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I find The pattern on my new wall is too strong and vivid. The swirling and the silvery/white are too much.Is there a way to make it more blended/subdued?
I heard suggestion of putting dirt, growing moss, stain with coffee,tea,etc...
Okay, you might think I'm nuts but you have a whole host of things of nature showing themselves subtley in the patterns on the bricks. Once you see they are there they become quite distinct and symmetrical.
My first impression of the wall upon immediately seeing it was that the patterns and colours are too busy, vivid and hectic, a bit garish and I started thinking about ways for you to age or camouflage it to get rid of the garishness of it and tone it down so it's easier on the eyes.
Then I suddenly realized there are entire natural forms showing themselves on the wall when I saw the frog (or toad) and I started looking for anything else and found scads of things.
On your immediate left at the edge of the picture count down 5 rows from the top. There is a full-faced, full-frontal frog showing in the first two bricks on the 5th row down. The row above shows the frog's back and the row below shows his front 'hands' clasped together under his chin.
On the 6th row down and the 3rd block over from the left edge of the picture there is the full head of a distinguished looking, smiling Sikh gentleman with a pink turban wrapped around his head. He has a full black beard and a moustache that is curled upwards at the tips. His dark eyes and nose are distinct as well.
Below the Sikh man there is a dark coloured human arm and hand against a white background and the hand is holding up a large pink bowl.
Other things (I won't bother counting them all out brick by brick for you anymore, you can search as you please) are one whole row containing 3 active volcanoes erupting with lava flowing down the sides, each volcano is made up by two bricks symmetrical to each other; a woman with flowing long hair and gown is standing releasing a bird from her hand; another woman is flying through the air against a background of starry skies, there are the faces of 2 cats, 1 fox, a total of 6 horses, a white swan in flight, various birds and other animals, a whale with its mouth wide open, a world tree (the tree of life) and several other trees, plants, valleys and forests, rivers, ocean waves, beaches and other mountains with clouds above them and a few other things but I'm not going to tell you what they all are because I don't want to spoil your fun if you go looking for them.
So ...... if it was MY wall I would find all of the images first and then outline each one of them with a pencil to make them all much more distinct and obvious and easier to find at a glance. Then I would decide whether or not I want to enhance each of the images with colour washes to make the images stand out more before I do anything else to change the appearance of the whole wall.
I know the blocks are going to change and age and lighten or darken naturally from exposure to the elements, and they're going to eventually get some salt crystals seeping out and changing their appearance too. But I think if I wanted to mute and blend the colours on them and darken them a bit I would try brushing them with a wash of very strong dark brewed tea first before trying anything else.
Or, you know, you could always just lighten the whole wall with a well diluted light wash of whitewash brushed on. There'd still be some patterns and colours showing through but easier on the eye, and you'd have to refresh the whitewash from time to time (maybe once every year or two) depending on how much rain it gets on it in your location.
Don't forget plants are your friends for natural camouflage too, so grow plants hanging down the wall, they can blend in with, enhance or cover up all the creatures and other natural features that are already imaged on the wall.
I don't think you need to do anything. Once you have plants growing along the wall (I'm assuming that is the ultimate goal since you posted on a garden forum) you won't even notice it. Plus the wall will weather and soil naturally. Sometimes doing less is more, it could be in a few years you'll love it and be glad you didn't mess with it.
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