Archive for the ‘Micaceous Iron Oxide’ Category

Faux Tibetan Beads

Posted: February 22, 2016 in beadwork, DIY, Micaceous Iron Oxide, Mod Podge, New Mixed Media art
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tibetbeads

Back in the studio working on my mixed media Tibetan-inspired bead project as it was well along and I didn’t want to lose steam. I got them painted, gilded and sanded, put a couple of glazes on and then sanded again. Finally I sealed them with Matte Medium and applied 4 coats of Renaissance Wax. The bead at center front was my inspiration bead. It is an authentic glazed and gilded terracotta Tibetan prayer bead. I do not know it’s age.  I was not trying to replicate the bead…just want to make some Tibet-inspired jewelry and cannot now afford to buy Tibet beads. The processes involved in making these beads are fiddly, messy and extremely time consuming. The four I finished have at least 20 hours in them.

The two beads in front are completely different. I liked the way the yarn ridges looked with several coats of Mod Podge and dressmaking paper, therefore I did not paint or gild them. They were waxed. Unfortunately, I do not have any more of these odd shaped beads to work with. They remind me of pods and then the words/marks on them adds a quirky kick.

 

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Found Photos and the Burned Library

Posted: January 7, 2016 in art journal, Daily Art Initiative, found photo, journaling, Micaceous Iron Oxide, New Mixed Media art, personal essay, photo editing and altering, photography, Rives BFK Arches Printmaking paper, Stencil
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milton station whenHere’s my Daily Art piece. I began with the found photo and you can find out more about why I chose it at my Mythos blog.

I scanned the original photo and adjusted the contrast a bit. Evidently the day it was taken the weather was overcast. Old black and white photos tend to be very low contrast. I wasn’t sure it would even scan well, but it did. My first step was to laser print the photo.

The linear quality of the telephone poles attracted me, as well as the handwritten notations. I have used stenciled telephone poles before in a piece called Camera Shy. I painted the Rives BFK® printmaking paper with Golden® Acrylic Micaceous Iron Oxide. This paint is worth getting if you are a fan of grey. It includes specular hematite ore and has a warm grey color, slightly shimmery. It doesn’t look like any other paint and it’s a big favorite of mine. It is expensive, as all good things are. I watered down the acrylic and it was still too opaque, so I kept washing it. The paper got really wet. This is not watercolor paper and I pushed it close to it’s limit…but it is good paper, just took a while to dry. This was ok since I got into a confunction with my printers and I had to alter that photo, but the clock was ticking on this one.

By the time I got the print out, the acrylic was dry and I took the telephone pole stencil and applied black acrylic paint. That has a short drying time. I adhered the photo copy down. The piece wasn’t finished and I wasn’t sure what it needed. Then I remembered the quote by Edmund White that I read this morning over coffee. “When a person dies, a library is burned.” I liked it so much I jotted it into my journal so that I would have it. I thought, this old photo has endured past the photographer’s own burned library…his story carried beyond his life. With the extra telephone poles, I had indicated further communication. That led to me handwriting the words “communicate-tell your story.” The photographer told his story, I found his photo and told my story through this art and in the writing of my other blog post. I hope you will go there. If you like art journaling, journaling, photography or using found photos, I think you will enjoy that post. I hope, at least, that you enjoy this art.