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"Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:04 pm
by mtylerfl
This is a project I designed for the CarveWright CNC company using Aspire to create a gracefully contoured box with a detailed deep-relief carving of roses arranged in a circular pattern around the lid. I used Aspire's 2-Rail Sweep to make 5 segmented box sections to be glued together. The rose lid design was created in Aspire by using the Copy Along Vector and Extrude and Weave features using the overlap and alternating component options (for the center circle of leaves).

After sanding and painting a white base coat overall, I used an interesting and easy marbelizing technique to give this all-wood project the realistic appearance of alabaster stone! I learned about this particular marbelizing technique over 20 years ago and originally used it for marbelizing small International Coffee metal tins as desktop pen/pencil holders. I understand similar methods have become quite popular for guitar bodies, pool cues, pens and even body painting!

I marbelized the parts by filling a container 2/3rds with water, then sprayed various shades of spray paint on the surface. Slightly stirred the paint film with a skewer to “swirl” then carefully (but quickly, before the paint film became too dry) dipped each part into the water. “Swept” away the leftover paint film from the water surface after each part was dipped so I could start with a fresh film of paint each time. The paint film adheres to the pre-painted surface and produces a very realistic marbelized appearance.

You can visit http://carvebuddy.com/the-buddy-blog/ if you want to watch a couple “EZ Marbelizing Effect”" videos showing the process recorded in real-time!

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:03 pm
by zeeway
Another amazing project from the creative mind of Michael T. Thanks for showing it to the forum.

Angie

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:21 pm
by MTSO
WOW!!!!. That look really good, I need to do this sort of thing, you are a very clever person. Forum never ceases to amaze me.

regards

Brian

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:32 pm
by TReischl
Just incredible!

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:40 pm
by Rcnewcomb
Thank you for the explanation of the finishing technique. It really compliments the piece.

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:47 pm
by scubanimal
That is really cool Michael, definitely need to give this a try. Is this a hint of an upcoming monthly project?

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:37 pm
by Samson
There was actually a kit available about 25 years ago that did the same thing. It used borax in the water and had several colors of dyes or paints. We tried the kit but never got any good results, so we gave up on it.

Most recently, the big rage was using this same technique on fingernails. Women used nail polish and marbled their fingernails. Plenty of videos on YT if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Your results came out fantastic. I might have to give it another try.

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:13 pm
by mtylerfl
Thank you everyone for the nice comments! It is definitely a FUN thing to try. I did use all the same brand and type of spray paints, just to be on the "safe side". Also, I let the paint dry overnight before applying clear coats over the "marble" (couple coats of clear spray Shellac for quick build-up and for its very slight "golden tone", then several light coats Krylon clear gloss for a final water-resistant finish).

I have done it lots of times with just whatever spray paints (regardless of brand - but were the same type) were in the storage bin and was successful, but I was probably very lucky. Here's a photo of the spray paints I used on this project...

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:15 pm
by mezalick
Bravo !
Nice to see more than just wood...

Michael

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 1:25 am
by AndyPitts
Very neat!

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 1:35 am
by James M
Michael,

Thanks for sharing your nice project.

James

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:17 am
by martin54
Wow, hard to believe that it is actually wood under a coating of paint. Outstanding work as usual Michael :lol: :lol:

Now I will have to go check out the videos :lol:

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:33 pm
by mtylerfl
Thanks again everyone! I thought you might want to see what the box looked like before sanding, glue-up or finish was applied. (Just to prove it's all wood ya know!) Here's a photo with all the parts fresh off the CarveWright CNC and just stacked up on one another...(the round knob is a store-bought wooden doll head)

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:13 pm
by tom klass
Very nice Michael! I saw that in a wood type magazine probably 20 years ago but never had the inkling to give it a try. I'm glad you posted it I'll have to now! Are you going to bring it to Jim's in May?

Re: "Alabaster" Rose Box

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:59 pm
by mtylerfl
tom klass wrote:Very nice Michael! I saw that in a wood type magazine probably 20 years ago but never had the inkling to give it a try. I'm glad you posted it I'll have to now! Are you going to bring it to Jim's in May?
If my wife doesn't give it away first, I'll bring it to Jim's! (I'll hide it from her.) :D