Making a painted wall sundial requires collaboration between the owner of the building, a professional dialist, a painter, and a metal worker. The dialist mathematically calculates and draws the sundial’s basic hour and/or datelines and he designs the gnomon. Often the painter or artist will take this raw sundial face drawing and will embellish it with unique artistic designs. A metal worker usually makes the gnomon. Here are the basic steps used in making a painted wall sundial.

Sundial Delineation & Design: It must be stressed that in order for any sundial to function correctly, the sundial face and gnomon design must be mathematically calculated by a qualified sundial designer for the specific latitude, longitude and wall declination. If one tries to copy an existing sundial design from the website Image Archive, be forewarned that it probably will not function correctly because it more than likely was designed for a different location. A flawed sundial design could hurt your reputation and business sundial maker. If you go to all the effort to make a painted wall sundial, it might as well keep the correct time!

Wall Surface Preparation: The wall must be cleaned of dust, dirt and debris before painting. Clean the wall with water, a mild detergent and a soft brush, rinse, and then let it dry completely. You can paint on many types of walls such as stucco, brick, cement, and even wood. Rough surfaces such as stucco and brick are more difficult to paint. Often painters will sand down a rough stucco surface or will apply a smooth stucco overcoat to a rough wall to make it smoother so that it is easier to paint and so that the gnomon shadow is less distorted. But some people like the artistic look of a rough surface.

Design Transfer to Wall: The typical way of transferring a drawing to a wall is the "connect the dots" method:

1. First, make a full size drawing of the sundial on paper or Mylar plastic. I greatly prefer to use Mylar because it is much more durable and water-proof than paper and it won’t tear, shrink or expand and can be reused many times.
2. Put the drawing on a table with foam board underneath it. Then using a sharp leather awl (like a short ice pick), punch holes into the lines on the drawing. Curved lines require more closely spaced holes than straight lines
3. Tape the drawing to the wall using painters tape making sure that it is level and correctly positioned on the wall. Using Sharpee waterproof marker pens, make dots on the wall through the holes in the drawing.
4. Remove the drawing from the wall and connect the dots on the wall using Sharpee waterproof pens. Use a straight edge ruler to connect the dots of straight lines and use freehand or a French curve to connect the dots of curved lines.
5. Begin painting in layers. When I made my wall dial, I painted the colors between the lines first, and then I painted the lines, numerals and artwork on top in layers. Each time I painted a different layer, I had to retape the drawing to the wall and mark the dots during the painting process. Usually, it takes a couple of coats of paint to get good coverage.
6. When finished painting, attach the gnomon to the wall.

Nowadays, oil-based or acrylic exterior enamels are preferred for their ease of application and because few modern artists know how to paint using the old fresco technique. However, surface applied paints will not last as long as frescoes since fresco pigments are embedded within the plaster. Surface applied paint is subject to flaking, pealing and fading. Some artists suggest that the surface applied paints or frescoes can be protected by covering them with a protective coating of clear UV-resistant varnish or products such as “Clear Coat”. But others object to protective clear coats noting that they produce an undesirable reflective glossy sheen, and warn that these protective coatings eventually peel off and become unsightly.

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Created on ... November 21, 2006

Modified on ... November 21, 2006