Techniques for ageing modern bricks

[Coconutfeet]

We've had a new garden wall built and for various reasons have had to use modern bricks (yellow to get as close to the London stocks as we could). but the wall looks so bright I feel like I need to wear shades. I know it will soften with time, but has anyone ever tried ageing modern bricks?

There seem to be various techniques such as lime washes and charcoal mixtures or this product:Brick Age. Are any of them worth doing? It's not a huge wall, so I'd be happy to tackle it if I could get a decent result.

My parents got the lichens and mosses to grow on the patched bits of the patio by coating in live yoghurt. It seemed to work a bit!
Cheep first port of call?

I've heard of the yoghurt thing for cheap terracotta pots! I think I need to blacken them up a bit first to get the "London smog" effect.

Thanks for the suggestion though. Could be useful for phase two.

The question that pops into my head looking at those products is 'yes, but how do they age?'

I'd have to see the effect a few years down the line before being persuaded to apply them to a new brick wall.

Yes, that's what I'm worried about too Liara. There's also the issue of how they look when applied by an amateur rather than a skilled crafts person...

another vote for a yoghurt wash

well, if its black smog your after, what about having a bonfire in the garden very near the wall???

grin nextphase. I would but it's our very small front garden wall and I'd be worried about burning the house down. I have read about charcoal powder painted on though. Just not sure what it would look like.

You can apparently mix a moss and buttermilk mixture and paint it on, but I'm worried that it, or yoghurt, might just look furry. Very happy to be proved wrong though and it would certainly be cheap. Talkinpeace have you tried it?

Actually, that's a really good idea nextphase.

Something Bob Flowerdew recommended was spraying mud all over the wall. Never tried it (couldn't figure out the logistics) but I always loved the idea.

I meant

Yes.
On the boundary between old and new bricks. It worked fairly well. very diluted

I have tried the yoghurt thing but it didn't make any difference. Might be the fact that the wall was in blazing sun though. Clearly I didn't think through the actual way that was supposed to work...

Ah, this wall is in a very sunny spot too, so it may not work. Could be worth a try though. Does it have to be live yogurt to do work?

To work, even.
Must go to bed.

How about this?

Thanks Karbea. That's part of the range I linked to above. I thought it looked pretty good in the pictures. Have you ever tried it?

No just looked good. I wonder if you could do something with coffee?

Coffee you say? That could work... Well the builder is going to ask around for me and has kindly given me a few bricks to experiment with, so I think I'll see what I can come up with.

I used to often age things with coffee when I was at school, so defo worth a try.

I'm a primary school teacher and we often also use tea to create ancient documents out of cheap photocopying paper. I'll give it a whirl.