Mixing Emulsion

Something that I have seen become popular at the minute is the mixing patterns of emulsion paints. Many designers and artists include them in their illustrations and quite a few 80's punk illustrators. I think they are relaxing and really good to look at. I think it would be hard to justify why mixing paint into patterns will be good.

Pantone illustration of mixing paint.(Green in the background)

A video demonstrating the use of mixing gloss to create a new guitar design. If I don't choose this as one of the five I am sure that I will use this process at sometime.

What do you need? Taken from www.theswirling.com

Paint

Firstly you will need paint, I use Humbrol Enamels as they seem to work very well, this is not to say other paints don’t work but if you use other paints the borax mixture or water temp may affect the paint differently. The matt and metallic paints don’t seems to work very well so I would say to stick to the gloss paints until you get it right before trying the other types. Also buy at least two pots of the colors you want to try, nothing worse than opening a pot and realizing the paint has dried up.

And don't forget the primers, you will need a white primer primarily. I then use a satin/matt undercoat if I want to have a base color. Base colors change the color of the swirls so best to stick with white until your happy with the swirling technique and want to experiment with colors,

Water

Get this from the tap, just don't assume it will rise from the ground on command, you will need to make sure there is a tap nearby.

Large Container

This must be large enough to allow a guitar body to be placed inside, preferably at least 1.5 to 2 times as wide as a guitar to allow movement and at least 1.5 times as deep (its difficult to hold a guitar underwater so the wider /deeper it is the less chance you have of the guitar moving and hitting a side.

Borax

Borax (Sodium Borate) is usually found in the household cleaning aisles. It has many uses but the one we need it for is to break the surface tension of the water to allow the paints to disperse evenly across the water.Depending on where you go the price changes. I buy mine from eBay but you might ding it in a local store which is always handy (no waiting time for delivery). You will probably need about 3-4kgs to start with as it takes a lot of practice to get this right (and a lot of water changes).

And obviously the material to go on ie plank of wood.

Going to have to experiment with this something if not choosen as one of the five.