Finishing My first Santa

[Chahlie]

Hi All,

Well I am ready to finish my first Santa...I plan on painting it with acrylics as recommended by the book I took the pattern from...My question at this point, the carving has acquired some smudges from handling and such, do I need to seal the wood with something like Z-lac or wipe down carving with acetone or what?

Thanks for your help and hoping to have pics of the Santa painted on webshots soon!

[jamesfa]

i'm sure there are diff. methods used by various people but the following i picked off the net when i started.
1)warm water &2-3 drops of liquid washing detergent(unscented)
2)dip a toothbrush in soapy water and scrub carving,do not immerse carving in water.
3)rinse carving with fresh clean water to remove soapy residue
4)towel off water & blot carving-let dry overnight.
once cleaned wear a thin cotton glove to handle carving so as not to transfer any oil from your hands to clean carving.

you can then seal carving with the sealer of your choice

zinesser bulls-eye shellac(12% shellac)
KT super sealer
Deft spray lacqer
(others on this board have mentioned a Krylon product to seal a carving )
washing and sealing will raise the grain-use a 3m scotch brite pad to eliminate any glossy areas & raised grain.

now your ready to paint
some people like the wood to show thru so the dont seal their carving-maybe they can offer their technique

[MelNM]

You might also try boiled linseed oil to seal it, I like the results I get from it. Also when you paint it don't use the acrylic paint at full strength, specially if you want the grain to show through, I water mine down to the consistency of milk, then you can put one coat at a time till you get the look you desire.

I have also used a scrub brush when cleaning my carvings, along with what James said.

After towel drying, i use a hair dryer, re-sand with 400 sandpaper, blow it off with canned air used for cleaning key boards and seal it with Krylon 1303 and paint using the washed look.

Then I hit it again with a light coat of 1303.