Category Archives: Other Art Pieces/Techniques

Sharpie versatility – customising inflatables

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So, what do you do when all the rings and inflatable dolphins are the same at the poolside? You ask your artistic uncle to customise yours for you. And so it was I was thankful for taking my collection of Sharpies with me on holiday! I created a dragon for Josh and tattooed eyebrows for Dan’s dolphin. I’m pleased to say that both stood up pretty well in use, and the black Sharpie was far more resilient than the colours. It helped that the surface was grainy on the ring and on the white printed areas of the dolphin.

A little bit of history…

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Whilst sorting out the dining room, I had to go under the floorboards and found sections of the Leicester Mail and a Daily Express from Wednesday, 5th May 1937. The country was gearing up for the coronation of King Edward VIII a week later, and it was the day before the Hindenburg disaster. Fascinating reading! And whilst changing the radiator, I scraped off several historical layers of wallpaper. I’ve incorporated both, and the new wallpaper, into three art pieces to adorn the newly painted walls:

  

Each canvas panel is 12×12 inches, with the centre area painted in the room colour (Dulux Barley White) and edged with quarter inch brass tape from Ranger. The ageing was done with brown Neocolor II wax soluble crayon. Each section of newspaper was scanned and stuck down with matte multi-medium. The same was done with the wallpaper samples. The flowers are cut from the new wallpaper, Sanderson’s ‘Sweet Bay’ (Pattern No. DPFWSW102).

Encaustic & Oils

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I was inspired by a piece currently displayed in the Leicester Society of Artists exhibition at New Walk Museum in Leicester to look into the whole technique of encaustic and oils. A quick and dirty Google/YouTube search showed the basics: layers of molten beeswax sandwiching and fusing with oil paints and other inclusions (such as the silver glitter in my piece). So I got out my trusty Melt Pot from Ranger, added white beeswax and got going on my first piece last night. I’m rather pleased with the results: melting the wax between layers was quite an art, as too much heat will move the oil paint, too little and fusing with previous layers doesn’t work. All the time it’s being worked, the opacity of the wax varies and it isn’t until fully set and cool that the final opacity is apparent. I love the abstract nature of the piece and the clear layering within it. A tricky technique to master I suspect, but one that I’m going to follow up.

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