All day working on the two wooden frames and the beading. I've painted 4 gesso caots on the beading, which was difficult, the wood so thin and long that it was difficult to avoid mess, dust, hairs etc. I then made a custom sanding shape with wet and dry 400-grit paper and epoxy clay to mould it to the exact contour of the wood:
It wasn't perfect, the paper is too stiff and the details too delicate, but over the full 2400mm of wood the block did sand it to an even finish, better than I expected. I then used wire wool, which felt better at evening out the finish, although both probably helped. Then three coats of Golden Fluid Acrylic: red, brown, gold. The results are good, all slightly streaky and 'distressed' which is what I wanted.
The white frames have had five coats of gesso, and three sandings. The results are still far from smooth and perfect, each coat was very thin. I can imagine taking 15 coats on these which seems like too much. I don't think there will be an easy shortcut. It would be nice to have an acrylic 'filler' which is stiffer for the holes, dents, knots etc. Next time, I will use wood filler on areas like that; the knots and joints. My Wilko filler powder is good but very flaky and powdery, not fine. They do make a fine-detail filler which is ready mixed, I'll get some of that. The last tub I had dried solid with almost all of it unused.
My next job is marking and cutting the exact lengths and angles on the beading, this is for an isosceles triangle frame, and I have no mitre, so my plan is to hand saw near the joint and electrically sand to perfection.
Days like this are a little break from painting, very physical rather than the sedentary work of painting, but I find it harder to stop. I could potentially stop now and paint tomorrow, but it would be nice to finish the beading job.
