Acrylic Paints for Decorative Arts

For craft purposes, such as decorating wooden boxes or painting on leather or fabric, acrylic paints work best. They mix well, can be applied easily, dry fast, form permanent film, and the cleaning is quite simple. Although all acrylic paints have pigments (or dyes) as a colour agent and acrylic dispersion (or emulsion) as a binder, they are not the same for different purposes.

Acrylic paints for fabric contain a special plasticizer, so after use and stretch your painting will stay. Paints are usually thinner and go inside the treads, that’s why absorbing cotton is one of the best materials to use for textile painting. 

Paints for silk are even thinner and look more like ink rather than regular acrylic paints as silk is very fine and colours should penetrate inside and between the treads so no film is left on the surface.

For leather, acrylic paints for fabric work very well, but they may not have enough adhesion. Even though we remove all grease from the leather top surface, perfect cleaning is not really possible, and paints may peel off the surface. So, special paints are recommended.

Hot techniques in glass and ceramics provide the best effect as they kind of fuse to the surface and form a semi-permanent connection between the materials. For cold techniques, acrylic paints can be applied. And here regular acrylic paints do not work well. Glass is very sleek and regular binder doesn’t stick to its surface very well. That’s why special acrylic paints for glass and ceramics have a special bonding agent to provide extra adhesion. Glass paints can be transparent or opaque, creating beautiful stained glass effects.

Another special kind of paint is metallic-looking paint. Don’t fool yourself, gold paints have no gold, just mica powder to achieve a sparkling look. Mica particles just reflect the light and, being coloured, they imitate different kinds of metal: gold, silver, copper, bronze or even some exotic colours. However, they will look metallic just in certain light. Also, paints with mica powder usually contain solvents and stabilizing agents for smoother application and to prevent the separation of mica particles. For a true gilding experience, use our gilding kit. It doesn’t have gold or silver either but creates a solid metallic look regardless of the games of light.