Surface Treatment Workshop - weeks 7 and 10

I got a little behind with the Surface Treatment Workshop last week

I did work on various samples but struggled with my fibro, headaches and asthma

and generally felt under the weather through exhaustion from preparing for Stitch St. Ives

it meant such a lot to me to be able to take part in the show and to meet people

and afterwards I felt I was ok at first but it caught up with me ... so I had to give in and rest

if you follow along ... you will be used to me disappearing without warning now and again

but it is my intention to push through it this year and get back to a working routine in my studio

and this project - The Surface Treatment Workshop - has really helped me

to get in the studio, to develop my art practice and work with new products

we also got a little out of sequence

because, sometimes, we have to order new products in specially

and have to wait for them to turn up in the mail

so you may have noticed that we skipped to week 8 to work with gesso
while we were waiting for gels and fiber paste to arrive

for these samples we decided to combine week 7 (gels)
with week 10 (making our own speciality gels)

as a lot of the prompts for gels were quite similar

and as there were quite a few ideas for using gels I decided to work smaller samples

and created a series of hand made tags to help me contain them

for the tag below I used Golden medium gel mixed with a little gold acrylic paint

to embed tissue paper and paper lace onto a collaged background

I covered the collaged tag with quite a thick layer of transparent matte gel
and added pressed flowers into the gel

the gel acts like a glue and a sealer in one
and after using it to secure placed paper or objects
the excess gel medium can be wiped away for a neat finish

it was a particularly good product to use with the delicate flower petals

you can see I have applied the gel really thickly on the tag / sample below

using the gel to adhere a green sweetie wrapper and some scrim

I also used the gel to collage a tapestry yarn wrapper

and sprinkled gold mica powder into the wet gel

the gel dried transparent and then I added a pressed flower
and you can just make out subtle hints of shimmery mica on top of the tag

I also discovered that gels over collage (when dried)

make excellent drawing grounds with pencil or artist pen

but we cover drawing grounds next week ... so more on that another time ...

gels can be mixed with paints for colour

and thick molding pastes for extra texture (below)

and here I'm using up excess paint from my palette
mixed into the gel for my tag backgrounds

I used a palette knife to apply the paint and gel

feathers embed in gel quite easily and lay nice and flat
and I added an extra layer of gel to seal ... so I could paint over if I wanted ...

now moving on to speciality gels ...

these are really just shop bought textured gels or
hand made gels made by adding "bits" to the gel to create texture

this one below is broken egg shell pieces stuck down with lots of gel

and I also used fine sawdust for one sample

this is Golden glass bead gel below ... a rather fun product to try

Golden glass bead gel looks like quite a runny white / semi-transparent paste

which can be applied as thickly or thinly as you wish ...

it has tiny little glass beads already mixed in ...

as the gel dries it turns transparent but with a sort of wet look

which really enhances the shimmery little glass beads

before it dried out ... I sprinkled mica powder into the gel

and, because it is basically a glue, I embedded a shell and a little piece of lace

in summary I would say gels are a lot of fun to play with
and are useful for layering and acting as a glue and a sealer in one
that's not to say that there may be cheaper products out there that are just as efficient

also this week ... I got some transparent Powertex liquid to play with

it's basically a product that stiffens and hardens fabrics and threads

so that they can be moulded and sculpted into vessels or art forms

I've had my first play with it and created a small bowl

(which, I have to say, I'm not enamoured with)

and I'm not sure I'm all that keen on the smell of Powertex either

but that may be muted when the vessel is painted

however, I have also applied it to this piece of metallic lace

which did interest me greatly for the project I have in mind

I'm looking for a lacy fine art texture with distressed holes and threads

to which I can add some stitched barnacles and/or seaweed for vessels for exhibition

next up ... I will share week 9 - fiber paste samples (by way of catch up)

Evelyn has already posted hers if you would like to see

then we are back on track again

thank you for following along

with the Surface Treatment Workshop

Surface Treatment Workshop - week 8

yesterday I attended a cyanotype printing workshop at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance

it was inspired by the work in Joy Gregory's exhibition called "Lost Languages and other Voices"

incorporating "Objects of Beauty" and "The Handbag Project"

I've sun printed before but on this workshop I learnt so much more about the chemical process

of using potassium ferricyanide and ammonium citrate, timing with UV light and wash

and understand how this process can be used on fabrics as well as harder surfaces

I will share more on this another time

this week it was fun working with gesso for week 8 of the Surface Treatment Workshop

an interesting material that I am used to using but enjoyed exploring further

it's mainly used as a primer for preparing canvases for paint

but can also be used as a resist, to cover work and to add texture for mark making

this is white gesso over a monoprint I made with metallic acrylics

and mark making with my palette knife

over the years I've discovered that there are many different qualities of gesso and

for a high quality piece of finished work I will still use the best gesso I can afford

but for some applications I am quite happy to use a cheaper gesso

to which I add a filling powder (such as very fine polyfilla)

to make it thicker depending on the application

for the blue sample above I used a thick textured gesso through a stencil

then added a watercolour wash and silver foil

I also discovered that oil pastels work very nicely into the texture as well (below)

making marks in thick textured gesso

(by applying the gesso with a Mr. Kipling cake box)

and colouring with yellow acrylic ink which has vibrant colour

for the sample below I used regular gesso through a stencil and when it was dry

I dragged in through three colours of watered down acrylics with salt crystals

in the sample below I used pieces of masking tape on the base

then embedded book binding pieces in the gesso for extra texture

after it was dry I painted with acrylics

a selection of uses below ...

scribing or mark making in wet gesso ... then painting when dry

using gesso to cover book pages, words or images

and embedding texture in gesso ... then paint

embedded texture ...

some of the prompts were to experiment with using black gesso as well as white

and colouring gesso for some applications so I experimented with some of my own recipes

as I didn't really want to buy an expensive pot of black gesso just for a few samples

the photo below was my first attempt at mixing a black gesso

it was my own recipe ...

I used some white gesso, polyfilla, black acrylic paint and black ink

and discovered that it made a grey ... not a black

the more black paint and ink I added ... just made it a darker grey

I did use the grey for some samples

but I wanted to persevere with creating a black gesso myself

this time I used pva glue mixed with polyfilla

(this made a very thick paste ... so added a little bit of water)

and then added black acrylic paint and black water based ink

this looked perfect and I experimented comparing the black to shop-bought white

I was really pleased with the "tooth" of the black gesso

which was only marginally grainier than the white

but the depth of colour was great

and mostly I was pleased that I had created it myself

so now I'm working with my own gessos for some applications

for white I will use pva glue, polyfilla and a little bit of water

and any colour/tint can be achieved by adding acrylics to the mix

so, all in all, gesso is a very versatile and useful product

once you have learnt about it's many properties and applications

and I will definitely experiment more with the embedding technique

also this week ... inspired by some time in Penzance and Newlyn

I created a new erosion bundle with lots of rust

and some papers which arrived in a paper swap

(from friend Heather Harker)

I put something rusted between every other layer of paper and fabric

and added some water, paints and mica in there as well ... just to help it along

I also added some skeleton leaves and mussel shells ... coloured with turmeric

the turmeric mixed with watery blues to resemble beach streams

the bundle is now at the bottom of the garden amongst the forget me nots

so I'm looking forward to opening that up in a few months time

and from now on I will be making a new bundle every month for the rest of the year ...

beautiful St. Ives

on Monday I met at the studio with St. Ives Textiles

I've just posted some work from the group on the website

and will be updating it again soon with work from the other members

our work for the Cornwall theme is very exciting this year

I've made a small start on my own Cornwall themed textile work for exhibition

and have also made a start in my sketchbook for the show

but I will share later on (probably June) when I have more of a body of work

quite a bit going on at the moment with workshops, the surface design project,

invitations to create work for other exhibitions and Stitch St. Ives (supplies show)

 on Monday I took some time out in the harbour for lunch

and photographed cobbles, boats, ropes and other little nuances of St. Ives

love that sky!

my little hand stitched St. Ives piece is coming on slowly

inspired by Cornish skies and St. Ives harbour colours

nice and slowly ...

finally ... I'm working hard getting ready for Stitch St. Ives

a supplies show in St. Ives that's on at the weekend - 8th and 9th April

creating lots of lovely textures, beads, hand dyed fabrics

and other fluffy and shiny textile bits etc.

I know it's a long way to come for a lot of you (sadly)

but I hope to get back to regular posting again once it's over

and hope to post the next lot of samples with speciality gels next week

thanks so much for reading my rambles x