Faux Malachite Mirrors

The process

Faux Malachite Mirrors

I'd been eyeing some old, concave picture frames and decided they were good candidates for a faux malachite treatment. Well, they were and they weren’t—but I got there in the end.¹

Here’s how it went:

Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo before the first few steps, but imagine a soft-ish wood, no knots.

First I sanded and primed fronts and backs and base coated the inside curve where I wanted the malachite treatment.

Aqua base for malachite

Straightforward so far.

I then divided the surfaces with lines to represent each small malachite piece. I used thin card as my bendable straight edge so I could mark the concave areas.

Lines marked for malachite sections

Then, the taping process: Each frame took 4 tape sessions since you can’t work on adjacent sections in a single pass. And you must wait long enough between passes to be sure your glaze is well cured before you tape out the next pass sections or you will lift your prior glaze. Not nice.

Taping out sections for malachite

Now the fun part: As is typical with a faux malachite treatment, I applied a dark green glaze—

Testing glaze colors - I chose the darkest on far left

—using torn cardboard (shirt-box type) so it would bend into the curve—to squiggle and lift the glaze imitating the malachite formation.

Samples of torn cardboard for mark making

Here’s where it got challenging: the inside curves of my surface made it difficult to get the right kind of marks. With a little practice and some wipe off and restarts I got it done. But I wasn’t able to have the control or variety of mark-making I would have had on a flat surface.

Close up of glaze marks

Note to self: concave curves are not the easiest surface for faux malachite.

Before final glazes

The results were remarkably close to my research images of real malachite, but I felt the effect too busy for most home decor. So I over-glazed with several washes of the dark green, careful to follow the direction of the marks.

Once all the taping and glazing was complete, I taped off the malachite and painted the exterior surfaces a dark green matching the glaze. Finally, I painted the inside rim bright red and applied imitation gold leaf and an MSA varnish to prevent tarnish. Then top-coated all with a clear gloss.

Final glazes and red rim

I placed them for sale in my retail booth at an antiques mall, but shortly after I shut that project down to be an independent insurance adjuster working 60-70 hours per week, often out of town. These mirrors are collecting dust in my storage unit. Sigh.

1. This is a revision of an old WordPress blog post from my old decorative painting site. I’m revamping that site and bringing a couple of the most interesting “process” posts here to Substack. I have not sent these via my newsletter as they are old news, but still fun.