This is Part Two of How to Marble. If you haven’t read Part One please refer to How to Marble. This article refers to the steps you take after your basecoat has cured.
The marble process requires several tools. You’ll need a couple good sea sponges, smaller ones, one about the size of your hand and a couple smaller. You’ll obviously want some paints and the color selection will depend on your inspiration stones. You can use acrylic paints from your local craft store and it’s always good to pick up some extra white in case you want to mix your own colors. A pallet is good but a large, low-sided Tupperware container works just as well. You’re also going to want a couple small paintbrushes, choose very tiny brushes as veins tend to be small and you can always create a wider vein with a small brush, whereas a thin vein with a fat brush is difficult. A glaze is also helpful and if your local craft store doesn’t carry one, your paint store will. You’ll also need water.
The first painting steps are bold and dark. They may shock you at first but don’t worry, they disappear. Begin by sponging a pattern onto your column. Keep with the veining tradition and create unusual snaky lines. Then add layers on top of this one in lighter shades, keeping the sponge moving in a non-uniform way. (If you aren’t familiar with sponge painting then a refresher might be helpful) Don’t worry about totally obscuring the dark layer but instead build up around it. Refer back to your marble sample.
Now add your first veins. These will be mostly obscured so it’s a great time to practice. Use different colors, try different techniques, vary the pressure you apply, change the length. You can even take some of your smaller sponges and soak them in water, wring them out and then lightly drag them across the vein to create more of a wind blown particle look. Whatever you do, do not create a repeating pattern or equal veins that are evenly spaced. Nature is consistently inconsistent and this is what you want to be.
Once this has had a chance to dry its time to begin the glaze, if you have a nice light base color you may want to use this, mix the paint with the glaze in about a 3 to 1 formula, more glaze than paint. You don’t need much glaze so a small container (plastic whipped cream tub is good) then dip the tips of a softened sponge into the glaze and use this to wipe your column. Cover the entire area so everything gets a fairly even coat. As the glaze dries you’ll see your original work poking through (so all that work was not wasted effort) the paint and you’ve got a first layer. If it’s not poking through then you do not have enough glaze and if the column looks just as dark then you don’t have enough paint in your mix.
The rest of the process is all creative expression. You create your layers, using less of the very dark colors as you go. Continue to play with the veins adding darker lines on one side to create depth, or lighter lines to create a fragile new crack. Study real marble even more to replicate the spots of color and the solid patches. This is where the process gets very tedious but the more you do the more depth you add and the more realistic your marble will become.
The final touch is a coat of varnish to protect your masterpiece. Even though you’ve applied several layers of paint, plaster is still not going to hold it well and your kids can easily scrape off large chunks of your work with a carelessly tossed toy. So to protect the column and give it that polished marble finish you’ll need to apply at least one coat of a top quality varnish.
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