Glazing
Note: Most historic decorative finishes were over coated with some kind of glaze. When cleaning or restoring historic finishes care should be taken that these glazes are not destroyed.
Glazing, is usually the application and manipulation of a transparent or
translucent coating over an opaque coating. There are basically two methods
of glazing, subtractive and additive.
The example below uses both methods. The wall was first brushed with a glaze
and while wet padded with rags. This removed glaze and gave the wall a
soft mottled appearance. After this first step dried, other colors of glaze
were brushed on and softened with a clean dry brush while still wet.
The ceiling panels in the example next photo have a ragged finish. The lines were painted on first and allowed to dry completely. Glaze was brushed over the surface and while still wet the ceiling was padded with clean dry rags.
Several glazes can be applied over each other to achieve a unique finish. The use of glazes is also a valuable tool for creating realistic looking marbling.
