What do you do when you encounter a problem?

Jill from Charlotte NC writes to ask:

I sprayed my stained Santa and instead of being clear, it left a frosted coat all over it. What did I do wrong and is there any way to fix it? Everything is now whitish.


Dear Jill,

There are many things that can cause your spray fix to turn frosted. Try to remember if any of the following might be what happened.

Is the spray really old? Did you shake the can well before spraying? Was it raining? You are in the south, was it humid the day you sprayed your item? The south is notorious for having high humidity levels. That is most often the cause for a spray fixative to turn frosted/matte.

To prevent this in the future, make sure to check your weather. If there is a high humidity level, or it is raining, either save the spraying for another day or you can try to turn up the heat in your house, turn on the fans to blow air out of the room and spray VERY light coats letting the item rest a minute or two between sprays. If you see ANY sign of white frost, STOP.

Yes, there is a good chance you can fix the damage done on the piece you have, depending upon how bad it is. First, make sure the weather is cooperating. Then spray matte fixative over your piece a little heavier coat than normal. If it improves but there is still some frost, try it one more time. If you do not see improvement, you may need to go to a high gloss spray and try it again.

This should do the trick.