i then sealed MY vase with a clear brush on varnish both to 'fix' the dragon skin in place perminantly (it might flake off if knocked) as well as making the vase totally water proof & fnctional too.

ADDITION TIP

IF you want more cracks or more defined cracks once the dragon skin layer has fully dried then simply brush the whole surface 'gently' with tepid to warm water with a soft brush. Then leave to dry once again. This will cause the dried dragon skin to soak up the water you just added & because it is so dry then crack  further. You CAN repeat this process a few times on projects where you have used basic & bone mixed dragon skin that is at least 2mm/3mm thick to create different amounts of cracking in multiple area's creating a mix of crack sizes or area's over the project or an even cracking over the whole projects surface.

FINAL NOTE:

Remember i use water based paints or tempera paints as a rule so have NO idea how using any other paints will effect or change the results i described above.