The Letterville BullBoard: Crackle, crackle...who knows about crackle?

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Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

I've been experimenting with crackle for a few days now...it's quite a thing to work with and understand...my first try at it. I have actually been trying to crackle a molding that fits between the ceiling and wall, then will apply wallpaper border below it. If I get good at it it may be helpful in the sign shop someplace.

I find it's a very 'touchy' thing to work with.

I'll share 'some' of the things I've learned (so far)and if you have anything else to add...please do. I'm still working with it.

1. The latex base coat can be painted with a brush, then dried. It's good if you can make the brush strokes both ways. I used a lighter shade of what I will be applying on top.

2. Then the crackle medium goes on, and this is where, for sure, you should make brush strokes both ways...it's dried (at least the one I am using says to let it dry.) Reason for strokes both ways is that I have found when I only brushed the strokes of this medium one way the cracks appeared only one way (even though there is no grain in molding).

3. Now here's where I have had the most trouble with...applying the top coat. I have tried sponging...not really good (the hills and valleys of the molding were so hard to do evenly)

I have tried brushing...same problem.

Then I air brushed with a small touch-up paint sprayer...it was great, but oh, so fragile. If you touched it anywhere before it dried the top coat came off on your fingers, making a terrible blotch that you can't repair.

One has to stay away from it until it drys, then use that water-based craft varnish, I think.

Please respond if you have more tips for me on this. Thanks.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

I've tried several craft types of these things and for my use; I make "antique" signs, I use water base (animal hide) glue. LePage's is about as inexpensive as you can get and you can get it in a large container and save a few bucks, especially over the price of craft store bottles. Paint your top coat of water base paint as quickly as you can, not scrubbing it in as it will start to dissolve the glue immediately or spray it if you can -- then as you know by now LEAVE IT ALONE 'til it dries. You can accelerate the drying with a heat gun or hair dryer. It will need a sealer of some sort of varnish, or every time it gets at all moist the glue will soften again and lose the crackle. Not for exterior use - indoors ONLY!
For signs that will hold up better, even outdoors pretty well, I paint on a layer of oil base paint, then before it dries brush on or spray a coat of water base and dry it with a heat gun. Doing this on a naturally hot day helps a bunch - more even drying. Experimentation pays off; sometimes I wind up with more than one process (4 coats or 6 instead of 2) but there is nothing in here that will dissolve on a foggy day. I have a few signs out in the weather for about 5 years now that still look as intended.
I haven't ever located the elusive "Crackle Varnish" I guess they sell it in England, but I understand the crackling is so minute and subtle it isn't worth it.

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SignMike

Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

Thanks, Mike, for your help, as this is so new to me.

Those outdoor signs you make starting with oil-based paints and top-coating with latex...do you not need the crackle medium in between?

Also, the animal hide glue that you use...is that the one that is used for glue-chipping?

I haven't got to the top coat, yet...should it be quite a thin coat? Is thin better than thick?

Thanks, Mike, for your help.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

The glue used for chipping is in dry form and must be heated in a double boiler to melt for use. I don't really think LePage's would work for that or the glue chippers would be using it. Actually any water base glue works, even Elmer's, but not as well. If you are going to use water base/oil base you won't need the glue. I use very wet, thick oil base, like house paint or One Shot not thinned, and I sometimes even mix in some oil to keep it wet under the surface. Motor oil, Lard oil, boiled linseed oil, anything. When it starts to skin over paint on your water base stuff and I use the cheapest trash paint I can find. This makes for some deep crackling and big patterns. Thin a little helps for control, sometimes I mix in some Tempera. Better quality water base paint is flexible and you don't want that; it won't crackle. If you gob it on thick it will wrinkle in places, like a really old piece will do if it's been in a hot climate. When I'm doing this my point is to make the sign look as if it is really old, not to look as if a mommy did it in a craft class like those too cute little fake bird houses. Too clean and contrived for me. After it dries I often rub in some umber or brown shoe polish and fly speck it for aging. I don't know if this is the effect you are after, so you will have to play to get the result you like. Have fun.

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SignMike

Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

Hi Mike...thanks, once again, for taking the time to answer my post with your tips and ideas. I really do want to learn all there is to know about this. Last week I knew nothing about it, now this week I'm almost an expert...haha.

Perhaps I will try your ideas for outdoor aged signs. I wasn't aware of a LePages animal hide glue, but will check it out. I have the one for glue-chipping.

My molding job turned out very nice. I'm gonna' change the name of my post to "Cackle, cackle"...haha

I love learning new things about sign-making.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :

Hi Bernice, this reply isn't about crackle per se, but about another aging/antiquing technique I was just taught. Put some chunky floor sweepings into your top coat. After it dries you can scrape with a putty knife and knock off irregular patches to reveal the under-color. Then sand, whip, beat and
crackle, etc. to desired finish.

have fun

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Joe Rees
Cape Craft Signs
(Cape Cod, MA)
http://www.capecraft.com
http://www.dave-joe-show.com
e-mail: joerees@capecraft.com

Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :

The crackling varnish Esoteric Sign Supply sells is for working on glass. It would be interesting to find out if it works on surface work.

Mike, I missed seeing you @ Conclave. Will the latex bond securly to the enamel for outdoor long term applications? You mentioned 5 years, is that in the sun?

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The SignShop
Mendocino, California
"Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"

Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

Hi Joe...met you at Mazeppa...thanks for answering my post. That idea sounds interesting. Have you used that idea? I'd like to see a picture of it. Do you have one?

Am wondering just what kind of floor sweepings...anything that works, I suppose.

I think sometimes I try to work too clean-cut and don't venture out and get artisticly sloppy, (sort of)...I may be missing out on something.

Nice to hear from you, Joe.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

Posted by Bruce Jackson (Member # 45) on :

Low sheen (inflexible) Acrylic over the enamel will be fine. Don't forget, the idea is to paint the top coat before the base has cured. It's going to stick easily.

I did some just last week. I painted the top coat when the base was still tacky, hit it with a hair dryer and very quickly laid it out and did the signwriting. By doing it fast, the base was still contracting so all the lettering cracked too.

I later rubbed back the red to look faded, hit it, bashed the corners, rubbed it in the dirt/stones and poured coffee onto it. The sign was instantly 40+ years old

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Bruce Jackson
Melbourne, Australia
home.connexus.net.au/~bruceja

[This message has been edited by Bruce Jackson (edited February 27, 2000).]

Posted by Mayo Pardo (Member # 138) on :

There was a whole lotta cracklin goin on at the Hervey Bay meet I went to in Australia.

I never did pay much attention to how it was supposed to be done because I was busy with other stuff, but when I got to Bushie's place I tried it out.

Jon and Sue bought me a bottle of crackle finish stuff, and I assembled a signboard out of discarded pine flooring cut-offs.

I'm sure the sequence of what to apply and when it's applied is the key to doing it right. I didn't know what the sequence was, but after a couple attempts on the same board, it seemed to work.

First I put some background color on the raw pine. This was an outdoor latex which I had thinned to a stain like consistency.

Then I lettered the sign using enamel sign paint. When that dried I sanded it to make it look faded. Then I took a hammer to it.
Then I threw it face down on the gravel driveway and stood on it and kicked it around and scrubbed it into the gravel.

With the sign looking suitably "distressed", I then put the crackle finish on and waited while it dried. It dried and... no crackle.
THen I thought, well maybe more latex paint should go on top of the crackle so I rubbed on some of the background latex color. Nothin.

Then I put on more crackle goop. As it began to dry I could see wide grain lines of crackle forming. After it was dry I could tell it had crackled but it wasn't real visible so I then tried rubbing some darker background color into the crackle. That didn't give me the effect I wanted so I tried lighter and voila! It all of a sudden really appeared weathered.

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EmpY® is also known as...Mayo Pardo
Visit my 90 day Australian adventure at
http://www.difsupply.com/trippin.html
When I'm not in Australia, I'm at
14 N 041 Gunpowder Ln.
Elgin IL 60123
847 931-4171

Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

Hi, Emp...thanks for sharing this with us. I like to hear stories like this.

You must have needed a 'hot shower' after all that. Was that a bullet hole in the middle of the sign?

Thanks, Bruce, for your tips and ideas...I feel honoured to have a response from you and will always take heed to what you have to say about what you have learned...your work is special.

This crackle work is an interesting alternative, and 'fun' to work with. I'm glad I've tried working with it.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

[This message has been edited by Bernice Tornquist (edited February 27, 2000).]

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

Dennis Jones used to paint up a few "Old Signs" on scrap pieces and lay them out on Whittier Blvd. face down for an hour or so. They got old real quick with NO labor at all. They didn't look like antiques to me but people bought them.

I love the sign EmpY posted! I was driving through Oregon a few years back and pulled up late at night under a neon sign to check my map by the light. I was on my way to Ontario and on to Boise. I looked up to see what the sign said; "Bates Motel". I'm not making this up.

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SignMike

Posted by Bernice Tornquist (Member # 16) on :

Did some more crackle work today...still learning but it's coming along just fine.

Thought I'd like to share another little tip I learned today...

First of all, I warmed up the board before spraying top coat.

The top coat is tricky in getting the consistancy just right, but it has to be 'quite' thin...(thick paint is hard to crack)...but covering the board very well.

THEN, I learned that if I took a heavy cardboard and made as if I was going to "swat" the board but let only the gust of air hit the board as it was drying..I could see the cracks appear...I even took the board and dropped it on the table a couple of times (face up, of course)...the vibrations helped cracks appear. One must be careful not to touch the top coat...it's very vulnerable to 'touch' at this point.

Just sharing what I am learning, as I learn.

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Bernice Tornquist
Bernice's Signs & Graphics
Choiceland, SK Canada
tornquist@sk.sympatico.ca

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