Finishing Urethane carvings

If you want to include carvings in your work urethane and plaster castings are an easy way to go. Most people don't know how to make them look like wood though. Here are a couple of "Step strips" that show the process. A step strip is something a finisher makes as a sample so the finish can be duplicated by someone else later. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The first step on the right is white primer. Next a base color of lacquer (utc mixed in clear) the base color should be a little lighter than the lightest color of the wood color you are matching. Step 3 is a gilsonite glaze. Sherwin Williams S64 gilsonite mixed with mineral spirits. I used a chip brush (cheap disposable brush) to make sure I got color in all the nooks and crannies and then a thin sealer coat to seal the glaze for the next layer. Step 4 is another glaze. This one is artists oil colors. VanDyke brown mixed with a little black thinned with a little mineral spirits to make it brushable. You brush on a full coat and wipe the color back off the high spots with a rag. Let it dry 15 to 20 minutes and I sealed it in using Mohawk Ultra classic toner in an aersol can. You can also mix your own toner using ngr stain or transtints mixed in your lacquer. Here is another step strip over the airbrushed wood pecker.

Very similar steps on this, the base color is different though.

Both of these moldings were made by me using a urethane mold making system from the original carvings.

Here are a couple of jobs we did using urethane moldings. All of the carved features in these 2 sets of cabinets are urethane moldings.