Next month’s Bible Journaling Session has the theme ‘a bit of bling’. There are some verses and illustrations that just scream out for some sparkle. A quick search using biblegateway.com came up with this gem: the only verse in the NIV translation that has the word ‘sparkle’ in it.
I’ve been playing around with some 15cm square mounted glass plates I had lying around the studio. I found some 3mm self-adhesive lead strip and used a template to stick it down. Rather than soldering the joins, I overlapped them and made sure they were well burnished. Then it was a matter of using some alcohol inks on the reverse of the glass to give the colour/’stained’ glass effect. I used isopropanol/rubbing alcohol to remove the alcohol ink from areas I didn’t want it.
Top tip: when cleaning fingerprints off with alcohol, remember not to wipe the reverse of the glass or some of your stain will rub off too…
The contemporary cross panel is available to purchase here.
I’ve recently been asked by a friend to teach him how to do a linocut. That got me thinking… ‘I really ought to review how to do a linocut’! The last time I did one was a school humpty-hump years ago. Things have moved on a little since then – the tools are the same, but there are various different hardnesses of lino and even a lino replacement. I chose to use Speedball’s Speedy Carve block, a (4×6″) piece of pink rubber which is softer to carve than lino. I designed the cut in Illustrator and then transferred a laser copy to the rubber by ironing it on face down. Top tip – wait until block is cool before peeling off for a better transfer.
My crafting mojo has wandered off, somewhat inconveniently for earning an income, but hey ho, it happens. I have been doing some ‘pottering’ in the studio though and here are a few altered art pieces I have managed to get made…
If you care to remember, I have been drawing mandalas from scratch. I’ve also been expanding my skill set designing and cutting on my Glowforge laser cutter. I’ve seen several 3D mandalas online where the design has been cut from layers of wood, with variable complexity and some true artists whose work must have taken days, if not weeks, to do.
My first attempt at a layered mandala, using 1.5mm thick birch ply:
I’ve noticed recently that on drawing lines, such as writing or outlining, I’ve had a noticeable (though very minor) intention tremor. Now, this may be medication side effects, but I decided it was more likely to be lack of practice and a resultant deterioration in fine motor control. Noticing it in the first place may be due to my perfectionism as well! As a result, I’ve started drawing mandalas using my fountain pen, both for their repetitiveness/meditative process and for retraining my fine motor muscles. Here are the results so far, in date order. I’m pleased to report that after just six to seven hours of drawing over eight days, the tremor has all but gone.
Continue reading A while ago, I created several line drawn mandalas. I always intended to colour them in, and did so digitally for some. My favourites were saved for real hand colouring and I had the opportunity last night to do so. I used [amazon_textlink asin=’B01N5PLCQ3′ text=’Chameleon alcohol pens’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’themanicstamp-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’526e71dd-e29e-11e8-99e3-31a942bc75e3′] to do my colouring and played about with a couple of ideas, some of which worked and some that didn’t. Here are the four…
These are solid beech tags, 12 x 2.5 cm in size and about 1 cm thick. I’m calling them chunky gift tags and spent a day getting the settings right on the laser cutter. Variations included cutting from both sides (involving lining up the mirror image, not easy), lots of repeat cuts, and lots of sanding. Every block had to be covered with masking tape front and back prior to cutting. I have a sum total of 30 tags that passed quality control, 4 that are seconds and another 6 or 7 consigned to the bin straight away.
One of the trickiest things for an artist/maker to get right is pricing. Following guidelines from college, each of these tags should be sold for £7.50 each. I certainly wouldn’t pay that much for them. I’ve settled on £3 each with two for £5 as an offer, and even that seems a little too much. What is often overlooked when considering the price of artwork/made items are the costs involved in prototyping, learning from mistakes, the odd block that is inexplicably more dense and harder to cut than the others, and the wear and tear on equipment.
May I encourage you to ask artisans ‘what has this really cost to make?’ You may not be willing to pay that price, but at least you will know why the moniker of ‘penniless artist’ is all too real.
A friend of mine put me onto Gaslands – a post-apocalyptic turn-based game that happens to use Dinky/Matchbox cars. Now, I have to admit that I’ve not actually played it yet… the fun bit has been creating Mad Max style car makeovers. The cars need to look battered and weathered, so there has been a lot of dry-brushing. Just using acrylic paints is enough, with their almost matte finish being much better than the glossy original.
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I’m not sure what came over me… One evening I decided that my cupboard doors in the Studio were looking a little tired and cluttered. Up to that moment, there was a collection of five year’s worth of samples, colour charts and reference material covering the doors. It took a day to strip off all the double-sided tape. I’d only discovered dual tack tape half way through… The blank canvas looked, well, very blank and very white. Thus formed the idea for my very own wonderwall:
