Day 2: Prepping Wood Dominoes to Be Altered

The first step after sanding the backs of my dominoes (see yesterdays post,  Using a Bench Sander to Sand the Little Stuff) is to prime the bare wood on the backs of the dominoes. I use a basic white paint on the back. I’ll be using several different techniques to alter the dominoes. White is a good choice because if I decide to use an image on thin paper, the white will show through the paper and make the image “pop”.

Today I’m going to begin altering 6 dominoes. I don’t care if the backs of the dominoes have a bit of white paint on them. I’m going to clean the backs by sanding the white paint off. I’ll be altering both the front and the back of the dominoes.

I’ve decided to do some wire-wrap on these guys, so I drilled a hole in the top of each of the dominoes.

I want to make these guys special, so I decided to gold plate the back and sides of the dominoes.

I love the recycled paper in the photo above. I’m going to use it as a background for my little collage. I roughly cut out a piece of paper approximately the size of my domino. I use gel medium to glue the paper down. I then take my scissors and trim off the excess paper. Since this paper is very thick, I’m going to go back over the top with gel medium. I immediately wipe off the excess glue with my fingers. I don’t want any texture on the top of my dominoes.

My dominoes are prepped and ready for altering. I’m going to let the gel medium dry before I begin my mini collage.