For the counter in this shop, my plan has long been to create a faux granite countertop out of polymer clay, one that resembles the one in the real-life Cantine del Vino già Schiavi. I hadn’t planned on doing anything special with the window bench, but after finding a pair of adorable wooden stools that would be the perfect height for a couple of imaginary customers to sit on while enjoying some wine and cicchetti snacks in the window, I decided to install a matching granite surface here as well.
After my faux granite countertop for Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo, I had a ton of scrap clay left over. In addition to the extra veneer left over from cutting out the final product, I also had a large ball of clay that consisted of rejects from my initial granite experiments, a minced-up melange of Premo graphite pearl, gray granite, copper, bronze, burnt umber, raw sienna, and rhino gray, as well as some Sculpey III hazelnut. I saved this ball intact, hoping it might be useful in the future, which brings me to my current project.
I wanted this new faux granite to look quite different from my previous project. In fact, I learned while searching Google images that the particular type of granite I was striving to imitate is called “Baltic Brown.” I started by mincing some of the above-mentioned scrap clay into some Premo black. I then rolled this out to the approximate size needed.
The distinguishing feature of Baltic Brown granite is its circular brown shapes. For these, I used Premo bronze and copper, as well as each of those colors mixed with gray granite. I rolled a long rope of these colors, swirling them together slightly, and then cut rounds of varying sizes to lay upon the veneer. I used a needle tool around the edges of the circles to give them a more organic appearance.
This type of granite also has lots of black flecks throughout the pattern, and I tested several methods before finding one that worked. Sprinkling black sand onto the veneer was the simplest idea, but it made the surface look pockmarked, and I knew it would be impossible to burnish smooth. Next, I tried baking a small log of black clay and grating it onto the veneer, but the flecks ended up looking gray instead of black. I also tried mixing these grated flecks into the rope of copper/bronze clay, but I had to use so much for the flecks to even be visible that the clay became too dry to mix properly—plus they still looked gray. What I eventually settled on was cutting and positioning minuscule specks of raw black clay. This was an extremely painstaking process, and the flecks did spread a bit when burnished, but at least they were black and kept the surface of the veneer smooth.
Here is the final veneer.
This next photo shows both the countertop and window bench cut out and ready to bake. (Stay tuned for more details on my counter project.)
After baking, I sanded and buffed the clay, then applied a coating of Renaissance Wax to bring out the shine. The final step was to glue the faux granite in the window.
These are the two stools, which I stained dark walnut to match the trim.
