Thursday, October 11, 2007

Another Shellac Moment

I wish I took a BEFORE picture of this light fixture. We bought it for $6 I think and it used to be painted beige with some highlights of green and pink airbrushed in certain spots. I might try to use it in our Gothic Powder room that I am going to tell you all about in the next installment. My original plan was to paint it black and gold. When I got all the paint off it I saw that it was made of pressed brass so I tried something that I read in our 1909 Book of Household Discoveries. I mixed "Gold Varnish" using 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric in a half filled babyfood jar of thinned clear shellac. This gives the shellac a yellow translucent hue. I applied this "Varnish" directly over the brass in three coats and got this


I don't think I will be using black paint on this any time soon. Now what did I do with the brass door hardware?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's amazing, especially when you see what the original looked like. I just happened to be browsing antique lighting on ebay and found one like yours selling for $24. I wasn't trying to find it, honest. Anyway, here is a link to what it looked like originally if anyone is interested.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ViNtAgE-BRASS-CEILING-LIGHT-FIXTURE-DECO-SHABBY-CHIC_W0QQitemZ110179643706QQihZ001QQcategoryZ63516QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting