Shrinking and Stretch—Working Out the Subtle Wrinkles and Kinks

In applying a film finish to a finished piece of woodwork, shrink and stretch are two sides to the same coin. I wanted to show Hannah how a finish shrinks and stretches itself to a surface when you see only brush marks or an unevenness after spraying. Below you see three images but this was after a single spray coat with 2-8 minutes between taking the first shot and the last. Look at the texture in the top left of the drawer front in each of the pictures to see how it changes as the denatured alcohol (the solvent) evaporates to leave pure shellac only on the wood. The finish in this case is a heavy, single coat if sprayed shellac. Other finishes do the same but at different rates and with slightly different outcomes.

I changed the original posted images in sequence to one another for the side by side one below to see the stage difference more clearly: