How I Hand Paint Jewellery-Part 1
Take a scroll through my site and you’ll see that I use a range of techniques to create my mixed-media jewellery. I’ve always used painting techniques in my work and here I share how I paint the brooches and necklaces in the Floral Folk range.
Floral Folk
I use paint pens to hand colour every piece in this mid-century range.
I hand paint each of the pieces in the Floral Folk range using water based acrylic paint pens. Mitsubishi Posca pens are the best – highly pigmented with a range of tip sizes and colours – but they’re quite expensive because of this. However, I also use some cheaper Crawford & Black pens, and although the paint is thinner and they have harder tips, they do make some pretty colours that aren’t available in the Posca range.
Useful Paint Pens
High pigment and small nibs make these the speedy choice for painting.
The main difference between painting wood and acrylic is absorbency: as a natural material, wood absorbs paint easily, which makes it a versatile, but tricky, base to work on. This is because wood expands when it absorbs paint, so the grain ‘raises’, i.e. the surface becomes ridged along the lines of the grain. To prepare the surface I lightly sand each piece before I begin. This also removes the brown marks caused by the laser during cutting.
Preparing The Surface
Sanding removes discolouration and smooths the wood.
Next, I add a white base coat, which 1) allows the wood grain to raise again, and 2) helps the colours to pop. When this has dried, I re-sand it. This process of sanding, painting and re-sanding should stop the grain raising during the colouring stage when it would be harder to deal with.
Base Coat
I add a white base coat to prep for adding colours.
Now for the fun part – adding colours! The paint pen nibs are small enough that I can colour detailed sections without making too many mistakes. If I do go over the lines I can generally re-paint a section. When all the sections are painted, I leave the piece to dry overnight. The final stage is sealing the paint with a clear varnish. This final layer protects the piece from dust, chipping and splashes, and it gives a smooth surface finish.
Adding Colour
The white base helps the colours to pop.
To finish these brooches I glue in the mirrored acrylic centre and the base, before adding the brooch pin on the reverse. When I was designing this range, I wanted the finish to be bold and bright in line with the mid-century style that inspired me. Paint pens were the answer in this situation, but for other ranges I use different paints and techniques, depending on the finish I want - I’ll cover this in part two.
