Unicorn SPiT on Bark Garden Accent ~
3 Materials
SPiT on bark! Unicorn SPiT stain and glaze is truly a unique stain and glaze with the feel of a gel. I picked up a piece of bark to learn how to SPiT and these lovely garden accents started popping out.
Gather bark pieces from local chainsaw carver, mill, tree service, or yard waste recycler. Start with a piece that moves you. If it’s not dry, bake it in a 180^ oven checking every 15 minutes.
Take a before photo, you'll love this later. Sand the inside til it’s fairly smooth, starting with coarser sandpaper if you need to, then using 220 grit. Tree bark is made of fuzzy fibers – just knock them down, don’t expect to get wood-smooth. Some I prep with water-based wood conditioner, this one I skipped it.
Apply a few drops of Unicorn SPiT, and glide them with the side of your hand, along with the grain, both up and down to feather both edges. See the video link at the end for the technique.
The first pass is just to get your color fields down. I like to use the same color along both edges to frame the piece. You can mist the wood with water first, or not – experiment by feel. This example is being done in warm sunshine, and it’s drying FAST. Addendum: okay, so don’t work in the sun, can’t control the SPiT...
Keep adding new passes of SPiT. Start being careless, with dots of different colors together on a fingertip, to add both without fully blending them. If you add something you don’t like, just keep adding more colors and cover it up.
If you see something you like, stop. Move to another spot. Let it sit a moment til your creative spirit decides how to keep blending around it. This green feathered point caught my eye.
The more layers, the lighter the touch, sometimes just a dab of SPiT on the tip of your finger. Finally, you’ll reach a point where there’s nothing left to change. Wet your fingertip with water to lightly blend any color edges together that irk you.
Seal with a coat of low-gloss tung oil, and enjoy how the colors pop.
Voila! As for the outside of the piece, Mother Nature and bark already have their own relationship, and I ain’t getting in the middle. I do seal all four edges though. Look to my next posting how to gild those lovely ant trails.
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This was shot while working the piece at left in the photo above. Good example of the smoothing stroke to settle the SPiT into place. Go by feel, don't overwork it, and have fun!
Comments
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2 of 45 comments
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Wow, what a surprising other place to connect! I'm going to try rooting some too.
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The piece blends so well and looks natural in the environment. Beautiful.
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