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Antiquating.

Antiquating is a set of techniques to imitate the effects of aging on plaster, wood, metal, paint, plastic, in fact any material that is used in decorating. This is more often used for television and film painting. Scenic backgrounds and all types of furniture and fittings are aged to order.

• Ageing painted wood. For your coat always use off-white rather than a stark white, as it looks older to start with. The same applies to all other colors; always choose the duller, more sedate tone of the color you want. You will need to work with three colours; an old wood colour; your undercoat color and your top-coat colour.
  • Use enamel varnish for your wood color, emulsion for your other colours.
  • Give the wood a coat of enamel varnish of your main wood color, well thinned.
  • Once dry, apply blobs of beeswax using your fingers or a small brush, dragging generally in the direction of the grain.
  • Leave the wax to dry overnight.
  • Carefully apply a thick coat of your undercoat color( a paler, duller version of your top-coat colour.)
  • When the undercoat is thoroughly dry, apply a very thin top-coat(two thirds water).
  • When the top-coat is barely, say within an hour, start scraping and rubbing off the lumps of beeswax, ensuring you get every piece off.
  • With a very fine sandpaper or sponge sanding pad, soften all the edges and go all over the surface removing some of the top-coat.
  • Finally coat the whole surface with beeswax polish or a satin varnish.

• Antiquing. This is basically to give an instant ageing effect; common in theatre and film work. • Mix up the antiquing solution by thinning beeswax with turpentine until runny. • Thicken the solution with rottenstone(powdered stone dust) or fullers earth. • Apply firmly with a brush, making sure you fill every hole, groove, crack or recess on the surface. • With a soft cotton cloth wipe off all the excess immediately you have finished brushing. Take care that you don't lift it from cracks or deep grain. • When the solution has hardened(4 - 6 hours), polish with a soft cloth.

• Antique Cracking Effect.
  An antique cracking effect is sometimes required for the treatment of such articles as lampshades, period furniture, etc. It can be carried out as follows:
  See that the surface of the oiled paper or parchment used for the lamp­shade (or the existing finish, if furniture is being treated) is clean and then brush or spray on a coat of clear spirit varnish. Allow this to become thoroughly dry and then coat the whole surface with a solution of concentrated glue and hot water or, alternatively, dextrine and warm water. Within a few minutes of application, this will have the effect of cracking the varnish film into irregular square or oblong formation. If desired, two coats of varnish may be applied instead of one, and the thicker the coating and the softer the varnish, the wider will be the crack formation. Thus, a very thin film of hard varnish will produce very small squares.
  Allow the cracking solution to dry thoroughly and then rub over the work with a lintless rag lightly charged with ready-bound drop black, umber, sienna, or other suitable pigment, well thinned with turpentine. The color will penetrate the cracks and can be rubbed off the remainder of the surface by means of another rag, moistened with turpentine or white spirit. After allowing several hours for drying, take a sponge dipped in warm water and go over the work to remove the glue or dextrine coating.
• Ageing white plaster mouldings. Plaster moulding are very porous and therefore give quick drying times. Materials required; water, shellac, liming wax, methylated spirits, three small brushes and a clean cloth.
  • Dampen the plaster by brushing it several times with clean water.
  • Apply a coat of shellac ensuring you get into all the dents and crevices.
  • Apply a second coat of shellac for a shiny finish.
  • When the shellac is dry(usually about 15 minutes) work over the whole surface with the liming wax, ensuring it fills every small indentation. Tip; if you can't get liming wax you can probably get away with thinned out white emulsion.
  • With a clean cloth remove the excess wax to expose the shellac underneath taking care not to lift the wax from all the grooves and crevices.
  • Leave to dry for an hour then polish up with a clean soft cloth.
• Ageing plaster walls. This is mostly used for film and television work but it can be interesting in the right setting in the home or office. Materials required;water, shellac, beeswax, turpentine, PVA sealer, white gypsum plaster mix as well as a trowel for putting it on.
  • Paint the wall the background color of your choice. this is the colour that will show through your plaster finish in various places. Painting the wall is not essential.
  • Seal the surface with PVA mixed 50/50 with water.
  • Mix the beeswax polish and turpentine together and brush onto the wall in random patches.
  • Mix up your plaster and using the trowel in broad semi-circular strokes skim the whole surface with a thin layer.
  • Before the plaster has set completely use a wet paint brush to smoothe out any ridges and bumps.
  • Leave the plaster to dry overnight.
  • With a small wooden mallet crack and loosen the plaster over the waxed areas and scrape away.
  • Using a medium sandpaper smoothe down all the rough edges.
  • Apply a well thinned out (1:4) coat of PVA for protection.