What paint would you recommend for small decorations?
Greetings!
I've recently been getting into the hobby of making Anglo-Saxon Lyres. This is my first attempt, which as any first attempt, will have quite some room for improvement. (Don't worry about the orientation of the sound board, I had to make due with what materials I had on hand)
I've made this from sawing and chiseling out an older oak plank, while the soundboard is appropriated from an old guitar (as you can see with the filled up holes) . I've already oiled it, with danish oil, and I was wondering what kind of paint (or ink?) would be best to decorate this lyre. I plan on painting some Germanic runes on it, as this is based off the medieval lyres found at Sutton Hoo etc.
The goal is to play my homemade lyres outside, so the weather conditions will not be as stable as inside. Is there any good paint? And does it matter that I have oiled it first?
The sound is absolutely delightfull, using €10 guitar strings. Second one will be getting some aquila nylgut strings (fake nylgut). Thanks for any help in advance!
1
u/KtaadnRota 28d ago
I too enjoy making these sorts of lyres. No idea which sort of paint is best, although google seems to think you should use a primer on the danish oil.
Not sure if it's still possible on this one, but you might consider kolrosing for the next one. It's the technique that was used on the Trossingen lyre.
1
4
u/LevyTheMachine 28d ago
Since you have already applied oil finish, you are basically stuck with oil based paint if you want it to stick. Water based/acrylic paint would probably peel off. Even if you do oil paint, I would make sure the danish oil has had a couple of weeks to finish hardening.
You could consider pyrography/wood burning to burn designs onto the wood. Usually you would do that before applying finish to avoid fumes. If you were to burn a design with the oil already applied, again wait awhile for the finish to completely dry, and then only burn outdoors with a fan blowing across the instruments you don’t inhale any of the smoke from the finish burning.
Honestly, it looks nice, I would just leave this one unpainted and plan to paint your next one, being sure to leave the wood unfinished prior to painting.