28 April 2017

Taping/Framing a thermofax screen and Book winner

I wanted to make some vertical organic lines on my horizontal screen prints. I don't know if it will add or detract from what I am intending so an experiment was needed. I made some lines on a sheet of 8.5 X 11 paper (A5) and photographed them. I called one grass and the other wheat. Really clever, eh? I sent the images to Lyric Kinard to make thermofax screens. She has made literally all my thermofax screens. Her prices are great, she has a fast turn around time and I love the quality.





I like to "frame" my own screens in Gorilla Tape to #1 save money, #2 to have flat screens that are flexible and #3 won't collect paint or thickened dye in the spaces the rigid frames have.



The screen upon arrival


Gorilla Tape - no substitutes - they will be inferior


Cut the first piece of tape the length of one side


Place screen on tape a bit less than half way


Carefully fold tape so that the side edges meet as close to exactly as possible; like selvage to selvage if it were fabric.


Do both side edges



  Do both long edges. Now your screen is framed in tape. Always remember if you are using acrylic paint to place the screen in a basin of water immediately after using it. If it dries even a little, the paint will clog the pores of the membrane and you will lose the screen.


The book winner is Sandy B
email me sandy using the contact form at the bottom of the blog

26 April 2017

Painting the textured surfaces

Well, this was surprising and exciting and not at all what I was suspecting.


The pages above were both molding paste. As far as texture, I found them very uninspiring and really a bit dull.


The left image above is gel medium and I certainly achieved some interesting texture and I love the way the paint collected and settled on that left page. The right page was a bit dull and although I like the colors, when painted on molding paste that looked grainy and boring.


These two images above are both gel medium and I love the way the paint was shed from the surface. On the right image where I used water in the center, it actually washed away the paint instead of just diluting it on a few squares.


The left image with large squares is molding paste and the right is gel medium. Guess which one I like better (smile).



The reason I chose green on this image was to see if green watercolor would have any effect on dry red acrylic paints since they are complimentary colors. Nope! This insipid textured surface was molding paste.

24 April 2017

Molding Paste vs Gel Medium

The actual fun we had planned for our play date was using molding past. For me this would have been the first time. Judith had the molding paste and brought it but I, being cheap, wanted to try gel medium to see if I could get out of having to pay for yet another product. The result were VERY interesting.


Judith also brought along two really nice stencils. One was a collection of words related  to art or craft and the other was the dandelion-ish shaped image. It was lovely. She used molding paste only and I mixed my media.


Above and the two below were my tries with molding paste.



Molding paste on the "words".


Judith's work.


Below is an example of the wet gel medium on the right, the wet molding paste on the left. Even wet the molding paste looked the same as when dried. The gel medium changed shape (see below)


Below are both molding paste


The images below were dried over 24 hours. The main differences were that the molding paste dried flat, more matte and a bit more porous. That is the left image. On the right the thick gel medium dried with a dip in the center. The outside edges of the "square" of gel medium dried first and the center dried more slowly leaving a "well' in the center. It should be interesting to see if the well will hold the watercolors. 


You can also see the slick, shiny, and smooth surface of the gel medium. You can almost see the "well".


21 April 2017

Stumped?????

Judith came over two days ago for a LONG awaited play date. She had gone to an auction and won a bid on lace making things. This was in the lot and we can only guess what is was used for. If you think you know or want to make a guess, leave a comment.


Like real scientist (haha) we rolled some pieces of printer paper. If we were REAL researcher we would have tried cloth or even damp cloth.


Can you guess?


19 April 2017

And here is another surprise giveaway for all those who are reading this post


The winner will be announced on the 28th.

17 April 2017

From Georgia with love

Here are the three embroidered silk and wool landscapes


14 April 2017

Free DMTV workshop

The Kemshalls have released a new free video workshop. This is one I loved and as a matter of fact I made the heart and posted about it. Here is the old post and here is the link to the free video workshop















12 April 2017

Two more Sunrise landscapes



If you are interested in my silk landscapes, I have 2 more "Sunrise" landscapes available framed and ready to go.



10 April 2017

A gift from a friend



This is the kind of friend you love having. She was purging and when it came to these inks she thought of me. Lucky me. Such really nice inks too.


Red, turquoise blue, blue/black , black and yellow. Be still my heart

07 April 2017

and the outcome


As usual during the "making" many changes were made.


This was the "original" sky. I later replaced the yellow with my "flaming"orange sky.


I also replaced the shibori dyed foreground with more interesting fabrics and embroidery 


Definitely more interesting and colorful 


The multiple mountains in the distance

 
The entire piece


This photo of the piece matted is a bit dark so I like the previous photo better. It is now happily living on a wall in Georgia with two of the smaller landscapes on either side of it it.