Testing Crackle Medium With Different Paint Mediums

Having experimented with Blackboard Paint and Crackle Medium, my curiosity was roused. How would this medium work with other paint mediums? I simply had to find out. In today's blog I share the results of my experimentation with you when I try Crackle medium with Oil Colours, Craft Paint, Fabric Paint and Chalk Paint. Not all the mediums showed equal success, but I think you will agree that eliminating a medium serves just as much purpose as identifying a successful one. Let me show you what I discovered. This test also brought me to the conclusion that I really should get around to putting more mediums to the test in upcoming blogs.

I had a piece of wood that the kids had been playing with. As a matter of fact, they had painted on the reverse side. This would be brilliant to conduct my test on. I started by jotting down labels for the types of paint I wanted to test. This would prevent me from getting confused and it would help to clarify things for the purposed of the blog.

I then used Dala Gesso to prepare the surface to accept paint.

Oil Colours
Once the gesso was dry, I painted a coat of Oil Colour paint. I had to wait very patiently for this paint to dry and all of the other experiments were already done and forgotten before this one would be completed.

A couple of days later the oil paint was dry and I could put the crackle medium on top. I waited overnight for the crackle medium to dry.

The next day I painted a contrasting colour of oil paint over the crackle medium. I would have to wait a few more days for this to dry, before knowing the results of the experiment.

A couple of days later, the paint was dry. As I suspected, there was no sign of a crack. Still, it was worth putting it to the test to find out. When painting in oil colours there is a general rule of fat over lean. This means that you can paint thick paint strokes over thin ones, without fear of the paint cracking. However, if you paint lean over fat, the top thin paint layer will dry before the thick layer underneath, causing the top layer to crack. Bear this rule in mind, if you do wish to create cracks in oil colours.

Craft Paint
I painted a layer of Craft Paint on the dry gesso.

Once the paint was dry, I painted Crackle Medium over the paint.

I waited a couple of hours for the Crackle Medium to dry completely and then painted a contrasting colour of Craft Paint over the crackle medium.

Once the paint was dry, beautiful cracks had opened up all over the surface. Obviously I would be able to use Craft Paint with great success with the crackle medium.

Fabric Paint
I painted two swatches of fabric paint on a piece of discarded fabric. My intention was to wash the fabric piece afterwards to see how well the crackle medium withstood this treatment compared to the swatch that was not treated with the crackle medium.

Once the paint was dry, I painted only the swatch on the left with the crackle medium.

I waited a couple of hours for the crackle medium to dry before painting a contrasting colour of fabric paint over both the crackle medium as well as the untreated swatch. No matter how long I waited, no cracks appeared in the fabric paint. There was no need to do the wash test after this.
Side note: I have on occassion used fabric paint on surfaces other than fabric, as if it were craft paint. When used with crackle on a different surface, it may actually deliver positive results. I actually suspect it will. However, as this is not the specific purpose of the paint, I did not test this theory.

Chalk Paint
The medium I was most excited about was Chalk Paint. I painted a coating of chalk paint on the dried gesso and waited for it to dry.

I then painted the crackle medium on the chalk paint and waited a couple of hours for it to dry completely.

I finally painted a contrasting colour of chalk paint over the dried crackle medium.

A whole host of possibilities opened up with the appearance of those cracks, as I am sure all chalk paint lovers out there can imagine for themselves! I could barely wait to get my hands on something that needed a make-over after seeing this.

There are without doubt more types of paint that one could test the crackle medium on, but having done these tests, I have discovered its properties and effectiveness with the paint I use most often. I'll try to give you an overview of more mediums in upcoming blogs.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

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