It's been hot hot hot here. Not a lot happening surfwise, but there's plenty in the pipeline.
Tomorrow marks the start of a girls' surf weekend, so it's off to Lancelin for some fun and, with any luck, decent waves!!

Yallingup long weekend the following week and we have all our fingers and toes crossed that the conditions will be good.

mixed media art prompts

I've been thinking that a pile of prompts might be a good way to challenge me to do new and different things. Mix up my style and way of working a bit. It's nice to be challenged.

So I've been looking for lists of 'idea prompts'. I've also done up some of my own. Somewhere a while back, I read about the idea to cut out and glue the prompts onto popsticks. So that's what I'm going to do. I have coloured popsticks, and now, plenty of ideas! Now all I need is a jar to keep them in. Like I'm going to have trouble finding one of those...

Here's my list. Feel free to download it and do the same if you think it's useful. I've left some of them vague so that there's room to move. As long as they spark an idea, that's what counts. As I work primarily in mixed media/textiles and journalling these prompts are all about 'what comes next?' Add a colour, add an element, add a new material, use a certain style.... Sometimes you just need a reminder that you have puff paint and airdry clay hidden amongst your stash of gear.

Summer in Oz - hot hot hot!

We've been keeping busy, making the most of the Summer weather and fairly damning lack of swell. Even a few trips down south didn't turn up the goods. Instead, we've been getting some regular dosings of island time...

Rottnest

Main mode of transport on the Island

reliving our youth

Walking out to Penguin Island. 700m from the mainland. Felt like survivors from a shipwreck with all of our flotsam.

Into another world

Click the photos for more on flickr.

First Surfboard

I've just completed my first surfboard makeover. Done with posca pens on my Dad's old kneeboard. Moving up to a non-retired board soon. Complete but unvarnished close-up below:

So what's next?? I'm trying to find a watercolour course to have a go at some landscape painting. There's so many inspiring landscape photos on flickr at the mo and I'd love to turn some into small paintings. Magical goodness below! Click on the photo to take you to the artist's photostream...

Chris Brunt

Karl Mackie

Sarah i
Finally... check out Matt O'Sullivan's beautiful travel watercolours... click it

Finished surf book and some waves

It was about time I finished off my book by binding it and doing the cover. The wax medium worked a charm at getting rid of leftover paper fibre on my image transfers. The seed head below is a stand alone transfer that was painted with wax medium once finished.

The back also has an image transfer direct to the canvas. It came out super bright once the wax medium went on.

The final page. some doodling with posca pens, more image transfers. The bus is a funny drawing James emailed me of our van that he'd whipped up in paintbrush. You know the one where you have to try and draw with the mouse?

I've been making the most of the flat conditions by practicing drawing/painting waves. Here's some of the results so far. More if you follow the link to flickr.

This last one is a sketch I did up at Gnaraloo, now with some colour added with water soluble oil pastels.

Surfing in the Desert - Video from Gnaraloo, Western Australia, July 2010

Surf Book

I started this little project before we went on holiday for three months. Then I came home, broke bones in both my arms and, finally, after another two and a half months I'm back at it.

It's almost finished now and I've really enjoyed the process. I've focused on incorporating more. More layers, more elements. Pushing my own limits. Plus giving myself permission to play and make mistakes. Pages are primed canvas. 6 x 7.5 inches.

It's funny where you find new inspiration. When I started surfing I didn't really consider the artistic side of it, but so many surfers are artists. When you're completely obsessed with the ocean it makes sense that you want to draw/paint/photograph it!

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!

On the mend...

At 5 and a half weeks, the Dr has given me the ok to stop wearing my splint and boy is it a welcome reprieve! I've been doing the stretches the physio has given me so that I can increase the flexibility in my wrist from nonexistent back to normal. Strengthening starts next week and then, so long as I have normal mobility, when I hit the 8 week mark I can go surfing!

Swimming and "water exercise" is apparently good for healing a break, so I went for a paddle on my 6'8 the other night. Sitting on my board, chatting to a mate and watching the sun go down was pretty special.

So the forecast is that we're gonna have a hardcore cycle season. Pretty sure that's the meteorological term. That sucks. But if it has to happen, I'm hoping that we might get a few bursts of swell down here before the Summer flatness descends.

This is my local. One of my favourite spots. I haven't surfed it in almost a year because we were away over Winter. It is seriously swell deficient and only breaks when the rest of the coast is firing. I'm hoping I might get lucky with a few freak sessions in November before we say goodbye to the waves and hello to the sou-westerlies until next Autumn.

3 weeks, 5 days and counting...

So the slow process of sorting through the 3000 odd photos has been made slower by the fact that I broke both my arms our first day back in Australia. Plans for a quick trip down to Yallingup before heading back to work were replaced by trips to Emergency rooms and x-ray centres. The lesson has been learned: Skateboarding and jetlag don't mix.

So now I'm counting down until I'm no longer cripsey and can get back in the water. It's been almost 4 weeks now. It'll depend what the Doc says at my next appointment in 2 weeks. If the splint can come off my left wrist then I can, with any luck, be wave sliding on the first day of Summer.

In the meantime, I've been getting mobility back into my right arm with physio exercises, checking the swell charts to see what I'm missing - nothing - and surfing vicariously.

Some visual poetry from Flickr... mouse over images for credits.

Inspiration by:
umeplumme
sgblyth
meisi
Maddie J
felipesiebert
J.boltz
Sosidesc
JerseySurfing
Zaz by Roxy surf
PatrickSmithPhotography