# Sealing a pastel chalk design on wood



## scifisam (Jan 31, 2010)

For her school design and technology project, my daughter's made a tortoise pencil holder. She's decorated it using pastel chalks. What's the best thing to seal it with?

I've bought some hairspray, because Ive used that for sealing charcoal works before. I just tried it on some paper and it hasn't smudged the chalks; it has made them a bit darker but that might be temporary. I'm not sure if this would work for pastel chalks on wood, though, especially since it can't be laid down flat. 

Any arty people here know? Google doesn't. 

There might be some wood round here we can experiment on, but I thought I'd ask urban too.


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## Y_I_Otter (Jan 31, 2010)

I think the hairspray will lighten up when it's completely dry, but if it doesn't you can always buy some spray fixative at an art supply place. That works fine for chalks, conte crayon and the like on coarse paper. There's no reason it shouldn't work on wood.


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## scifisam (Jan 31, 2010)

Y_I_Otter said:


> I think the hairspray will lighten up when it's completely dry, but if it doesn't you can always buy some spray fixative at an art supply place. That works fine for chalks, conte crayon and the like on coarse paper. There's no reason it shouldn't work on wood.



She needs to take it to school tomorrow, unfortunately. There are lots of art shops round here but I didn't think of sealants till too late in the day.


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## Stanley Edwards (Jan 31, 2010)

Hairspary will make many papers brittle. Works short term, but long term it's going to be a problem.

Not a problem on wood. If you coat it thoroughly before she takes it to school it wiil be a short term solution. Long term, you need a polyurethene spray varnish. That will taint the colour a bit. But, it won't fade and it will be waterproof to wash.


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## scifisam (Jan 31, 2010)

Excellent. Thanks Stanley.  She's given it a good spray now and I'll get some poly stuff tomorrow or the next day.


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 3, 2010)

At school we used to use 3M mounting spray to fix pastel and chalk drawings on paper, so it should work on wood too. Best method of application is to place the piece art-upwards on a table (suitably covered with old newspaper or the like), then starting from the outside spray up and down across the artwork.

I've also used Humbrol matte spray varnish to do the same thing, although it leaves a heavy "finish".


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## scifisam (Feb 6, 2010)

I'm going to get some mounting spray once she gets the work back from school. This is the project, btw:











It's not her best work of art ever, but it's the first time she's worked with wood and she did well at working independently, so I'm pleased.


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 7, 2010)

scifisam said:


> I'm going to get some mounting spray once she gets the work back from school. This is the project, btw:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It's very good. Made me think of the old "Frogger" computer game where the tortoises/turtles were stepping stones. 

BTW, oil pastels by any chance? The colour looks a bit vivid to be soft pastels.


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## scifisam (Feb 7, 2010)

Oh yeah, it is similar to those turtles, isn't it?

Definitely soft chalk pastels. Though she does have oil pastels around somewhere too. 

Today we're going to get started on a massive oil painting on a canvas that's about as big as the living room.


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