Today’s review is dedicated to the spectacular polishes with a cracking effect of Daily Art – a Latvian company, manufacturer of hobby and craft materials. Cracking varnishes, better known as “crackle” or “crackle”, are of two types – single-phase (mediums) and two-phase (crackle varnishes in two steps). The different name of cracking varnishes comes from the way they are applied – while single-phase mediums are applied only once, between two contrasting colors of acrylic paint, cracking the top layer, in two-phase varnishes the cracking occurs after successive application of crackle varnishes “Step 1” and “Step 2”, and the resulting cracks are filled with patins, pigments, bitumen or oil paints. In case you do not have both packages of the two-phase crackle, it is good to know that the “Step 2” varnish of the two-phase crack can cause decorative cracks if applied to an acrylic paint base or decoupage glue. If the two-phase varnish “Step 2” is transparent in color, then in order to accentuate the aged appearance of the work, the resulting cracks should be stained with bitumen, patina, oil paint or dry pigments. In addition to the universal colorless crackle polishes, however, Daily Art also offers a series of spectacular colored crackle crackles. Unlike transparent ones, where the main color is the color of the initially applied acrylic paint, in the case of colored crackle, the leading color is that of the crackle. Naturally, after cracking with crack varnishes, the project needs the protection of a final varnish. Depending on the desired effect, Daily Art offers varnishes with matte, glossy and satin finishes.
And, in order not to make my presentation so descriptive, I decided to make it a little more visual, with photos from the making of a jewelry box. Since I had both types of crackle polishes, I proceeded in the standard way – paint – crackle step one – crackle step two. In the evening, I applied the base of the box – gold paint by Daily Art, and let it sit until the morning. In the morning I glued a decorative motif of a napkin with a rose on the dried box, waited a little, then put a dense layer of “Step 1” crackle on it in a vertical direction. Two hours later, when the first polish became sticky and dried – I applied the second step of the crackle, again a thicker layer, but this time in a horizontal direction. The cracks appeared a few minutes later, but I waited another hour, and then rubbed copper paste into the decorative cracks, and then varnished…