Guitar Swirling "Borax swirling".

This swirling technique is for Oil paint and I think Urethane paint, I don’t have any urethane paint to test with so I just say Oil paint for now. Don’t use “Testers Model” pant! Is is to thick and has clear gloss mixed with it which makes it clot and messy. Fast dry enamel is what I used “Plast Kote”. I am always looking for other types of paint to uses. There are other Oils out there, but I don’t have the time to test them all.

First off you are going to need a large “something” to dip in. I say something because you can dip
In anything that can hold water, but remember this is a guitar swirling tutorial.

I use a “50 gal. Rubbermade” hamper for dipping, it is big enough for submerging the body and has lots of room on all sides so not to hit the body against it when dipping. It also has a lid which is nice for when you want to save the water for dipping later on.

Once you have your water filled tub, hamper or what ever, it’s time to add in “Borax”. I use “20 Muleteam Borax”. Take your Borax and pour in about one cup (depending on how big your dipping tub is) and mix the water until you don’t see any Borax floating around. Let it set for about 30mins. (Borax is used as an agent that breaks the waters surface tension and lets the paint spread out over the surface).

Next, test the water with some oil paint to see if you have enough Borax in your water. Only a little drop is needed!! You should see the paint start to disappear or dissipate and spread (if you have enough Borax mixed in the water). If not then you need to add more Borax to your water. Once ready you can now test the which paint colors need to be thinned, some colors are thicker and need help spreading so adding a little “paint time extender” helps this. You can pick up “Extender” at any fine art shop.

Once you have your color you want and tested, it’s time to do a test dip!

Test test test! It is far better to spend time test dipping things then your guitar body! Test dipping helps you get the feel of dipping and also helps you see how much paint to pour in to achieve the color/lights/darks. Pour your dark color first then your lights; make sure you let the first color poured dissipate before pouring your next color. Once you have your colors down get something to swirl the paint around, you can use anything, I use a wood dowel with 4 zip ties to make a brush to glide across the water/paint.

Swirl your paints! Don’t take to long, your paints will dry and skin over and you don’t want to dip in that! This is all up to you in making a pattern, once you see what you like dip you test object in and hold it. Now this is where its nice to have another person helping you. You need to make an escape hole for your object. You can do this by blowing or if you have that second person get some newspaper and whisk the water away making your clear water hole so you can pull out your item. If you don’t do this, the item will be covered 2 times and wont look that great. Remember! Test test! Get to know the paint.

When your ready to do another test use newspaper to clean the water of leftover paint.

Now that your jumping with anticipation and you feel your ready, dip your guitar! It’s that same way you dipped your test item plus what you learned from testing, you did test didn’t you?

Prepping your guitar body,

Now I’m not going to go into any detail about sanding other then I sand the bodies down to the sealant.

Follow normal guitar paint/sanding techniques to get your guitar ready.

If you just sanded the clear coat off and don’t want to go down to the sealant you can but you want to put a coat of primer or paint on before you dip. Like with a 777MC, it has been painted first with white then dipped.

Make sure your guitar is sealed before you dip, if you don’t you will end up with a cracked body among other things. I put wax in the screw holes and in the neck holes; this makes a good water seal and can be removed after the dipping.

You will need a piece of wood to use as a fake neck to dip your guitar body in with, it helps give you control and helps you hold the body down I the water.

Tips and tricks,

After you have pulled your guitar body out of the water, you want to get the water that will bead away from it off it as fast as you can. Blowing and twirling the guitar helps, heat lamps etc..

Make a space some where for it to dry for 24 hr at lest before handling it.