Travertine is a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rocks are laid down in layers called beds or strata. These strata appear as bands of color in the marble. Often there are voids and bits of fossils in sedimentary rocks and in Travertine in particular. These small voids are filled at the time of processing the marble, for rustic tiles the voids are often left unfilled.
Travertine is cut in two ways. Often you will see it in a linear pattern with the bands running parallel with the length of the marble. Travertine is also cut in diagonal drifts which run diagonal to the length in a 30 or 45 degree angle.
Travertine is a "drift" marble, with bands of colored drifts. See related generic Drift Marble article. Drift marbles are veinless marbles and are easier for many faux finishers to duplicate, particularly those new to the marbleizing process.
Travertine is done in oil, in order to get some cissing by using mineral spirits spattered on the oil glaze, which duplicates the voids you see in Travertine. I suppose a good job could be done with latex, but I will show the oil method here.
Base Coat
You can use a latex base coat or shellac ( B-I-N is my preference) for a quick drying base. The base coat color is white. As with all marbles, put your base coat on smoothly - no brush marks. Nothing looks more fake than a marble with brush marks in it. Use a foam roller or spray to get a smooth finish.
Glaze and Glaze Colors
Use the 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 glaze (oil satin paint, mineral spirits and oil glaze). The glaze colors are cream, almond, beige and brown as an accent.
Technique
The Bands
Travertine is a marble you can do in one layer as a rule. See the notes on Drift Marble for further instruction as they are applicable. Apply the cream, almond and beige glazes in bands side by side leaving some white base coat banding showing in between. Apply the glaze with a sea sponge. The bands of color vary in width and as a rule go the length of the marble. The bands are not in any specific or rhythmic order. Do a band of cream, then a band of almond them maybe cream again then beige etc.... Add a little bits of brown lightly in the middle of a band or two, to give it a bit of accent and directional flow.
Cissing
Lightly spatter the surface with mineral spirits using a short bristle brush. This will open up the glaze to expose circular voids of the white base coat. Do a little at a time. Dab with a clean soft cotton rag to stop the cissing. Soften the cissing with a badger blender lightly.
Speckling
You can spatter the brown glaze onto the surface with a fine spattering (use a toothbrush, dip into the glaze, dab off excess then run you finger across bristles) to produce the fine fleck that is in Travertine. See sample of real Travertine to left.
Strengthen the Bands
Using a sponge, strengthen the bands here and there by adding paint/glaze back on the surface. You don't need to go the full length of the surface, just here and there to reestablish the strata / banding. Soften again with a badger.
Notes on Banding
The bands can go the length of the surface, they can interleaf a bit and they can stop and start also. Some cuts of Travertine are band-less and are more of a mottled marble.
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An almond / beige Travertine marble in diagonal drifts or bands
Blending and Meshing
After you have several bands of color down you want to mesh them and blend them together a bit. The meshing is done by blotting with crumpled plastic (use pieces of a clean / new garbage bag or waste basket bag) and also dab with a soft cotton rag. With the plastic you can mesh the colors from band to band as well as the length of the band. The object of meshing is to merge the colors together so that the bands do not have clearly identifiable demarcations.
Softening
With a badger softening brush soften the whole surface here and there, Softening is done both across and with the bands as needed.
Salmon color faux Travertine with linear banding
Real Travertine marble without strong banding - a mottled marble
Click on image to enlarge
Faux Travertine Marble
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