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.
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Faux finish fun

Faux Finish comes of course from french, meaning "false", it really is about making something appear to be something else. Take a wall that is half inch drywall and put a few coats of paint and glaze on it and you have marble, old plaster, copper, wood, or stone.
Once the methods are learnt they are fairly straight forward.
It's like the old fable about a king wanting to learn to paint. He goes to see a tutor and asks to be taught. The teacher says" OK, but first you must learn to dance, so he goes to see a dance teacher and the teacher says "OK, but first you must learn music. And so on.
Well good Faux finishing is a bit like that. You have to have a good knowledge of paint and glaze. Also an art background is very useful, and the basic painting skills enabling you to apply the various coatings evenly and quickly without drips and misses.
It's just another learnt skill, so why not start now?
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Trade Secrets are not secrets.

You have figured out by now that trade secrets are a list of practical suggestions that have been proven over time. It's all basic stuff, but many people miss the basics, thinking the secrets are more complicated.
Here's a note about dark colours. Oddly enough some dark colours cover other colours quite well. While some are like transparent glaze. This is because the paint that is in the can before the colour (tint) is put in by the machine IS transparent. So what do you do?.
Some companies recommend a coloured base coat, use it. The old paints used to require a dark grey under their colours, this also will help, but what ever you do, try a little as a sample before committing to the whole wall. It will save you a lot of grief.
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Trade secret # 7. Glazes

OK, some of you were wondering, does this guy know anything about anything more than the basics? But people, the basics ARE the secret. OK, here is some info about glazes.
A glaze is a transparent coating applied over a surface. It can be an oil or combination of oils thinners, and color. Or, it can be an acrylic clear coating with some color in it.
The oil based glazes are an old traditional way of creating beautiful affects used by the old masters. Faux finishers use them to scumble or make thousands of great looks in their trade.
The film business uses glazes extensively for anything from marbling, to woodgraining.
Making glazes is for painters with advanced knowledge and experience, but they can be purchased in paint stores. But be aware that you will not have a good experience unless you have some knowledge about what to do with these transparent coatings. The most challenging part is how much tint to put in the glaze, too little and you don't get the effect, too much and you have to start again. Contact me for more info on this.