Distressing

Distressing

Distressing in the decorative arts is the activity of making a piece of furniture or object appear aged and older, giving it a "weathered look," and there are many methods to produce an appearance of age and wear. Distressing is viewed as a refinishing technique although it is the opposite of finishing in a traditional sense. In distressing, the object's finish is intentionally destroyed or manipulated to look less than perfect, such as with sandpaper or paint stripper. For example, the artisan often removes some but not all of the paint, leaving proof of several layers of paint speckled over wood grain underneath. This becomes the "finished" piece.

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Famous quotes containing the word distressing:

    The missionary is no longer a man, a conscience. He is a corpse, in the hands of a confraternity, without family, without love, without any of the sentiments that are dear to us.... Emasculated, in a sense, by his vow of chastity, he offers us the distressing spectacle of a man deformed and impotent or engaged in a stupid and useless struggle with the sacred needs of the flesh, a struggle which, seven times out of ten, leads him to sodomy, the gallows, or prison.
    Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)

    No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.
    Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)