Paw Prints

Green shell necklace & bracelet

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

Christine mentioned she needed some green and purple earrings to go with some of her outfits recently. When i passed a rack of beads at the craft store, i had an excuse to browse. Note that i’ve made a bracelet and necklace but not quite the earrings.

The bracelet is a little large and a less graceful that ideal — i rushed it. But i can’t manage leaving projects dangling around these days.

I also shot a handful of frames from Roll2007.06, lingering in my camera from our trip to Florida in late February. A flock of Cedar Waxwings was feeding on the eucalyptus blossoms yesterday afternoon, and they’re back this morning. I think i can smell the honeyed scent of nectar this morning — surely that’s a jasmine somewhere and not the eucalyptus. Yet watching the birds feed on the pompom blossoms, it seems they should have a wonderful scent.

Still in progress

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

This is as much would fit on the scanner, perhaps the center. What i like about it so far is scraping off the red to reveal the textured surface below. (See here for the white & black layer.) I also like the almost opalescent effect of the green through the red.

Christine likes the red very much, which reminds me too much of ground beef. Her reaction triggers an almost perverse sense of challenge: can one paint expressionistically of intense emotion and use blues and greens?

The red: naphthol light red with a bit of q. magenta and some carbon black, mixed both with matte and gel medium

Medium Hansa Yellow is the color of field daffodils, two bundles for $2.50 at the grocery.

Last night i used the fan brush, some soft gel, and the liquid hansa yellow and a touch of quid. red to paint a sheet of water color paper. I don’t know why i am so fond of yellow as a background, because i don’t think it is a good background, technically.

However, i’m preparing myself to ruin the lovely field of daffodil yellow (the streaks of quid. red from the base giving a subtle “up” and “down”-ness, a warmer weight at the base) with some blue. I ought to make the paint opaque, but still find myself enamored with the floating color in the clear gels.

We’ll see what happens.

070322b-Paint.jpeg

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

This is an experiment with textures and techniques. I’ve made much use of Golden’s tar gel mixed with clear gel medium and the Golden liquid acrylics. It’s also my first use of a pearlescent liquid, adding that optical effet to the high gloss of the tar gel and the clear gel medium.

The surface is 9″x12″ paper, lightly gessoed. I sprayed the surface with water and used a fan brush with the liquids. The staining from that process is wonderful and delicate, but i wanted to play more. A small sea sponge, a palette knife, and my fingers were the main tools in applying, removing and reapplying the paint.

I bought a juicer recently. At the time the refurbished Waring JEX328 was at $25 from Amazon, and that seemed a perfect pricepoint for something i wasn’t sure i’d use. (And a great deal since we could use our “prime” free shipping. Right now, there’s an Amazon vendor selling at $48 and another at $100, not available for prime shipping.)

When i made the first juice batch, i was struck by how moldable and fine was the carrot pulp. Perfect for paper making. Last night i tasted the pulp. It tastes like cardboard. So i rolled some out and i’ve mixed a little salt in some other and molded a vessel (vase? bowl?). I popped the mini-sheets in the convection toaster oven and ran around 150° for ten minutes. They feel the consistency of damp cardboard, like is used for cereal boxes.

It seems worth digging out the old papermaking kit and giving it a go. That just makes small sheets; i may be interested in a 8.5 x 11 mold.

The amount of pulp created is significant, though, and could create a *ton* of paper. I’m attracted to the thought of disposable carrot pulp bowls and plates: carrot machie, if you will.

Skimming resources, it’s clear that there are plenty of additives to make things “better” but i think i’ll start with just the pulp and see what happens. I initially thought that i’d want to add sizing (a starch, white glue, or gelatin — not rosin-alum because that degrades into the “acid” that makes papers age) to reduce ink bleed. But it seems like it might be better to add a surface treatment after making the paper: painting with a gelatin or white glue or starch mix, or using the calligraphy rosin.

It seems more likely that i’d need to treat the paper. After reading a great deal about boiling plant materials with ash (but never why), this resource explains that the soda or simple wood ash is to remove the lignin — another acid causing substance.
I thought it was to simply make pulping easier.

Reading notes follow.
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