Sunday, October 03, 2010

Time on my hands

We are both off work this week and had planned to go down to Bath for a few days (before Ally Pally), somewhere we have always wanted to visit but never quite got around to, but with the weather being as it is have decided to give it a miss this time around so consequently I actually have a few spare days on my hands.

I really should knuckle down to some serious housework, something that has been sadly neglected these past few months, luckily I have a very understanding husband. Mind you, he did have a bit of a rant a few weeks ago. He does his fair share of meal preparation these days but was bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t get his Yorkshire puddings to rise like good old Aunt Bessies. And then we discovered why – the sell by date on the bag of flour was October 2008. Ooops!!!

Pleased to report, a new bag of flour and his batter puddings are wonderful. :)

Thought I would share a few of the pieces I have been working on lately. Some new bits are coming, just need to get them right first.

I have a thing about wording at the moment, latin phrases in particular but not the well known ones. (I went through a stage a few years back of putting ‘nil carborundum illegitimi’ on almost everything).Words hanging I really ought to hang these pieces when I photograph them. This was laid on the floor and taken from above which always makes the edges look very wonky.words I ‘distressed’ the words in Photoshop before printing them off.

And what do they translate as? ‘Life is too short to dance with ugly men’. How profound is that? *LOL*

This next one I showed some time back. I want to make a large scale piece, not quite like this, but I have an idea with something along these lines and I want to practise on a small piece first so that I don’t end up wasting my time.

This is Tyvek attached to Cotton duck with recycled blanket attached to the back. (yes, I still have about 70 of them left). A few French Knots here and there to make me feel better about incorporating some hand stitching and then a wash of walnut ink. Quite liked it as it was so left it there.tyvek hanging 1 In the next one I did some darning/weaving between the pieces of Tyvek – I used Tyvek fabric on this and the next one rather than paper, far easier to stitch in to but I think I prefer the texture on the paper Tyvek. After the walnut ink stage I added a layer of Transparent Red Iron Oxide. Again, quite liked it as it was.tyvek hanging 2tyvek hanging 2 close And in the final one, exactly the same procedure but with Quin.Nickel Azo Gold and Paynes Grey added along with fragments of latin text.tyvek hanging 3 tyvek hanging 3 close Still not what I want, text is totally wrong, but I’m getting there. Will have one more practise before I start on the big one. These ones measure about 50x50 cms, I hope for the finished piece to be at least four times that size. :)

Still with Tyvek, these are all close ups of  postcard size pieces. Quick and easy to do and a good way of practising painting and finishing techniques and they do look very effective. Have got into the habit of making most of my samples into postcards as they look so much better when finished off. I have about 50 of these now so this really is a very small selection. :)postcardsThese ones all have a rust solution added.rustAnd this one has a verdigris finish. verdigris On this one I grated some metallic wax crayons into the gesso hoping it would stay in place and act as a resist to the medium I was going to put on the surface but it still kept crumbling off so I used the heat tool to melt the wax before spraying with Brusho Sprays.waxCarolyn, Love Stitching Red, let me know that on the last post the link to Sharnes blog didn’t work for some reason so if you didn’t manage to blog-hop here is the link again.

Denise also came along to the same workshop and finished off her vessel too. Denise is the owner of  Craft Arena, a fabulous textile art studio selling lots of the things we all use. She kindly gave me some acrylic felt to try. It is much thicker than Kunin so I only need to use one layer instead of two and the fact that it zaps slightly differently makes it all the more exciting. It doesn’t burn back quite so quickly as Kunin so instead of lots of holes you get a lovely stiff textured background which prevents the gesso or paint soaking right in to the surface. I’m still playing around with it and will show you the end results once I am finished – but I am liking this felt and if the rumour is true that they are going to make Kunin felt flame retardent then this will be a perfect substitute.

16 comments:

Sharne Gregory said...

Enjoy your few days break, you will need fully charged batteries for Ally Pally!!

Unknown said...

Love all these pieces, has inspired me to pull out my workshop notes and have a play :)

Ruth said...

Life is definitely too short for dancing with ugly men! Love all the pieces. Always love your colors and rusty bits.

Nancilyn (Fiberdabbler) said...

Missy Purple! It's so good to have you back; you've been missed!!
Your latest textures & colors are fantastic.

Doreen G said...

yeeh the old Lynda's back with the Quin nickel azo gold--Paynes grey and red iron oxide stuff.
I love it.

neki desu said...

i second doreen.
those textures look inspiring.
i've never had such luck w. tyvek

liniecat said...

Wow, stunning effects there.
I have a printed sheet at work in latin, forget how it reads exactly, but it means
'Always in the sh*^, only the depth varies'....... if you want the latin words, let me know!!!

Heather said...

Fascinating post - love your large pieces and the textures and colours on the postcards are gorgeous.

Julie said...

So good to see you back blogging Lynda :) I hope you're having a great time at Ally Pally.

Jackie said...

Will you be going to K&S in Harrogate too?

sharon young said...

Hi Lynda, great to see you around again, love the PC's, really exciting, I brought 3 carrier bags of goodies back from Dungeness beach a few weeks ago, will have to take the plunge and see what I can do with them.

lindacreates said...

Lynda, love love love these! I might need to dig in my bins and find my unfinished pieces and play. Thanks for the inspiration.

liniecat said...

Hi there,
I did send you the 'Always in the shi#, only the deth varies' latin transcription, but have no idea if you ever received it?
Am going to Harrogate next wknd so had you been there could have brought a copy of it for you if you hadnt got it?
regards, Lyn

carole brungar said...

I thought I'd just pop in to say don't worry about the housework! LOL
Have a fabulous year!
Carole

Exchange server 2010 said...

Nice work!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lynda
Was good to see you today. Continuing our conversation about encaustic art (although I realise you posted this ages ago!) - the possible reason that your wax kept falling off the gesso is that wax generally needs an absorbant surface to adhere to and is thought to be incompatible with acrylic as it isn't absorbant. however, see the latest book by Patricia Seggebruch Baldwin who is all for trying things that aren't supposed to be used with wax!
Can't wait for you new book(s) to come out. Best wishes, Ros