How to make a craquelure on furniture?

The “craquelure” technique is an artificial aging of painted or varnished surfaces of various furniture or home decoration - caskets, paintings, vases and other accessories. The name of the technology (“Crackle”) comes from the word “craquelure”, which means “crack” in French. Despite the fact that this technology initially appeared as a means for the restoration of antique furniture, today it is widely used during the production of new products to give them the appearance of antiquity. In this article, we will tell you how to make a craquelure on furniture to give it special beauty and charm.

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Craquelure technology on a wooden surface

Modern industry produces a lot of different compositions for applying craquelure with your own hands and at home. Moreover, some of them can be used not only when processing wooden surfaces, but also for applying beautiful “antique” cracks on the surface of plastic and metal objects.

Important! Decorative additions from metal, on which decoupage or patina are complemented by craquelure, will look very original and stylish on wooden furniture.

Special tools

In order to make craquelure cracks, you can purchase both a one-component craquelure varnish and a two-component composition, a set of which is sold in the form of two bottles.

For those who would like to try their hand at restoration work for the first time, it is better to use a special “crackle” varnish, which is sold in household goods stores under the brands “Ferrario”, “Stamperia” or “Havo”.

Important! For aging furniture at home, the first option is quite suitable.

Home remedies

Many experienced master restorers claim that they get a more natural, aged look if furniture cracks are formed using improvised means - gelatin, egg white, washing gel. You can also make craquelure vinegar in a picture or furniture.

Important! If you are a beginner restorer, then whatever tool you choose, it is best to test it on a small surface in advance.

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Crackle technique for beginners

Household craftsmen who do not want to throw out old but beloved furniture, and who want to breathe new life into it, can be offered restoration techniques in a very interesting Provence style.

Important! Provence is a variation of the French style, as it is also called the French Country. Distinctive features of this style are pastel colors, ruffles, a lot of fresh flowers, etc.

To perform such restoration work should:

• Buy two types of acrylic paint in contrasting colors and a one-component varnish called “Crackle Country Style”, which is intended for use with acrylic paint.

Important! More experienced craftsmen recommend that beginning restorers purchase sets for home creativity, which usually include a single-step and protective craquelure varnish, brushes and several jars with acrylic paints in different colors.

• Before you make a craquelure on furniture, you should remove the old paintwork from the surface, after which the surface is primed with acrylic paint (preferably metallic).
• As soon as the metallized colorful base dries, cover the surface of the product with craquelure varnish.

Important! It must be borne in mind that the width of the cracks will depend on the thickness of the varnish layer. The thicker the layer, the wider the crackle lines will be.

• After the varnish is completely dry, a second coloring layer is applied to it, for which a matte paint is taken. Metallized or glossy for the second staining will not work, because it will not react with the varnish layer and spontaneous cracking will not occur.
• Until the paint has dried, its surface is worked out with a brush with synthetic pile, with the help of which a network of cracks is formed. If cracks began to appear during the reaction of matte paint with dried varnish, then brushing can be omitted, because the lack of experience can lead to inaccurate decoration.

Important! After the paint dries, the surface can be decoupled or simply covered with a layer of transparent, protective varnish.

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The use of two-component compounds

You can make a craquelure on furniture with a better quality crack network using a two-component varnish:

• In the process of restoring wooden furniture after cleaning the surface from the old coating and polishing, varnish, marked as “Step 1”, is applied to it with a synthetic bristle brush.
• After drying the varnish layer for 30-40 minutes, a second layer of varnish is applied to it - “Step 2”.

Important! The decorativeness of the obtained craquelure mesh will depend on the thickness of the second layer.

• In order to speed up the drying process of the second varnish coating, some masters use a hair dryer, and for a large area - a construction hair dryer.
• In order to make cracks more visible, they are additionally decorated by rubbing aluminum crack or bronze powder into the cracks. In addition, you can use bitumen varnish or ordinary oil paint.

Important! After grouting, excess powder material and paint residues are removed from the surface of the product, for which ordinary sunflower oil can be used.

• At the final stage, the thoroughly wiped surface is opened with finishing fixative varnish or water-based acrylic varnish.

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Useful Tips

When using tools and compositions for the artificial creation of craquelure on furniture with their own hands, the following rules must be observed:

• When buying varnish, you should shake the bottle, checking the uniformity and transparency of the consistency of the composition.
• To prevent the formation of bubbles on the decorated surface and in the varnish layer, the bottle with the working composition must not be shaken before use.
• Restoration work must necessarily take place in a well-ventilated area, after wet cleaning.
• Using one-component compositions, the direction of the cracks will coincide with the direction of movement of the brush.
• When using contrasting acrylic paints, a special decorative effect is obtained when choosing pale saturated or light dark shades.

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Using improvised tools for crackle technique

If you do not want to spend money on branded compounds in order to make craquelure on furniture or other items, then you can resort to the use of improvised means. They will surely be found in any zealous craftsman or housewife.

Most often when cracking is used:

• Repair and construction polyvinyl acetate or stationery glue.
• Different types of varnishes for furniture.
• Products listed above.

You should also study some of the recommendations:

• In the process of using PVA glue, it is applied with a thick layer on the surface or slightly dried. When acquiring a layer of adhesive sticky consistency, water-based acrylic paint is applied over it.After it reacts with glue and the texture of cracks appears, the product is dried with a building or household hairdryer.
• For aging at home, you can also use pentaphthalic varnish “PF 283”, which is applied to the product and dried naturally for four hours until a slightly sticky film is formed. After that, the varnish coating is covered with a layer of acrylic paint and dried until a mesh texture appears. Further, the surface dries naturally.
• Egg white is applied on a twice-applied layer of acrylic paint. After the protein has dried naturally, it is applied to it with a contrast (in relation to the base) acrylic paint.
• A similar technique is to make a craquelure on furniture using gelatin. Its advantage is the possibility of forming grid lines, the width of which will depend on the thickness of the gelatin layer.
• Nine percent vinegar solution is applied with a sponge to dried acrylic paint. Craquelure mesh appears almost instantly.

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Stock footage

Beginning restorers need to know that the first tests can be unsuccessful, since in the craquelure technique skills and work experience are very important that cannot be replaced by any sets and branded products.