Sunday, 24 February 2008
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Quick Update
So, this week i've been running around in my full-time job - what a nuisance. But other things are also happening!
I managed to finish off the last layer of varnish on Fleur and put her in a gilt frame.
She's for sale in the shop.
I also have invested in a really brilliant A3 printer which uses Chromalife inks - The Canon Pixma Pro9000 - Using Canon's papers and inks the prints have a longer lasting life and good colours. I've always been happy with my prints, but these are even better! Somehow they are just richer, and not only that but the printer is fast and you don't get any jamming or problems with the thick art papers...that was my main problem, I had to hand-feed every sheet and it took an age to get a print, so printing out on order for the theatre for example could take me 40 minutes! It's absolutely gigantinc, and since I can now print A3 i'm going to do a few large theatres and assemble them myself - It means the dolls can be jointed and it will last longer.....Hopefully have those ready soonish.
I also recieved a package from Ponoko..I love that site, laser cutting made easy and accessible. I got 5 jumping jack patterns in wood. One of these is being primed and painted today and going off to Gallery1988 for an upcoming group exhibition! I'll post more about that soon....
Hopefully next time i'll have some progress and some pics!
I managed to finish off the last layer of varnish on Fleur and put her in a gilt frame.
She's for sale in the shop.
I also have invested in a really brilliant A3 printer which uses Chromalife inks - The Canon Pixma Pro9000 - Using Canon's papers and inks the prints have a longer lasting life and good colours. I've always been happy with my prints, but these are even better! Somehow they are just richer, and not only that but the printer is fast and you don't get any jamming or problems with the thick art papers...that was my main problem, I had to hand-feed every sheet and it took an age to get a print, so printing out on order for the theatre for example could take me 40 minutes! It's absolutely gigantinc, and since I can now print A3 i'm going to do a few large theatres and assemble them myself - It means the dolls can be jointed and it will last longer.....Hopefully have those ready soonish.
I also recieved a package from Ponoko..I love that site, laser cutting made easy and accessible. I got 5 jumping jack patterns in wood. One of these is being primed and painted today and going off to Gallery1988 for an upcoming group exhibition! I'll post more about that soon....
Hopefully next time i'll have some progress and some pics!
Sunday, 3 February 2008
High theatrics
Today I decided to set things up so I could take some better photos of the theatre and ended up taking better photos of the old paper forest and of the new thing I have made from the theatre! I'm quite excited to show you!
So here's some photos of the theatre itself:
Unfortunately you don't really get to see the gold paint in these photos, by candlelight it's all mysterious and golden - but candlelight is not ideal for photos :)
If anyone's wondering what i'll be doing with this, i'll be sending it to the wonderful CrankBunny because she's doing a book on paper puppets! Isn't that wonderful, and there's a section on other makers which she kindly asked me to contribute to, so this is my contribution. I have to send it to her so that professional photographs can be taken - thank goodness! I'm really excited about that, and I will also get a copy of the book which is really great.
Something else i'm excited about is that fact that after much scanning and messing around in Photoshop i've produced a paper cut out theatre based on the original! It's the first time i've ever managed to get a full theatre. Here it is hanging next to the original:
The paper version is going to have goldy bits too on the waves and as accents everywhere else.
It's made from thick 310 gsm etching paper so the print quality is lovely, the paper is a tad soft for this kind of thing but it is fine once constructed. Some glueing needs to go on but it's just pritt stick type stuff. All of it is just smaller than A4 and a couple of centimetres deep.
You can choose to have the girl or Mr I don't Know the bear displayed. Currently I use a tiny bit of blu tack at the very bottom of them each to secure them to the wave at the back. It needs to be kept out of view because the blue tac can ruin the print on the wave due to the nature of the paper. The best way is to permanently install one or the other.
I'm pre building a few and have ordered boxes for them, I can paint the edges of the cut out and I have super sharp scalpels so it makes it a lot easier for people, but otherwise they are sent as 4 printed sheets with the gold parts painted on by myself. Then you can cut and glue yourself :)
I'm also going to be listing the paper forest for sale. I wasn't sure about selling her because it was the first theatre I ever did and the construction is a bit wobbly and she's fiddly to install. I've loved having her hanging on the wall but time to move on and get some new things on the walls! Here's some better photos of her anyway:
So here's some photos of the theatre itself:
Unfortunately you don't really get to see the gold paint in these photos, by candlelight it's all mysterious and golden - but candlelight is not ideal for photos :)
If anyone's wondering what i'll be doing with this, i'll be sending it to the wonderful CrankBunny because she's doing a book on paper puppets! Isn't that wonderful, and there's a section on other makers which she kindly asked me to contribute to, so this is my contribution. I have to send it to her so that professional photographs can be taken - thank goodness! I'm really excited about that, and I will also get a copy of the book which is really great.
Something else i'm excited about is that fact that after much scanning and messing around in Photoshop i've produced a paper cut out theatre based on the original! It's the first time i've ever managed to get a full theatre. Here it is hanging next to the original:
The paper version is going to have goldy bits too on the waves and as accents everywhere else.
It's made from thick 310 gsm etching paper so the print quality is lovely, the paper is a tad soft for this kind of thing but it is fine once constructed. Some glueing needs to go on but it's just pritt stick type stuff. All of it is just smaller than A4 and a couple of centimetres deep.You can choose to have the girl or Mr I don't Know the bear displayed. Currently I use a tiny bit of blu tack at the very bottom of them each to secure them to the wave at the back. It needs to be kept out of view because the blue tac can ruin the print on the wave due to the nature of the paper. The best way is to permanently install one or the other.
I'm pre building a few and have ordered boxes for them, I can paint the edges of the cut out and I have super sharp scalpels so it makes it a lot easier for people, but otherwise they are sent as 4 printed sheets with the gold parts painted on by myself. Then you can cut and glue yourself :)
I'm also going to be listing the paper forest for sale. I wasn't sure about selling her because it was the first theatre I ever did and the construction is a bit wobbly and she's fiddly to install. I've loved having her hanging on the wall but time to move on and get some new things on the walls! Here's some better photos of her anyway:
Saturday, 2 February 2008
Oil
All of my paintings are currently done in acrylic inks. I like them because you have speed, control and consistency. But i'm a romantic at heart and I love oils. It's been a long time since i've done any though. Partly this is down to the time it takes, which seems ridiculous when you become accustomed to acrylics. I like to layer the oils as well (i'm not much of a straight to canvas kind of girl) so you have to wait for a long time between layers drying...And because I like to work on something solidly I often lose interest after the 3rd layer and oil paintings lie abandoned all over my studio.
Anyway, this morning I was looking at one of these abandoned paintings, it didn't have much further to go, just one more layer of glazes, let it dry and then a varnish. Before i'd thought twice i'd jumped up and grabbed my oils and started glazing like crazy. And it struck me just how much I miss oils. There is something about them, and for me the glazing aspect in particular, which is just magical.
In the gradual build up of glazed layers you seem to get so much more depth than you do from laying down one single colour. The smell as well, Damar Varnish and even turpentine (Which I don't think you can buy anymore in Britain but which I have a stash of) is kind of wonderful. It was excellent, and I am already planning something new in the same vein as the current one.
Here's a wee peek.
Anyway, this morning I was looking at one of these abandoned paintings, it didn't have much further to go, just one more layer of glazes, let it dry and then a varnish. Before i'd thought twice i'd jumped up and grabbed my oils and started glazing like crazy. And it struck me just how much I miss oils. There is something about them, and for me the glazing aspect in particular, which is just magical.
In the gradual build up of glazed layers you seem to get so much more depth than you do from laying down one single colour. The smell as well, Damar Varnish and even turpentine (Which I don't think you can buy anymore in Britain but which I have a stash of) is kind of wonderful. It was excellent, and I am already planning something new in the same vein as the current one.
Here's a wee peek.
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