Painter Girl

Great New Product Lines

I have to admit, about six months ago I was thinking I was really burnt out with the same old tired finishes I've been doing year after year.  Of course, I've changed it up a bit with the trends and new products, but there just were not any new products out there that were getting me excited.  I was tiring of the plasters fast.  What WAS keeping me going was the introduction of the Stencil Library's Big and Bold series and Melanie Royals BoHo finishes  and creative use of Modellos. This was a fresh look at stencil use that I could wrap my head around quickly! 

Now, Modern Masters and Magic Metallics are promoting a great line of oxidizing products and showing some creative ways to use these products.  Also, Golden's has their Proceed line,  which I am just delving into.  I have also been using their Interference colors.  Then when you add in such fun materials as the metallic foils, foil flakes, and gel beads, the finishes really start to get interesting!  It's a great time for decorative painters right now, with a plethora of products to play with!

DuRock Finishes at McCollum Booth

One of my favorite booths at the Decorative Arts Show/Faux Event in Atlantic City was the DuRock booth staffed by a husband and wife team who own McCollum Interiors in NYC.  Cynthia McCollum is an incredible artist/faux finisher in her own right and was extremely helpful and friendly answering the many questions Chris and I had about all the beautiful finishes on display.  Her husband, and I am sorry to say, I cannot find his first name anywhere in the materials I brought home with me, was also equally friendly and helpful.  This booth, by far, had the best product and literature giveaways.  We were given a box with good sized sample jars of product to take home and experiment with in our studios, a great instructional DVD, and a very helpful packet that contained color charts and actual samples of some of the finishes.  These samples were not your typical 1" x 1" square, they are a good 3" x 6", so you really get a sense of what the product looks like.  For those of you not in this business, we typically have to pay for color charts of product lines and if the company does bother to offer real samples of their products, vs. a printed chart, we pay dearly for those.  It is also very difficult to get a small sample jar of a plaster type product to play with, so Chris and I were just thrilled to hang out at this booth for a bit! DuRock manufactures a variety of decorative coatings.  I have not used these products yet, but plan to experiment with my samples soon and learn more about creating the amazing finishes you see here on the samples boards displayed at this booth.  Thanks Cynthia and husband! :-)

I may have some of the product lines mixed up, but I think this one is Indiana Limestone.

There were quite a few rusted iron finishes at this show, but this sample was one of my favorites!

Below, Chris, peeking out from behind what I believe is a Jewelstone finish.

I have no idea what DuRock product was used to create this last board, but I absolutely love it!  I will contact Cynthia to see if she can set me straight about the products used for each of these samples.

Note:  sorry for the sloppy layout of this post today.  I struggled to have all of the text line up properly with the photos, but it would just not happen today!  It's my ongoing problem with TypePad. :-(