Patina Makeover!

Hi again!

Today I have for you a post that is a little bit different from the usual 'show&tell'. ;)

Do you know the feeling when you look at your project again and again and you are simply not convinced if 'this is it'? I'm sure you do!

Or the point when you are tired looking at an old piece of yours sitting on the shelf for too long? Does it sound familiar?

Or... maybe you are a fan of more aged, rustical finish?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, today's post is just for you! ;)

It might be a perfect moment for a dramatic project makeover!

Some time ago I actually answered 'yes' to all 3 of the questions above while looking at a small mixed media canvas of mine I had in my studio.

Here it is -

I didn't completely hate it but somehow I suddenly felt it was just too gold, too much, too boring...

I didn't want to give up on it so I decided to do some mixed media magic and give my little canvas a brand new incarnation. ;) Here it is 'after':

And now I guess you'd like to know how the patina magic happened. ;)

It's all so very simple... How to do it?

The first thing to do, is to simply cover everything with Gesso and dry it - then you can change the story completely, however you wish and feel like.

You can use any gesso you have at home but for the best results I'd go with the Clear Gesso (it's the smoothest) or the Black one if you want to use darker colors later on.

As for the patina effects that I went for - watch this video tutorial I made a while ago - you will see all the steps how to work with my Patina Pastes and how easy it is to create some pretty spectacular effects! Enjoy!

I was really excited seeing how this makover turned out and felt tempted to do more! So I grabbed one of my old altered journals and used exactly the same method.
Here is the journal in its 'before' version - not that bad, right?

But just take a look at all the rustical magic that happened - suddenly the same journal seems to be a time-worn, forgotten treasure discovered anew!

Here are the products I used for my "Makeover" projects - not much, but what a difference! All linked to our Mixed Media Place shop!

Sending you all the warmest hugs...and packing to leave tomorrow for another US art adventure! Woo hoo!