Textures

While at John Campbell a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take photos of some wonderful textures. Often my pictures are of odd things, not your typical photo. Most times I haven't a clue where I'll use them, but eventually they do wind up somewhere. I have a good friend who is very creative, takes lots of pictures, especially likes the perspective of things on the ground. Someone asked her once, why she kept looking at her feet - not realizing, that that was her favorite place for subject matter. This beautiful barn was covered with fall foliage. I love the old weathered wood...

and lime green leaves
and this wonderful old plank of wood with nails sticking out.
The forest which provides a shortcut between buildings had some wonderful lights and shadows My love of trees pulled me in.
I also love old, weather-worn windows and doors. They are so interesting with lots of texture.

I'm working on some small studies right now using old windows and trees; this will probably wind up in one of them.

More Silkscreens

I'm glad I picked so many flowers/weeds during the warmer months; I brought them home and scanned them into my computer. They're turning into some nice silkscreens and getting me into the "Spring" spirit.
I love Queen Anne Lace, especially the underneath side.

All photos were manipulated in Photoshop Elements first, to get it to this point. See previous post for details. Here are some of the screens I made from the image.

The underside of this wonderful weed is far more interesting than the top...

and made into a great screen.

I like this underside even more than the previous one as it's more cropped.

More lace tops....

into a screen.

I think I'm all set with lace screens.

 A couple of years ago, while visiting my daughter, I photographed this wonderful old chair in her neighbors yard. The neighbor moved shortly afterwards so I'm glad I had my camera that day. It's not often you see these wonderful metal chairs - brings back lots of memories.

I made it into a silkscreen.

And a detail of the seat provided texture for a screen.

My friend Barbara has a lovely garden with the most wonderful poppies, which I was able to photograph.

I manipulated the photo in Photoshop.

Since it was such a busy background, I cut the poppies apart and re-assembled them to make this Poppy screen.

And cornsilk from fresh corn on the cob - scanned during corn season. It was a messy job cleaning my scanner afterwards, but I love the screen and think it was worth it.

Some cool textures - anxious to try them out!

Making "texture" silk screens

I've been wanting to make some silk screens using texture to serve as a backdrop or liven up an otherwise flat looking fabric. So the fun was finding odds and ends in my studio that might work.
 I came across this very wide piece of lace purchased ages ago at Clothworld - remember that store.    They used to have a sale twice a year, lace was a penny a yard and the limit was 600 yards. You had to measure and cut yourself. I always arrived when the doors opened, armed with a yardstick and scissors and always managed to come home with the full 600 yards. I don't know what I was thinking - all that lace but I can't resist a bargain and now 30 years later, I'm still wondering. Well I found a use for 1/2 yard of it - make a silkscreen from the image.

I laid it flat, scanned it and copied it, but thought it was too flat looking, so I rippled it and like it better.

I scanned the image into my computer and manipulated it in Photoshop Elements.

I also found some interesting netting that I rippled and made an image of.

There are steps you can do in Photoshop Elements to make the image clear, dark and with good line definition before bringing it to a lazer copy. Here is the original copy which I put in PE for manipulation.

The first thing I did was to make an "auto color correction" under enhance. There is still not enough strong line definition to make a good screen.

Next I hit enhance, adjust color and then remove color which will make it into a black and white but still not enough definition.

Next I went to filter, sketch and then photocopy which gives an even-ness to the image but still not dark enough.

Then came enhance, contrast, color correction and remove color - I think it looks good now and will make a good screen. In order to use this image on my Thermofax, I had to have a lazer copy of it. The special screening used in a Thermofax will only react with the toner used by lazer copiers. And the screens did turn out nice, will be fun to use them.

Making Paper Part 2

In my last post, I was talking about making paper using a water soluble, non-woven stabilizer such as Rinse Away. The clear water soluble stabilizers such as Solvy will not work. We played with 3 methods for making paper - the first using a single sheet of stabilizer and the following 2 methods. This next method uses torn pieces of stabilizer @ 1" square; edges should be "torn" for a more pleasing look. Lay a plastic form like a plastic doily in the middle of a cookie sheet. The cookie sheet should have a lip to contain any excess liquid. Lay the torn pieces on the plastic form, overlapping for a stronger bond.
Pieces can also be butted, but there will be holes and not as strong a connection.

No need to fill up entire space, make it the size you want.

Mist with water and use a stencil brush to gently push paper into grooves of plastic form.

Blot with a paper towel. The paper towel will really be wet.

Use a sponge to pick up additional water.

When most of water is picked up, place in a sunny area to dry. Notice there are some holes - this can be pretty. If you don't want holes, place another torn piece over that area.

This next piece used a piece of battenburg lace, made in a hat and stiffened. I had brown paint on it, but used it anyway and loved the pattern it made.

The third method is to use the pulp mentioned in the last post, letting it stand while dissolves. See last post for instructions. Place your mold, in this case a stamp, right side up in middle of cookie sheet.

Spoon the pulp onto the mold, spread it around, making it as even as possible.

Once the mold is covered, blot with paper towel and keep blotting until very little water appears on towel. Be careful when blotting, not to pull up the pulp with the towel.

When it's somewhat dry, use a stencil brush to gently poke the pulp into the design. Keep your brush perpendicular to the mold so you don't disturb the pulp. After you have worked the pulp into the "nooks and crannies" of the mold, blot once more using a sponge.

When most of water is removed, put in sun to dry. One of the templates I tried was a batik block. It did not work with this method as the grooves on the block were too deep, the pulp got too embedded and broke apart when removed. I love the design on these blocks and will try it with the "single sheet" method.

Here is the block I tried (below). You can see the amount of water still on the block. The pulp method is the messiest.

I blotted it and put it out to dry.

When I went to remove it, it fell apart. But not to worry, you can recycle this stabilizer - put it back into the "pulp" jar and it will dissolve into pulp again!

After everything is dry, remove from forms, they should come off easily. It's time to color them; this is the most fun part. We set up a paint "buffet" to try different paints and inks. You can use an alcohol based ink or water based ink or paint. They should be a watery consistency for easy application. Lumiere has to be thinned quite a bit but it's very concentrated to begin with, so you don't lose much of the intensity. The Dye-na-Flow is watery and works well for this; the inks work well also. My favorite was the Adirondeck Color Wash. Use a brush, Q-tip or eye dropper to apply paint. You can lightly mist the newly painted areas so the color will spread - nice effect.

We did have one funny thing happen. One of the trays kept leaking when paint was put in a well. What is wrong with this egg carton...well duh...I had forgotten styrofoam is often water soluble and the Dye-na-Flow was eating through the carton. The alcohol based inks stayed put!

I just did a sampler as a reference so I would know what paints did what. My favorite part is the lower right corner - the Adirondeck colorants. I used an eyedropper to apply the paint and it worked well. I also lightly misted the area so the colors would run. You have to be careful not to overmist as the paper could dissolve.

It was great fun and I can see many uses for this beautiful paper, especially in mixed media work. Depending on how thick you make it, you can bead it, stitch on it, stamp on it...etc. I'm anxious to try any or all of the above.