Friday, March 4, 2011

I Really Am Alive!

I know I haven't been posting many blog updates and I sincerely apologize for that! I am working, though!

In my search for better and more diverse methods of getting Stacked Journaling to paper and fabric, I have stumbled upon my new favorite toys- quills, nibs and India inks.


These things are absolutely wonderful to work with. The quills and nibs take almost no practice to get used to using, and you can be writing in your normal hand within just a few minutes. The India inks are super permanent once dry- I've not found a way yet to remove them- though they can be obliterated with layers of acrylic paint. They are all vivid and bright, and come in an incredible array of both warm and cool colors as well as black and white.

The nibs come in many sizes and shapes, depending on what you want to do with them. Since I started out mostly wanting very fine line detail, I've purchased and been using round tips.

I've been experimenting with the inks as well (I'm using Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks) and have found that their relationship with water is quirky. This can be used to beautiful effect if you're willing to play around a little.


Here is the ink on dry watercolor paper. Very fine lines and excellent detail can be achieved with very little effort.


Here ink was applied to watercolor paper when the paper was only slightly damp.


And here, the paper was allowed to get very wet, with spots of water sitting on the surface.


 Here the ink was applied onto dry paper but then spritzed lightly with water.


Here are two colors of ink applied to damp paper... 


And two colors applied to dry paper.


I've even found them particularly effective on properly primed stretched canvases. Here, I've journaled a letter to my father. This is a sneak peek of a new series I'm starting.

I have yet to find a fabric that is smooth enough to get the kind of line work I'm looking for, but my search isn't over for the perfect cotton on which to try Stacked Journaling using quill, nibs and ink.

My studio is about to undergo another major change, this time to accommodate a larger tall print table, this one 4' by 7'. In the meantime while I wait for that to be put into place, I've been using the time to work through a lot more small scale mixed-media work.


I've installed paneling in my large watercolor sketchbook! This started with a layer of Elmer's school glue drawn directly out of the bottle onto the page to create a wood grain appearance. Layers and layers of acrylic paint were applied after the glue dried to give it a worn, rich texture.


The piece shown above was created using lightweight paper that was fused to Lutradur and then "batik'd" repeatedly. I applied rubber cement to a foam stamp, stamped a layer onto the paper, covered it with a wash of color, stamped another layer of rubber cement followed by another wash of color, and so forth until I achieved the effect you see. After everything was fully dry, I gently rubbed away the layers of rubber cement and mounted the whole thing onto a stretched canvas.

Here's hoping your weekend is fun. Happy creating!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

okay you've convinced me - I'm going to go order myself some ink and nibs...

Terry Jarrard-Dimond said...

Never doubted for a minute!

laura west kong said...

beautiful letter strokes!

Unknown said...

India ink is indeed permanent. As a curator, that's what we marked items in (layer of fingernail polish, number in ink, layer of fingernail polish). In addition, it is pretty inert.

One of the things we did was to work with kids and quills to teach them about schools in the 18th and 19th centuries...we ALWAYS told everyone we were teaching how to do this was to make sure that it was washable ink, NOT India ink as India ink is permanent....

I have to get some new...and I can't seem to find my left handed nibs. Bummer writing with the left hand. :)

Cate Rose said...

So interesting that you're using rubber cement as a resist...I had the same thought recently but haven't tried it yet!

Karen M said...

I love the batiked piece. Didn't realize that you could stamp with rubber cement, I'm going to have to try this. Your peek at the new series is very intriguing.

Jan said...

Wonderful inspiring work! I expect nothing less from you, Judi. Glad you are still at it and thanks for sharing your continuing process with us so generously.

Robbie said...

Your posts are always full of eye candy for us!!! Love it!..so glad you are alive and well!!!

Deb H said...

Wow! You have been busy. And because prior commentaries have already said all I was going to say, I'll just add "all of the above"!

Art From Books said...

Some beautiful strokes there!

elle said...

GO, Judi!
And, lol, I'm trying to ignore the 18th, 19th century comments as I learned cursive with this method and the ink was NOT washable either. Now where is my cane? LOL

Lyric said...

have you tried some of the cotton lawns? Beautifully smooth - especially if you iron it to freezer paper first.