Rainbow in the storm

Things are pretty gloomy today. A huge front is passing over the City. It feels like winter.

I spent the whole weekend painting and drawing and these are some of the results.
Pulled out the sewing machine for the first time in about 2 years. Feels good. And my needle was sufficiently worn in to blast through the watercolour paper.

After I completed the one above I came across this amazing website with tips on controlled washes and graded washes and the like. So I have been pracitisng my technique. The writer talks a lot about using the 'bead' of watercolour and not letting it dry out. Makes sense. Worth checking out if you're a beginner like me. The section on common mistakes has been invaluable. With any luck I'll now have smooth washes instead of blotchy ones and no unexpected water marks. watercolour techniques

Diana Mini Big ❤

I got my first roll of film back from my diana mini yesterday. All in all I'm pretty happy with the results. I don't think I like the film, but I have a whole range of different ones to try. You can switch between formats (square and rectangle) so the negatives are pretty messy. This meant that a few of the images didn't make it onto the disc the lab gave me.
This was my set up to try and digitise the negatives. I followed a process along the lines of this to compensate for the orange cast and to invert the image. I'd previously tried to shoot them using white sky as backlighting, but this left a very blue tinge to the images. So I needed pure white.

The only problem with this set up was that the closeness of the negative to the screen left the grid-like pattern on my digital image. (below)

This one below is much smoother because I photographed it about 20cm from the monitor, but it's blurry. I need a holder to keep it still, so my focus is sharper.

Some funky double exposed images.

Image Transfers

I first read about image transfers in 2007 in an article by Lesley Riley in Cloth, Paper Scissors. Since then I've spent a lot of time experimenting with different transfer techniques.

I've tried and had success with:
Soft gel medium and ...
photocopy paper - onto paper/card
inkjet photos - stand alone/paper card
inkjet transparencies - onto fabric
Water and inkjet transparencies onto fabric, organza or felt

Citroclean and photocopies onto ANYTHING - silk, paper, card...

TLS and photocopies - stand alone

I've found that transparencies work best on fabric. Haven't had much luck with them onto paper. It always seems to smear. I like using them, but its a bit fiddly because you have to
print your image on an ink jet transparency - I don't think photocopy
film ones work. They're expensive plus I haven't had any luck with colours. B&W is fine and
detailed but colours come out with a green tinge due to the ink in my
printer. Life is too short.

Using soft gel medium I found that you really need to use Golden. Everyone talks about it. I had an Atelier branded soft gel and had some success but just couldn't do paper transfers. If you've had problems, give the Golden a go.

The use of photo paper for transfers is almost a science. There's so many theories about which paper? Matte or gloss? Which brand? I haven't found one that I'm happy with. Funnily enough, for me, the cheap and nasty photocopies - colour or b&w give me the results! So I'll save my money. Remember you can select 'mirror' on most copy machines to flip the image - all ready for transfer!

Special J takes great surf photos and makes surf inspired art. She outlines the general transfer technique using soft gel medium here:

Special J's image transfer technique

Lots of people have excellent examples of photo/paper & soft gel transfers on their blogs.

Here are some that I've done on hand made felt, which is less common. Transparencies peel off without leaving any paper residue, which is important on fabric. You need to be careful how far you spread the medium as it changes the hand of the fabric and can be seen when dry.

Note the dry medium around the image that I've covered with stitching. (above)

 

The above image is a colour photocopy or print out transferred to paper using paint. With this technique you lay the image face down on the wet paint and leave it for a few minutes. Once it's started to set you carefully peel off the paper then roll away the remaining paper with your finger, leaving the ink behind in the paint. The same technique is used for soft gel transfers, although there's lots of variations.

I've read that with paper transfers, if you have paper fibres left over
on the image, painting on some wax medium turns the fibres translucent.
Plan to try that out soon.

 

The above is a water transfer from an inkjet transparency. You spritz the transparency with water before placing it face down on your fabric and then burnishing. The fabric was too wet at the bottom of the arch and the image has run. However the top section is very sharp. Once you've rubbed everywhere you gently peel the transparency away. Haven't had much luck with this on paper but it works on.... 

 

Organza!! Which is pretty sexy!

The whole attraction to water transfers is that it doesn't change the hand of the fabric.

Here's another water transfer - this one is onto silk.

The above, I'm fairly sure, is a water transfer from a colour transparency. Don't love the results. Too soft and washed out for me.

This next technique I didn't try for years. I was turned off by the idea of using solvents, then I got told about this product called Orange Power or Citroclean. You buy it in the laundry cleaner isle of the supermarket. It's not as nasty and works REALLY well.

Behold...

Above are two transfers using Citroclean. On the left, a colour photocopy onto silk. On the right a b&w photocopy onto white card.

Above, colour copy onto silk (top) and (right) colour copy onto painted card.

Below, colour photocopy onto card.

This is by far the most versatile and reliable technique I've found. Plus one of the cheapest. It also doesn't change the hand of the fabric. You lay your image face down on your receiving surface - fabric, silk, card, paper then paint the back of the image with the Citroclean until it is quite wet. Then working quickly, you burnish the back of the image quite hard with a spoon. It's just practice to get a feel for how much you need to do. Once you're done you just lift off the paper. The paper has a faded look which can sometimes be nice reused in collage. Leave the transfer to dry.

 

I like how sharp the image turns out. Plus you can get a really sharp border to the image (as above), or tear the edges off your photocopy before you start to give an organic edge (2 images up).

Finally we have TLS transfers. Translucent liquid sculpey. I've had a bottle of this stuff sitting on my desk for about 4 years. I finally dragged it out and had a play. The results are pretty rad. It's bakable and the side of the bottle says stuff about putting it in the oven. In another CPS mag, dj pettit outlines another method using your iron. So I got my colour photocopy and placed it image up on a hard surface covered with greaseproof paper (deli wrap). I then covered the image with TLS, placed another layer of deli wrap on top and ironed it on high (no steam) until it set. After it cools down a little you simply peel the transfer off the copy paper.

Viola!

 

This is the first and only one I've done, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I plan to do some transfers of black line drawings and then add colour after. I have a feeling it will be bolder. You can stitch into these, cut them up, collage with them, even embed lace when baking. They feel a bit like latex, whereas I thought they'd be solid plastic.

This is a page out of a book I'm making. It shows the TLS transfer (top left), a soft gel transfer of a b&w music photocopy (bottom left) and a stand alone soft gel transfer of a colour photocopy (middle right). This last one is one I plan to try the wax medium out on. See the white paper fibres?

Right. Well, this will be a good reference for me later on. Hopefully it is of some use to you, if you've stumbled across it! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I'll answer if I can!

playing

I bought some new paints the other day with a jackson's voucher. They are mostly acrylic inks which are gorgeous. metallic paints. Have been experimenting with making my own stamps. These ones are made with a styrofoam meat tray. Also layering images on watercolour paper for some book making later on... The green colour in this bottom one is actually the acrylic ink so really shiny and yum.

Bits and Pieces

I have been on an inchie rampage!!! Why make 9 when you can make 39??? Above are 'metallic' inchies for a swap I'm doing on Textile Challenges.

I have been doing a few little things - work has been so busy that I really just worked and slept last week. Not how I like to be, but then I now have quite a few days off up my sleeve in return. So a long weekend this weekend! and another in a fortnight so I can do a textile workshop!!! I'd say that works out nicely.

Here are the paper castings all painted up. Once I've sewn them into something I will probably add more paint to blend them in. I have also played with some meat try pieces. Unfortunately I can't seem to get the same results that I did the last time I played with it.

Here we are, Mags!! Only took me about 2 weeks to get to the post office to send them!! I look forward to my surprise! :)

Plotting and planning

I have made small 8x8cm squares on hand painted cotton and was thinking of creative ways to market them. Thought about framing, but its expensive. Then I thought about mounting them on canvas! That's cheap! Now what to do to the canvas. I want it to look good. But not detract overly from the tiny focal points (there will be 4 on a canvas) and I don't want to spend as much time on the canvas as I would on a whole new piece of art.

So here are my experiments....
This is a piece of A4 canvas that I played with. I quite like the wash effect and the 'mountains'.

This is 2 of the four squares laid on the canvas to see how the colours go etc. (My actual canvas is 80cm x 40cm so will somewhat dwarf the squares...



Close up of squares...

The two above are designed to continue the image. The top one sits to the left of the bottom one. See?


This last piece is not in this set but in another set of 4 for which I will do a similar thing with the canvas...

Stay posted for results!

What I did today

Well apart from climbing on the roof to prune palm trees and having a mouse fall on me it has been a relatively nice day. Not too hot - its been overcast the last couple of days. I had the SD card I bought on ebay arrive for my camera yesterday. I bought it for $40 with postage instead of $120 which they are selling them for in the shops. Today my 2007 diary arrived!! I thought I had missed out - ordered it from the UK a month ago and it still hadn't arrived. Upon e-mailing the company they said that it should have but that they couldn't send me a replacement because they are now sold out!! So luckily it came today. :) The spirit of the diary -being to procrastinate - is obviously embodied in it as it took its time getting here... I have just joined up to a new yahoo group - textile challenges. The current challenge is 'altered surfaces'. I had a play today with this concept in mind and the ocean theme which I am exploring for the Margaret River Gallery. I am trying to achieve depth in the water without being, i don't know, cliched. Trying to do something new. I'm still finding it difficult to correlate my designs with the actual finished product... I seems to be a leaping off point, inspiration, rather than a clear design.

I will add stitching over the top of all this. It is basically a sampler as I wanted to see the effect and transparency of each fabric I used on the top. Learnt not to iron the sequins for too long either... :)

Water soluble

I am madly making Christmas gifts and am making a couple of clocks out of water soluble fabric. I'm going to do one and then put it water. Hopefully al well go as planned and then I can make a few more. Would hate to make them all and wash them all only to have them all fall apart. I am using purple, orange and red for one and aqua, green and yellow for the other.

Yesterday I did some rust dyeing and these are the results!! I didn't do any tea dyeing, but think that if I did, I would have gotten some darker results. Still, I'm happy with these and will find a use I'm sure! Even the fabric turned out nicely. I was counting on some of my dyeing being darker so I could use it as backing for another artwork. As it wasn't, I have improvised and am painting 2 A3 pieces as above. A bit of treasure gold and i think I'll be happy with them. These are A4 pieces that I dyed about a month ago using Dala suncolours. I really like the results and working in small pieces works for me as I am less less intimidated by the prospect of cutting them up - big pieces, well I don't want to 'waste' them. :) 

Here is the image transfer onto Felt that I completed. I strated sewing into it, but am just not happy with it. I feel like I need more contrast in the colour of thread used.

The transfer was done using soft gel medium and transparencies. I burnished very lightly with my hand as I had the felt quite wet because the gel was soaking in.