Finished my summer project, which I have plans to be Part 1 of 2. This is a symbol of The Monochromatic Unicorn, an essay I wrote several years ago.
2. Carving: This took about 3 days, not consecutive because of rain throughout the week.
Had a captive audience most of the time...
3. Sanding: I used course to help clean up rough patches and soften curves, medium to smooth everything down, and extra fine to make it soft for painting. I didn't use a tool, just my hands.
4. Painting: I used Basics Acrylic from Michael's. Mars Black, Titanium White, Basic Blue, and Phthalocyanine Blue.
This was my first attempt at faux marble. I watched several YouTube videos to help me get started.
5. Lacquer: I use lacquer instead of polyurethane when I paint instead of stain because poly will turn white paint yellow. I went through 6 cans of high gloss and a bit both satin and matte for the unicorn. I will need another can of high gloss for the back before I can hang it.
I wanted to make the unicorn look more like a statue than marble tile, so I used matte and satin on it.
I prefer Rust-Oleum but they were out of the satin and matte/flat. I don't usually like Valspar because it is horrible to work with on my mask projects. I had used the Krylon on the other shield I made with the American flag and it was great. It even states "non-yellowing" on the can. I don't know if the can was sitting in the garage too long and it turned or what happened but when I sprayed it on the unicorn, it started to yellow. I had a can of Valspar satin from another project, so I finished it up with that in hopes it would correct the yellowing when it dried. To anyone else, it looks perfectly white. To me, seeing the before and after, I definitely see that it isn't as stark white as originally. It is still okay but I have learned my lesson on which to use. Krylon, obviously, doesn't age well.
I used masking tape and a cut up garbage bag since I was doing two types of lacquer. Masking tape is cheaper and to me, better than painter's tape.
6. Wire: This became a nightmare. I wanted the silver lining around the blue marble as it is in my graphic. Silver solder was too expensive ($24 for a small spool), so I used aluminum jewelry wire. It's just as pliable, cheaper, and shinier.
Unfortunately, I ran out of Krazy Glue Maximum Hold, so I bought Krazy Glue Gel. I thought the gel would fill in the gaps between the wire and the wood. I didn't know it isn't an immediate bond like regular Krazy or even Super Glue. Because of this, the wire on one of the large circles popped out and spread the glue onto the board.
In my effort to remove it, I smeared more glue. For 15 hours, I tried to repair all the issues the gel gave me. I used a little nail polish remover (acetone will remove epoxy, but you have to be careful because it will remove lacquer, too). It only helped a little.
In the meantime, other circles had their own problems because the fumes from the glue left a white residue that would not come off.
I finally applied several more layers of lacquer until it looked almost perfect. In a certain light, some of the marks are still visible, but it isn't nearly as bad as before.
After the fiasco with the gel, I bought Gorilla Glue super glue. It worked well but it dried white. Here we go again! I had to repair this by mixing black and blue nail polish (because it already has lacquer mixed in and would be as shiny as my finished board). I applied more lacquer to hide the repairs as well as protect the wire from any future elemental exposure.
7. Done! (almost) I still have to lacquer the back and attach a hanger, but the main part of the project is finally complete.
