Xanth and Gesso Experiments

I am going to try and explain what the heck I did

I will admit I had to do a couple of new pieces 

to help me remember

I big reminder to make better notes

(or any notes at all)

The commonality between these pieces

is that they all begin as dipped or painted with 

Xanthorrhoea Resin (Xanth)

and then after they dried were

painted with tradtional gesso

I am working with plants dissolved in methylated spirits

which is a type of denatured alcohol

the idea here is to pull the Xanth 

through to the front

which I did by accident the first time

These have been dipped/soaked in 

methylated spirit (meths)

on the left is cotton fabric 

on the right a book page

both cloth in puffball and meths

left just a dip

right a 10 minute soak

these are both paper

and have had a shape painted on the back

with the Xanth

then into meths with a little Xanth 

contaminating it

on cloth

here I have painted on 

a shape with a mix

of skim milk powder

titanium dioxide pigment

and water

here it is after drawing into it with a Pitt Pen

and then dipping 

the bottom half in Puffballs

and the top in Bloodroot

I did give the white areas a bit of a wipe

a white line after dipping

soaked in meths

dried

drawn with a brush pen 

then painted with white and wiped

old pieces done

with some technique like above

but no notes taken so 

I am not entirely sure

I think I need to do more

these two were drawn with

a thicker Xanth and Puffball mix

before dipping causing them to bleed

working back into pieces with pencil

and a white gel pen

drawing with thicker puffball 

after dipping

If you have any questions

or even just to let me know what you think

and if you are interested in more

please leave a comment

x te

Mark Making on Gessoed Fabric

Small Samples

On Cotton Fabric that has traditional gesso applied

this is a mixture of calcium carbonate (whiting)

and rabbit skin glue

Marks were applied 

and after they had dried they were

dipped into a jar of Xanthorhoea resin

dissolved in methylated spirits

(this is an Oz equivalent of using Shellac)

except for the girl

see her notes

Permanent Ink

Sumi E Ink

Sharpie

Sharpie Girl

dipped into

Puffball

and

Bloodroot

both dissolved in Methylated Spirits

x te

Stencilling with Puffballs

Puffball stencilling complete

and this is the debris leftover

Not a pretty site

Yes they are definitely fungi

I wrapped the top up in a piece of silk

so as to protect the print

and then i steamed it

The end result

Not too shabby

Now I will wait for a while

before washing and then we

will see how well it worked

x te

More Driveway Treasure

This morning when I went to get a piece of wood

from the pile

I noticed that things had been squished by the car

Puffballs, nice and fresh

So I collected them up and popped them in a container

Scouting around there were more

I know they don't

 look like something you want to pick up

Or sometimes they look like a dark piece of gravel

There are other treasures around as well

Different varieties

More fresh puffballs

And I believe this may be a good dyer

So I wondered what if

I smeared the puffball onto paper?

Nice

And if I use it to stencil

Well that opens up a few possibilities

I think I shall try this on cloth

Best go collecting first

and if when you meet me I have

chocolate brown finger tips

you will know why

x te