The first ground coat did not dry properly, and I blame the honey in the ground mixture. Should have re-read the "directions" all the way through and I would have re-discovered that the sugars used must be hard at room temperature - liquid honey will never dry. Live and learn. A gentle rub with a damp, lint-free towel removed the sticky and we were good to go.
A new batch of sugar seal was mixed up and brought to a rolling boil - 1/2 cup tap water, 1/3 cup brown sugar, two tea bags and a tsp of powdered red tea, just to see what would happen. The mixture was strained through a cloth and applied (after a cooling period) with a foam brush.
The results? Pretty good, IMHO -
The second ground coat dried very fast, within half an hour or so, much as I remembered the Six Foot Fiddle ground coats.
Both of the photos above are a bit darker than Real Life, but the shade is pretty close. Here's a close-up of the ribs that is much closer to reality -
My camera doesn't quite capture the shine and contrast of the grain. Overall I am very happy with the finish so far. On to the shellac!
A new batch of sugar seal was mixed up and brought to a rolling boil - 1/2 cup tap water, 1/3 cup brown sugar, two tea bags and a tsp of powdered red tea, just to see what would happen. The mixture was strained through a cloth and applied (after a cooling period) with a foam brush.
The results? Pretty good, IMHO -
Its a very nice precolor. The difficult thing is the belly. Spruce blotches very easily, but your violin looks very good.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you use honey, you have to heat it on a frying pan untill it gets like stiff caramel.
How many coats of shellack will you give it? I think the shellack is only in order to seal the sugar coat and not in order to make body or gloss.
I think the Six Foot Fiddle got three coats of shellac, so I'll probably do the same with this one - depends on how well it covers...
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