Misty Faces

I have limited space currently 

so I am still exploring 

working on tea bags
I recently put up a new experiment 

and was asked about process

It begins with a tea bag

dried with side edges removed

on a silicon baking sheet

I draw a face with sumi e ink

this particular one

this time

I apply white egg tempera

(egg yolk, mixed with titanium dioxide white powdered pigment}

and end up with 2 faces

they are left to dry

the one on the left has been flipped over 

so the image is now facing down

I apply traditional gesso to the tea bag

then a piece of paper

which also has gesso applied

then another tea bag and another layer of gesso

so the sandwich consists of 2 tea bags and 1 paper filler 

and 3 layers of traditional gesso

they are then left to dry completely

before carefully peeling them off the baking sheet

I do not use silicon baking paper as you

 end up with a very wrinkly result

The flipped image 

The unflipped image is a lot mistier

This is after beeswax has been applied

flipped image

unflipped image

'Calista'

 is available in my Etsy Shop

and this is the original 

image

If you have any questions please leave a comment

 

Preparing Teabags

I admit I love to create little rituals around my arts practice.

Currently one of these is preparing teabags as a painting surface.

I am not a tea drinker; my husband performs that duty for me.

Two per morning during the week and 3 or more on weekends

An ongoing giving resource.

There is a small bowl beside the kettle in the tea making area, this ensures the teabags don’t go in the bin, all part of my make it easy strategy.

I pull the tags off and place them on another bowl that sits in the window to dry out.

I collect them up till I have 16 teabags, then I am ready to make a batch

To begin I prepare my traditional gesso* go here for a tutorial

This is not an acrylic gesso, which more properly is an acrylic ground

But a rabbit skin glue and calcium carbonate mix used while warm

1 level tsp of rabbit skin glue granules is enough for at least 2 batches

silicon mat

I lay out a sheet of soft light paper, that a friend found for me in an op shop, (it came from between the sheets of a photo album), onto my silicon mat which I can clean and reuse

I place a tea bag onto it and brush with the gesso smoothing out from the centre, it will penetrate through and glue it to the bottom sheet. I then place on a second teabag, and brush on more gesso to glue it to the teabag below.

I repeat these steps 7 more times and then leave them to dry.

When they are dry on the top surface, I peel the whole sheet off

 and flip it over to help the underside dry

When completely dry I tear them into individual pieces and trim the edges.

The teabags are now ready to use as a paint surface.

Handmade watercolour, natural pigment

egg tempera, natural pigment

frozen gesso

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

Pigment and Cold Wax Art works

Mixed Media with Natural Pigment

all approx 20 x 20 cm

           8 x 8in

All $10ea plus postage

in Oz that is a regular post pack @ $8.50 inc tracking

It will of course be cheaper without tracking in a tough Bag

to the USA it will be about $16AUD

I can send more than one at this price.

This does not include tracking
I have loads more that I will be putting up
so if you think you might like more than one
let me know and I can put it to one side
while you wait for more

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either comment or PM me through FB 

or leave a comment here

or email me soewnearth @ yahoo . com . au
please quote the number under the picture