Saturday, February 12, 2011

Marbling of the Fireplace

Now I will tell the very frustrating, but in the end rewarding, story of how I did a faux marble finish on my fireplace.

As you remember from one of my earlier posts, I decided on a color scheme of greens, creams, and golds. So, naturally the fireplace would have to be green marble. And that was where my troubles began. First tip of advice: Do Not begin your first faux marbling endeavor with Green Marble! As I found out, there is a very fine line between a good green marble, neon green, GI Joe camo green, and too dark forest green. Lets just say I went through a lot of paint with this project.


  • Waaay too dark!
    • GI Joe camo fireplace! hahaha sooo horrible

    Once you find your colors though, its not as bad. now I'm no expert on marbling, and used many YouTube videos for assistance, but this is what I did. All you need to do is paint base colors, low-light veins, and high-light veins. For the base you want to have a mixture of colors, very close in tone, that give an overall flow to the piece. These basic directions are what your veins will follow. I decided to use acrylic paint because its easier to water down and blend together.



    Next are the veins. The hardest part of this step was finding a brush that was small enough. Eventually though, I found a really, really, tiny brush. To apply the veins I held the brush lightly in my hand and dragged it across the surface. It made a natural and random line all by itself. When the paint was still wet I used a brush dipped in water to make any needed changes. The I dotted a dry flat brush over the veins to blend them nicely. That was pretty much it. I really suggest checking out videos on it online, they are so helpful.



    The pictures are pretty blurry but here is my finished piece! I really like that way it finally turned out! Now I'm just debating weather or not to but a gloss on it.


    17 comments:

    1. Hello Katie,
      Beautiful work, your craftsmanship is very impressive and I look forward to following your blog.
      Great Work!

      ReplyDelete
    2. Katie, marble is hard. I just took a class with an artist friend who showed us how. I am about to post on my blog about how he taught us to do faux wood. Take a look.

      http://smalltalk-minilover.blogspot.com/

      And if you are willing, send me an email through my website

      www.smalltreasuresminiatures.com

      Sophia

      ReplyDelete
    3. You are doing a great work Katie, and I am not speaking only about your fireplace.
      You are probably one of the youngest miniaturist I know.
      And I hope you are proud of your work. As for me, it is a ravishment.
      Marie xxx

      ReplyDelete
    4. estupendo.... genial, yo soy solo principiante en esto pero tu blog es una verdadera inspiracion

      ReplyDelete
    5. Hello!

      I have just discovered your blog, what fantastic work! You are very tallented, I shall avidly wait to see more.

      I once did a study of the Petite Trianon for my History of Architecture course, I fell in love with it and the french style, I always thought it would make a great dolls house!

      Thank you for sharing your work!

      Andy

      ReplyDelete
    6. Katie, your work is Amazing! Such creativity and dedication! I am a new follower (Because Andy shared your link!) and I am just SO inspired by the things you are making... I will HAVE to try some gilding myself! Not to mention carving your own Roccocco trim! BRAVO! I know how Life can get in the way of our mini Dreams... I Hope you will Never give up.... And that you have time to show us your progress..... Someday!

      ReplyDelete
    7. Hi Katie, Great Blog and great work! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

      ReplyDelete
    8. Votre travail est époustouflant!! remarquable et promet de belles créativités pour l'avenir!Comptez sur moi pour suivre l'évolution de votre château Français!
      A très bientôt!
      Isabelle

      ReplyDelete
    9. Lovely new blog! Great work too! I'm looking forward to following your posts. I'm so glad I found your blog today! :-) Jennifer

      ReplyDelete
    10. Katie, your trims look great! And your age is only 16 years old? impressive!
      I am now going to explore the rest of your blog, can't wait :)

      ReplyDelete
    11. Un descubrimiento,tu blog!!!
      la chimenea es espectacular!!
      un besin
      Carolina

      ReplyDelete
    12. Hello Katie, Hope all is well and wondering how your chateau is going, your work is amazing.
      Margaret

      ReplyDelete
    13. You are extraordinary. I only wish there was more to see. I imagine you are very busy having a life but I hope you return at some point because I would love to see what you do next.

      ReplyDelete
    14. I love the blog post, and you helped me make such a fun card with it!
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    15. I very much like your pattern it's beautiful,thank for sharing good i dea !

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