Experimenting with Image Transfer

It's been busy here on the home front as I continue to prepare for October's Arts and Crafts Fair in Raleigh.  In an attempt to create some new pieces for the fair, I spent one weekend experimenting with image transfer.  I've always wondered how it was done, particularly when creating a mixed media collage.  I found the following video on Vimeo and was determined to learn how to do it myself:

Mixed Media / Image Transfer from Jarrod Renaud on Vimeo.
So with supplies in hand, I began to experiment.


I began with taping down a piece of water color paper and saturating it with water.  I also trimmed some images that I wanted to transfer to my paper.




Next, I began applying color to the saturated paper.


Once the color and paper were dry, I began to spread a thick coat of gel medium evenly on my images.  Once the images were coated, I plopped them face down on my paper.  To ensure even adherence to the paper, I used a brayer to flatten the images.


I allowed the images to dry completely.  Once the images were dry, I used a spray bottle of water to saturate the images.  Using my fingers and a sponge, I rubbed off the paper backing of the images.  As I rubbed the paper away, I could start to see mirror images of my... well... images.  This is what I ended up with:



The first few image transfers I created, I went back over with pen and ink to create details and faces.  Although I like the final pieces, I felt that the pen and ink work took away from the original images.


On my second round of image transfers, I tried something different.  Instead of coloring the paper first, I transferred the images first and did the water color last.  As you can see, the gel medium blocked the water color from saturating the paper.


Although I enjoyed experimenting with image transfers, I still think I need quite a bit of practice, both in patience and in technique.

"Why not go out on a limb?  Isn't that where the fruit is?"

- Frank Scully

An Exercise in Courage

As some of you may already know, I enrolled in Kelly Rae Robert's online class, Flying Lessons.  For a long time I've been half-assing my attempts of forging a creative life.  At the beginning of the year, I was super motivated and went as far as registering my business name with the Register of Deeds.  But as I got deeper into establishing an online creative business, I found myself frozen with fear.  Could I really do this?  What if I fail at this?  What if no one likes what I create?  And then I found Kelly's blog about her class...

It was a serendipitous moment.  I was searching for something, anything, that would help me get out of this rut.  I knew what I wanted to do, but I just didn't know how to get there.  The more research I did about starting a small business, the more I became unsure of the whole thing.  Creative businesses are unlike any other small businesses.  And asking someone who is right-brained to use her left-brain to sort out all the details of a business is like asking someone who is right-handed to write with her left hand.  Though not impossible, it is quite difficult.  In researching the how-to's of starting a creative business, I felt like the answers that I needed weren't answered yet or weren't geared toward someone like me.  But after finding Kelly's blog, I knew that I wasn't alone.

Her story is inspiring and could not be closer to my reality.  She had been ignoring the whispers in her heart all of her life, and it wasn't until she was 30 that she decided to listen.  What did the whispers tell her?  To follow her heart and become an artist.  No formal schooling, just a passion to do as she dreamed.

Kelly's class is one that addresses all of the dreams and fears I have been feeling lately.  And to top it off, I'm not the only one in the universe who feels this way.  Although the class just started on Sunday, I already feel like I'm making progress.  I have no one's time line to live up to but my own.

So here's to forging new paths and facing your fears head on!  Whoo hoo!

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves; we are underlings."

- William Shakespeare

Scherenschnitte Under the Sea

There once lived a mermaid trapped in the mind of an artist.  All she wanted was to swim in a beautiful sea.

The artist heard the mermaid's lament and decided to set her free.

The artist drew the mermaid on some pretty paper and cut her loose.




The artist also gave her a sister so that the mermaid would not be lonely in her new world.




The artist covered the sister mermaids in glue so that they could be safe and secure in their new ocean home.




But the glue proved to be a bit unforgiving... Oopsie.




The mermaids forgave the artist.  Afterall, she was setting them free into a beautiful underwater home.  Their only request was to be made pink (their favorite color).  All was forgiven and they lived happily ever after.

“A mermaid found a swimming lad, 

Picked him for her own, 

Pressed her body to his body, 

Laughed; and plunging down 

Forgot in cruel happiness 

That even lovers drown.” 

-William Butler Yeats

I Heart Schnitzels

Last Thursday, my friend, Amanda, and I signed up to take a German paper cutting class called "scherenschnitte."  It means "scissor cuts" in German.  Neither of us could pronounce this, so we decided to refer to the class as schnitzeling.  (Yes, I know that schnitzel is a sausage, but it's the closest we could come to pronouncing the word.)

So on Thursday, we found ourselves trekking across NC State's godforsaken campus, full of pot holes and road construction, to the Pullen Arts Center (we made it there after two or three attempts despite using a GPS).  The class, however, was worth the trouble.  Our instructor was very knowledgeable and friendly.  She provided us with special scissors for cutting, different weights of cutting paper, a light table, and a packet of templates to try.  We had two hours to cut and snip to our heart's content.  Amanda and I both tried the hardest patterns the instructor had to offer.  I figured, if I'm taking the class, I want to be able to show I learned something.

Here the are the patterns we tried:

My Scherenschnitte

Amanda's Scherenschnitte

And here are the results:


With a little extra time at the end of class, I decided to try and create some of my own miniature schitznels.  They didn't turn out as well as I had liked, but it gave me ideas for the future...



Although scherenschnitte can be killer on your hands (those scissors are just so small), I can see myself trying it again the future.  Einen schönen Tag noch!

"Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable."

- George Bernard Shaw