Tag : experimenting

4 posts

T Tuesday: eco dye edition

Last week on T stands for Tuesday I had mentioned that I had attempted some eco dyed papers. Today I thought I’d share my results with you.

Last we left off I had bundled my papers and my cooking pot was way too small….

One trip to Goodwill later, I found the perfect size pot in which to cook my paper bundle. 

The bundle wanted to float since it was pine boards that acted as the presser boards. A couple rocks worked well to hold the bundle down in the vinegar and alum spiked water. I boiled on the side burner of our grill for about and hour. Thank goodness I did this outside because it was not pleasant smelling. Also I learned that the pine boards had a lot of sap left in them…what a mess.

After boiling I drained off the cooking water then added cool water which I salted quite heavily. Once everything was cool enough to handle I started the unbundling process.

Then set the pages to dry on the hot concrete. I was surprised at what did and didn’t leave an impression. The marigolds and lemon grass had the greatest color from the experiment.  But that wasn’t my favorite.

It was these….the baby maple trees I pulled from my lawn were lovely ghosted images.

A few freshly turned leaves from our service berry tree gave a slightly rusty, vein like appearance as it’s only impression. Pretty as well but still not holding my interest like those baby maples.

I think I’ll try this again…but perhaps with other sources for dyes. Purple cabbage and onion skins are the first to jump to my mind. I think perhaps I’d get some nice color out of those.

Speaking of color….

I enjoyed a colorful sort of beer this summer. Grain Belt came out with a limited edition Blueberry infused beer. I had to buy some…its local and we like to support our local business. That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it. It was pretty in color and pretty tasty too. Not that you’d really want to drink more than one…too sweet for that.

Anyway…this Tuesday I will be late in visiting…

Next week I may miss all together unless I prepost. We are taking J to college!! Move in day is the 21st. Crazy!!

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| | | |

, ,

17 Comments

Inspired to Eco Dye

I’ll admit it…I went down the rabbit hole this morning watching eco dye videos on YouTube. although I got nothing physically accomplished during that time I was definitely inspired to give it a whirl myself.

I picked up a pad of 100lb watercolor paper at a garage sale for 50¢. I figured this was good fodder for my experiment.  I walked around the yard picking various leaves, weeds and flowers to give variety since I really have no idea what will work the best. I also searched through the scrap lumber in the shed for wood to sandwich my pages between. 

my bundle is all ready to go…just one problem…

The cooking pot is too small. I fear we got rid of the large one that was in the shed at some point. A trip to Goodwill is in order before I can actually run my experiment.

While in the yard I discovered that my dream catcher did its job and kept the pesky deer from eating my tiger lily blossoms.

So pretty! Love the bright orange.

 

| | |

, ,

4 Comments

T Tuesday: snowing and pouring edition

Here we are getting hit with another blizzard on a scheduled Monday off school. What’s up with that?!?  Mr. G was even sent home from work early. The word came over the intercom that they were closing early due to bad weather. I know all of us are hoping for a snow day tomorrow.

So that’s the snowing but what is the pouring, you ask? Acrylic pours. Pour painting. Fluid art. Whatever you’d like to call it. I just call it fun! It totally fits into my love of creative chaos and randomness.

This was the start of a second pour in one day. (You can see the other in my previous post.) I also used white in addition to these bold basic colors,

I used a dirty flip cup technique. Sounds awful doesn’t it? It’s truly not though. Well…truth be told it’s a messy process. I scraped out my mixing cups on the canvas as not to waste them. Having paint at the corners helps it flow over the edge more easily.

Crazy huh?!? The white circles were caused by air bubbles. So cool!

BTW- I didn’t use any silicone or a torch in my process. So many people do and get absolutely amazing results. I’m just not interested in having flammables in my basement. Perhaps when the warm weather comes around I can try that outside.

I love the look of these paintings when they are wet. They have so much depth. 

The dry version is so flat. I plan to put a gloss coat on to bring out some depth again and brighten the colors.

I also need to share the end of February photo a day challenge results.

23. Depth of field

24. Architecture

25. My Face

26. Need/Want  (got my T Tuesday beverage covered)

27. Something Old

28. Street 

I’ve started the photo a day challenge for March as well. This month seems a little more challenging so far. I may have chosen the wrong one for me. Time will tell.

 

Hopefully *fingers crossed* we’ll have a snow day tomorrow otherwise it will be a typical Tuesday for me after we dig ourselves out. UGH!

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| |

, , , ,

15 Comments

Paint pouring practice

Since I knew I had a three day weekend I decided to eek out a bit of time to try out acrylic pours again.aka unicorn poop

I have seen amazing results using the three primary colors. I decided to go in a slightly different direction…just slightly. I used colors you’d typically find in your ink jet printer….plus white instead of black.aka unicorn poop

Sorry this one is blurry…I had paint on my gloves and couldn’t focus it. After flipping the cup onto the canvas I poured the excess white around the outside of the “unicorn poop” paint puddle. Amazing how many colors I already have.aka unicorn poop

After tilting and draining off excess paint I set it aside to dry, coming back occasionally to wipe the drips from the underside of the canvas.aka unicorn poop

I love the little bubbles that come up through the layers and pop revealing other color.

Here’s the completely dry canvas. The colors are much less vibrant in matte form. Perhaps I’ll put a coat of gloss varnish over top to brighten things up.

I’ve got another basically dry and yet another freshly poured canvas. I’ll share those in another post.

| |

,

No Comments

PAGE TOP

© 2007-2024 Halle's Hobbies All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright