Painting before Christmas

It's time to consider brightening up your home's interior for the holidays.
As I have mentioned before, painting your  interior is a great way to prepare for guests and make sure there are not piles of personal stuff behind furniture or lurking in corners, etc.
Giving your walls or even ceilings an new coat of paint will liven up the ambiance and make your friends feel they are in a home that is fresh and inviting.
Pop down to your local paint store and start today.

Visit us at http://www.mercuryminc.net/

End of painting season

Painting your exterior in September is still possible but make sure to wait if any surfaces get soaked by rain.
Usually as long as temperatures are above 10 C paint will adhere well.
Stucco is fine to paint even if it's a bit damp, as the moisture actually helps the paint to grab onto the surface.
As always, be careful when on ladders and be aware of electric wires.

Visit us at http://www.mercuryminc.net/ for more information

Question of mold.

Here in Kamloops BC, mold is not as big an issue as in Vancouver or other high humidity area's.
For mold to appear and become a problem you need the area to stay damp and have little ventilation.
Just because you have a plumbing or roofing leak , does not mean you will be attacked by black mold.
So the remedies are, stop the source of moisture, dry the area with a fan , wash the surface if any effluesence or surface mold appears. Then when it is completely dry....... reseal and paint it.
For more detailed information visit our site
www.mercuryminc.net

Applying a faux finish

When you are dabbing on a glaze over a base colour you can use a rag, cheescloth, or a sponge. The most popular sponge is a natural sea sponge. This is because by rotating it after each dab you can avoid the cat tracks that are the bane of a faux finisher. Also let me ease your mind about glazes; when dabbing on you can use thinned latex paint with no other additives. I start dabbing by keeping my dabs about a foot apart. This will avoid clumping the dabs and allow you to fill in gradually. Also as your sponge runs out of paint the lighter dabs will be spread out. It's the same proccess with rags or other methods of application. Make sure your paint/glaze is thin enough and you will need to mask the trim and corners to prevent the dabbing from getting on surounding surfaces.
Here is Wikipedia's Faux Finishing link.
Or visit us http://www.mercuryminc.net/

Faux Finishing glaze

Glaze is a transparent coating, used to create faux finishing effects.
The correct mix of glaze is the most important part of success. A sample board is a good start. This is used to try your colours and see the result before it gets to the wall. Paint the sample board with the same base colour you are using on your wall.
 I'll assume you have bought the Benjamin Moore "Aqua Glaze", although other brands are available. It comes rather thick for most ragging or marbling, and should be thinned with water. Adding colour to the glaze should be done with care.
 What kind of product do you use to colour the glaze?
You can use acrylic paint that artists use; it comes in tubes and is good for choosing colours and blending them.
The second way is to have your paint retail store add a little tint using the tinting machine. This requires a good relationship with someone who won't mess up your glaze.
Thirdly, you can purchase little tubes of colourant (not paint) at some paint retail outlets. These are the best because they will give you the most transparent look and are not going to speed the set-up time of your glaze.
There are also kits for faux finishing that have all the products in one package, although these are costly and I have not used them myself.
Visit our site for more information http://www.mercuryminc.net/

Faux Finishing Tips

Although faux finishing takes some level of skill, it's doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. I recomend finding some books on faux finishing.

Here are some books to go look for : Paint Magic. The art of faux. Country Paint.

Some big box stores like The Home Depot have faux painting books also.

If you are a complete novice, please read up on the subject first. Start with a small area, maybe a bathroom or closet.

The first thing is to paint the area being faux finished with the base colour. This also should be considered very carefully. The colour you use underneath will transmit through the glazes applied over it. White is a safe start but often a buttery yellow will give a soft glow when other colours are applied.

Faux finishing glazes can be obtained from many paint stores. They tend to dry slower than regular clear acrylic coatings. The old way of preparing glaze is to use Linseed oil and paint thinner. If you do use this method be aware that used Linseed oil rags self ignite when left bunched up. This could ruin your day, and burn down someones house.

Another method of making glaze is to purchase a deep base paint from the paint store without any tint in it. The bases that your colours are made from are quite transparent before the colour is added. Also you can purchase an extender, this helps slow the setup time of the paint.

So there are two types of proccess to consider, dabbing on and dabbing off. The dabbing on is easier because it doesn't matter how fast the

paint dries. The trick is to spread out you efforts all over the wall and not try to perfect one area. This way you will avoid unattractive area's that are uneven and hard to fix.

Dabbing off is removing glaze with a rag after it is applied. This requires slow setting glaze and fast moving painters. Always practice somewhere that doesn't show too much before you attempt a big wall. We always have one person applying the glaze and one frenzied painter dabbing off right behind. The looks are wonderful but the proccess is not that easy. The correct mix of glaze is the most important part of success.

Faux Finishing

I have begun to assemble a new page on my site called Faux Finishing.
It's a howto from the basics up to advanced techniques. There is a huge umount of info to sift through.
Although the page link is not up yet, visit us @ www.mercuryminc.net

Who needs art?

If you have the feeling that art is a waste of money and time, then you may have company.
I mean, they just released a movie made by chimpazee's. I think I must have worked on a few of those during my film career.
Ever since people could scrape and paint images in caves ten thousand years ago, art has had a very important part in our cultural development. Art help's us cummunicate our feelings and thoughts in a direct and immediate way. Like all things human we have many people who hide within art's labarynth, and pretend at being something they are not. Don't let these unfortunates distract you from the positive affect artist's have in our society. Graffitti might be annoying but sometimes it is really good, and like it or not, it is an art form. There are so many types of artistic expression that are out of reach to many of us. Some artist's  don't appeal to me at all.
I am not ashamed to be very critical if I don't like what I see, but that's a part of it. So strive to be open minded, but don't be ashamed to critique what you see.
Check out my art at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mercurymedia/sets/72157623003002756/
or visit us at http://www.mercuryminc.net/

Faux Finishes

My theory is that faux finishing falls out of favour everytime it comes into style because so many so called professionals are so bad at it. I have seen faux finishes that would make you groan in disbelief. Any time you combine colours together you need to know how they will work together.
Also dabbing on different colours one after the other is hardly faux finishing.
The subtle glow you can achieve with ragged off glazes are not easy and without a thorough knowledge of glazing, impossible. Latex based paint dries very quickly. Latex based glaze dries even quicker. So getting it off before it sets becomes a very big obsticle to that perfect finish. Also, tinting glazes is a very tricky thing and takes many years to master.
So faux finishing will come and go, but good faux finishing will always give you astounding looks and beautiful surfaces.
Visit us at http://www.mercuryminc.net/