Distress your Kymera Wand

Step 5 Paint wash of black (begin distressing)

Now you are going to start distressing.

The art of distressing (and it is an art) is to build up a credible layer, or layers, of what looks like age related dirt and yet leave certain areas clean and highly polished as if the device has been used for years and has built up that lovely antique patina of age. Think before you start... where would the dirt build up, where would there be less dirt, what bits would become polished with age. Right now you are seeing how to distress your Kymera Wand, but you could be doing this to an X-Box, or a Wii controller, or an old remote control (how cool to have an old ivory one of those), so think through how you use it and where the dirt should and shouldn't go.

Don't worry so much if you mess this stage up a bit, you can always dry off the piece and re-spray it, indeed that might make it look better and older.

So... here goes....

Mix up some black, water-based acrylic with a little bit of water and paint on to the crisscross area. you will need to work fast and as you are going to wipe most of this off, have some damp paper towels ready before you start as acrylic dries very quickly.