Old Paper Rejuvenated

Learning from mistakes....that is how this part came to be. I kept thinking of the skulls in yesterday's post and how they had gotten all sloppy from the wash seeping into the back of the paper, and knew that OLD book paper would be much more porous.....so out came the clear gesso.

 

I completely covered the backs of the book pages with the clear gesso and let them dry. The paper does curl, so once completely dried, they got a quick ironing to flatten and then were ready for stamping on the front.
Due to the text, I chose one of my larger stamps....

Same gesso routine....spread it out even....

Stamp firmly....

PRESS....REPEAT TO COVER....

 

And your finished, stamped page should look something like this. I recommend using a dryer on this, as the foam stamps pick up more gesso and those little thick places will take quiet a while to dry on their own.
No photos of watching gesso dry...I mean, I'm sure that would provide too much excitement....LOL!

When starting to paint these, you will find that the paper absorbs the wash at a very fast rate, BUT, that gesso on the back keeps it from seeping through. So paint a section at a time and blot off as before....

....And you will end up with a very definite pattern showing and all the text and also *texture* of the original paper coming through too. And yes, the back side of the paper will be pretty clear; mine just picked up some splatters from my over aggressive paint slopping....

And this is what the paper will look like when finished.
Finished???
It was, until about 5 minutes ago I had one of those *What if....* thoughts and ran to the table.
Due to the support of the clear gesso on the back, you can add a second wash of color on this, letting it feather out with the addition of water, and blotting as usual. No, no photo....I'm fresh from my little experiment.
So, lesson learned. Preparing the BACK of the paper can be as importan as the stamping on the front.

A thought: I am not sure how well this would work on older, thin paper. Due to the nature of a thinner substrate, there would be natural show through, but I encourage experimentation, because the BACK might be more interesting in that case!

And now, for the last part:

The printed tissues.
I do not have the photos done for this section yet, and I have a full day of running today.....so what I am saying is look for this Friday or Saturday, unless some miracle happens here, and don't hold your collective breath for that one!
I am not responsible for anyone turning blue and passing out. ;-D
Go make art~~have fun!!!


Pax.... 

Papers: Part Deux

 

Let's review where we left off~~all the papers are dry from being stamped with the clear gesso, and if curled, have been ironed from the back. So now we're ready for the FUN PART! (lol!!!~~I've already had one Blogger fit, maybe getting the post up is the fun part~~hahaha!)

I am using Golden Fluid Acrylics because the colors I chose are bright and transparent and there is plenty of pigment. I picked two, put a bit on the palette and then added water for a wash.

 

This is the only part that gets tricky. You want a WASH, but you don't want a really watery wash. Get the paint moving but don't have soup. Trust me, once you do it once, this will make sense, as I found out the hard way......

Start applying quickly and liberally to the paper.

The clear gesso provides a resist to the paint, similar to batik, but to make it better defined, you'll need to remove some paint. (because the gesso is also meant to HOLD paint...)

It should look something like the above photo. Have a soft cloth handy--I use old dust cloths because, well, it's more fun than DUSTING! Because you want to lift the color OFF the gessoed area.

BLOT!!!

LIFT!!!

Blot, lift, repeat. Don't scrub or swipe, blot and lift. You can rub the gesso off and you can also rub the print off, or too much paint. Every paper will react differently, so taking a cautious approach is best, and really, takes no longer.

When I went to do the skulls, I discovered what happens when the wash is a little too generous with water....

First, paint started seeping, and the paper began to buckle. So I had to quickly paint the piece, blot the extra paint and then.....

 

...Dry the front a bit, but still I was losing the skulls because.......

.....waaaaay too much water in the mix meant the paint had seeped to the back and was spreading on the reverse of the paper. So the handy-dandy high tech drying tool was used at high heat and close, in an attempt to stop the issue at hand. 

This gives a good idea of how much the gesso resists the water, and the mistake gave birth to the idea of how to handle another type of paper....so it's all good. Mistakes, generally, are GOOD. 

The last paper, in the drying process~~a little better defined. By this piece I had a better *feel* for what it needed.

Like I said, every paper will differ. This is not a perfect science; this is a fun experiment in the works! So don't get upset if something is not *perfect*. Perfect isn't what we're aiming for; interesting texture is the goal.

And the finished pieces....sorry about the quality as I was shooting this on the ironing board quickly and the lighting was nominal. (yeah, I'm lazy)

Anyway, back to the blue paper with the skulls.

I wanted to do old book pages but after the seeping skulls, I knew it needed a different approach, soooooo.......

......I got ready for the next adventure.

I've had about as much of Blogger as I can handle today; we'll pick up here in the next installment. I'm hoping I have all the photos I need for this. The last one with the stamping and ink still needs step out photos done....I'll be hopping.

Like a bunny.

With ink.

Hmmmmmm........  ;-)

Have fun! 

Pax.... 

Altering Preprinted Papers

The goodies.....!!!

And we're OFF! (well, *I* am, at any rate....) This is a fairly simple technique for changing the appearance of any printed paper that has a matte finish. It's a great way to use up pieces of scrapbook paper that just don't appeal to you, but were in a pack.
Yes, I am a tightwad. What can I say.
I love flowers but knew I would NEVER be doing the daisies in the photo-pack I bought, so they seemed good for the demo. Remember, I'm using the less expensive, thin paper, which will have certain effects that thick, good quality paper will not. Think, ABSORBENCY.
Also, I always have my work area covered with waxed paper. When one side gets nasty, flip it over and use it again.

Stamp selections; yes-there-is-a-skull-in-there.....

I chose three different styles of stamps for this so you can see what each will do. First, the skull is a pretty *solid* stamp~~the frilly lines on it will not show. Second, the damask pattern is fairly well defined but I know I will lose some of the detail and that is okay. (really...it is!) And third, on the upper right, the small swirly clear stamp~~I have used it before, and know what it does.
So we have three different depths of texture to work with.

Batter up! The damask is first in the drink, or gesso.....

Put some clear gesso onto a waterproof surface. My palette is an old microwave tray---glass; cleans perfectly, can take a lot of stress (unlike me) and allows plenty of room for things to run without dripping to the work table.
Get your first stamp ready and then you will smooth out the gesso with whatever your tool of choice should be--a palette knife, stray piece of foam, an old credit card.....you pick. You just need it somewhat evenly dispersed.
(I discourage using a good brayer because this stuff is really hard to clean off if it dries....)

It should look something like this.....

Then pounce your stamp in and it will look somewhat like the photo below if you don't have waaaaay tooooooo much clear gesso on it!

Hmmmm, gessoed myself too---clean extra off the stamp at this point.....

Then flip the stamp over and firmly press on the paper. You will be able to see where you have stamped, and there may be some higher edges from the gesso, which is alright too. Remember, do not use REGULAR gesso!!!!

Placing another of the stamps.....

That skull looks pretty happy, I think~~ :-)

After finishing the whole area of paper you want to print (stamping at very regular intervals, or randomly~~whichever YOU prefer), wash your stamp IMMEDIATELY! I use cold water and a soft paint brush, making sure all the gesso is out of the fine details. If you are working on a larger piece of paper, it might be a good idea to clean and dry the stamp at some point so that it does not have gesso dry in tiny edges and diminish the quality of the stamp.

A note on clear gesso: It gives a slight tactile surface to whatever it is put on, so when doing normal painting, the paint has something to grab to. I don't know if it is a very fine silica mixed in the polymer, but that is why I stress keeping your stamps cleaned.

Stamped completely and ready for.....

....high tech drying! (yes, it's my blow dryer...)

I always speed things along with a blow dryer because usually the table is so full I don't have room to let it dry by itself, so consider that. Everything I have done has been heat dried. It might work different if it air dried; I honestly don't know.
Also, I tend to forget that papers fly around when the drier is running full blast so grab a paint bottle, or anything heavy and secure at least one edge. You don't want these flapping in the breeze......or flopping up onto your clothing.
Don't ask.....
When the paper is all dry, you should have something that looks like the last photo:

This is the small clear swirly stamp. Hopefully the lines show well enough for you to see.

And that is where we are stopping for today. Blogger has been good and I really don't want to push the envelope.
Plus, if you are doing this, you need time for things to dry.
Should the paper have curled in the drying process, turn it right side down and lightly press with an old iron. I have a very useless, cheap studio iron. It gets used for ironing paper, melting wax and other things you should never do with a good iron. (I still starch and iron.....I am a remnant of another world....)
Next time, the magic of what the clear gesso does!
Tune in again; Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!!!

Or something like that.

Here.  LOL!!!


Pax....

Papers, Papers, Papers.......

I'm really hoping Blogger plays nice today~~loading photos has been a challenge to say the least.
Anyway, the long promised paper tutorial. I decided to just do a highlight page first.I often do these and let them sit when I am brain addled on other work. They are pretty easy~~some are a bit more involved. The nice thing is if you have a day or two to mess with this, you can have some good papers for collage, ATC's, mixed media, etc. I even suppose you could scan some if you do digital work. Since I am still a ninny in that respect, I'm not sure!

Well, so Blogger is NOT playing nice. I didn't want the photos stacked, but hey...it's only MY BLOG...why should *I* be able to make decisions! grrrr....

Anyway, the tute will cover three types of paper; a printed scrapbook paper (or really any paper with a patterned background), a text background from vintage paper, and finally, my favorite~~using stamps and ink to make papers from left over tissue sheets.

I save all the tissue paper I get in boxes, on packages, etc---if you have sent me something of late, your paper may be here awaiting a make-over! (Jan, the piece above was from something you sent me as I found your address label on it...)

So stay tuned.....I'll be back with details.

In the meantime, here is what I gathered:

Liquitex Clear Gesso (a must)

Patterned paper

Old book pages

Assorted colors/prints of tissue papers

Assorted stamps

Staz-On Ink--two colors (I prefer brown and black simply because they work with everything)

Golden Fluid Acrylics (you might be able to use craft acrylics as long as they are transparent,  don't know)

Brushes (for gesso and for slathering on washes of paint)

A large palette

Something to smooth out gesso, such as a piece of plastic, etc (don't use your brayer)

Okay, I'll start writing, thinking and trying to insert photos~~and hopefully by the end of the week everything will be up.

If it's not, blame Blogger! ;-D

Not ME!!!!

Pax....