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Faux Finishes

Ragging Off

Negative Ragging produces a very soft finish, but one of the more difficult ones to master. For your first time, always work with a partner. As with any finish on stone, the goal is to enhance the natural beauty, not hide it… so work with the idea of washing a bit of color into the stone, starting very thin and working up to the desired finish. Recipe The ratio is entirely up to your discretion, but a good starting point for finishing stone is a mix of 15:1 - [15 parts water to 1 part paint] After mixing, apply two coats of the base color. In this example, Airy Blue. Let dry for several hours. Most any glaze or latex varnish can be used to do this technique. Mix your glaze in the ratio of 10:1 - [10 parts glaze to 1 part paint]. Here, Fig and Kodiak Grey have been used. For a more subtle finish, add more glaze to the mixture. Pour your glaze mix into a paint tray. You will need several moist, lint free rags [sheeting]. Immerse one rag into the glaze mixture and wring out as much as possible. Blot the excess glaze onto a piece of cardboard. At this point, you can apply a pattern by rolling, dabbing or rubbing the rag across the stone surface. Our sample has been done by dabbing the rag onto the surface. Repeat steps three using the second color.