Australian & New Zealand Retailers of Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint & Fusion Mineral Paint
What an amazing two days I’ve just had with our Aussie & Kiwi retailers of both brands of paint product we carry here at I Restore Stuff: Fusion Mineral Paint & Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint.
Our Australian distributor, Veronica Barr, from Refinished, teamed up with our Sunshine Coast (QLD) retailer, Beatrice Agnew, from the lovely Tanawah House, to create a beautiful atmosphere and program – not to mention the incredible food – for our two day retreat.
Day 1 – Fusion Mineral Paint
A chat with Jennylyn Pringle from Homestead House Paint Co.
Jennylyn is the President of the family business, Homestead House Paint Co. in Canada, where both Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint products and Fusion Mineral Paint products were created, and are distributed from worldwide.
We enjoyed a Skype session with Jennylyn, where she covered so much in an hour. But here are some new products that will be coming soon in the Fusion Mineral Paint range:
Metallic colours!! – Somebody say “BLING”!
Teaming up with designer, Matthew Mead, Fusion has come out with this range: Matthew Mead Studio Metallic by Fusion. Can’t wait for these paints to arrive in Australia at the end of the year.
Picture: Matthew Mead
Fusion Mineral Paint will also have some special colours coming out next year, but more about those closer to the time.
Stuff I learned:
Crackle-liscious!
It was so good to finally get a show and tell on a few products, like the Fusion Crackle medium:
Look at this, you guys – I DID IT!
Apparently this is a really hit & miss kind of technique, but one of the keys that Jennylyn shared with us, that I found to be so true, is that you can NOT work the paint on top of the crackle product any more than just one stroke across, for best results. You literally have to fill your brush with paint and wipe it only ONCE across on top of the crackle medium. Don’t go over it and over it again. Just once – you got that didn’t you?
Also, the crackle has to go on fairly liberally in areas you want the paint to crackle. At least a millimetre or two thick.
Crackle comes like this in a 250ml bottle for $20 AUD. If you’re a lover of antique and crackle, this will last you a LONG time!
Fusion’s Smooth Embossing Paste and Sandstone Texture:
This stuff is SO cool!!
Both Smooth Embossing Paste (has a pearl appearance) and Sandstone Texture, can be used over stencils to create a raised surface. You can then paint over when it dries. You can also mix either Fusion Mineral paint (any colour) or metallic tints into the textured medium itself, for different colour effects.
We trialled this on a brick wall stencil!
On the right (above): Sandstone texture mixed with Fusion Mineral Paint colour – Ash. On the left: Smooth Embossing Paste mixed with Silver tint.
And here’s how it turned out once the stencil is removed and the paint/medium has dried.
You can see the Sandstone has a rougher surface, and the other is smooth.
Both can be sanded to desired effect, but not necessary for a nice 3D effect. I can’t wait to use this on other stencils on furniture pieces!
Gilding Paste & Metallic Tinting Kits:
I have used these before, but it was good to learn different techniques for using a familiar product. Here is our sample board moulding painted with Fusion Mineral Paint in the colour Liberty Blue:
From left to right (below): White Gilding paste; Bronze Gilding; Copper Tinting Kit; Silver Tinting Kit; Gold Gilding paste.
Each of these metallic detail mediums can be used to add a beautiful shimmer to your detailed furniture or wood, by using a dry brush method to apply them.
Dry brushing: dip the tips of your small brush into a little tint or gilding; dab the brush onto a piece of paper towel or paper to remove excess paint from brush; brush across very lightly over the painted piece of board/furniture.
Comes in Copper, Bronze, Silver, Pearl, Gold.
Tinting (pic above) is more of a highly concentrated metallic paint and is fast drying. Comes in these 60ml bottles for $21.50 (AUD). A little goes a LONG way. I have literally painted frames, metal utensil holder, base of a waste paper basket, legs of chairs and STILL have half a bottle left.
Gilding paste (pic above) is made from all natural products with a sunflower oil base, and is therefore slower drying, but is generally used just as a highlight for things such as handles and filigree detail. It comes in 37ml pots for $23 (AUD). Also goes a very long way due to only needing such a small amount to dry brush on your pieces.
There’s More …
Well, I’ve already covered so many things in this post, I don’t want to cause any head explosions or brain overload!
I can’t wait to fill you in one some things we covered on DAY 2 of our Retailer Training with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, including a skype call with Marian Parsons, Miss Mustard Seed herself and creating a stencilled rustic sign.
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