1. MAKING DECORATED PAPERS FOR DESIGN WORK
I decided to work with a blue/aqua/white/silver colour palette for this section as the colours were reminiscent of some of the colours seen in icebergs and glaciers.
A: Use of Texture
Flat textures: The following pictures show some papers with flat textures that were made to use later in this section. The marks were generally intended to echo shapes seen in the ice and glacier photos, e.g. eroded icebergs, pointy and rough ice, a cracked glacier surface.The top two pictures show several samples where shapes were drawn with crayon and then either an ink wash or a layer of paint was added using a monoprint type of technique.
The picture below shows some samples where shapes were stamped (middle) or made by dragging a grouting tool which had been dipped in paint, across the paper.
The final picture in this section shows an experiment in drawing with candle wax. A couple of years ago in Bali I had purchased canting tool for applying wax to fabric to make batik. So I melted some candle wax and then tried to use the tool to apply the wax in thin lines. The result was fair as I did get some lines, but also some blobs of wax. This obviously needs more practice to get a good result. I think it might also have been better to use bees wax but I didn’t have any on hand. After the wax dried I applied a pale blue ink wash to the paper.
Relief textures: The next set of papers were produced with relief textures.
A & B:
This pair was made by crushing kitchen paper towel and gluing it to background cartridge paper. Ink was brushed onto the one on the left and paint rubbed on roughly with a brayer to the one on the right.
C:
The background for Sample C was a fairly thick crushed brown paper bag. The aqua paint was applied roughly with a brayer, then silver encaustic wax was added to some of the raised sections with a hot iron.
D:
Sample D was made by gluing shredded paper to a background sheet and then roughly applying some paint with a brayer.
E:
To make Sample E, I painted some Vliesofix with splodges of aqua and white paint. I then laid down pieces of a turquoise on white tissue paper and adhered the Vliesofix over the top with a warm dry iron.
F:
Sample F was produced by scattering rice over a sheet spread with glue, then roughly painting over it using a brush.
G:
To make Sample G, I painted a thick layer of Glossy Modge Podge over the paper and then pressed a circular shape from a kitchen gadget into it to give the indentations. When dry, I then roughly brushed over it with paint. This was only partly successful as I think the Modge Podge was not quite thick enough to hold the shape very well. I have since sourced some other moulding paste to try another time.
H:
For this sample I tried to create some wavy textured lines by trapping string between two layers of tissue paper, glued together. I then applied a layer of paint to the top layer with a brush, and some silver highlights using encaustic wax. I thought the effect was quite good but in hindsight it needed more contrast with the paint, perhaps by applying some darker patches.
2: USE OF SHAPE
In this next series, I chose 6 photographs as my starting point. For each one I will show some experiments in cutting the photograph in various ways, followed by some pictures produced with the decorated papers.
Samples 1 to 4 & 14: Iceberg dome
In this series I thought cut picture 2 was the most interesting to consider progressing. Three examples with different decorated papers are shown below, as well as one example for sample 1. Sample 2A was quite appealing but I think sample 2C also showed possibilities if the paint/string paper had had more contrast.
Picture 14 shows another way of cutting this photo and 2 ways of producing a more abstract design using textured papers. I think these examples are particularly interesting and I plan to develop them further in the work up for the final resolved sample.
Sample 5: End of glacier 1
I tried cutting this photo with jagged lines to try to echo the rough surface of the ice. I also cut out some areas to create interest with negative space. Sample 5A shows how these shapes would translate in a decorated paper. I think the shapes are interesting but they appealed to me less than some of the other samples, so at this stage I have not progressed this one further.
Samples 6 & 7: End of glacier 2
Two ways of cutting the picture are shown in samples 6 & 7. The shapes in 6 appealed more, so I made two samples in decorated papers – one flat and one textured. I think the shapes are interesting but will probably not progress this one at present.
Samples 8 & 9: Brash Ice
Sample 8 - I tried cutting this picture in straight lines of varied widths, like a Fibonnacci sequence, plus a diagonal slash. I quite liked this effect so also reproduced it in a decorated paper. I think it may have some possibilities for a fabric design, but have decided to leave it for now.
Sample 9 - I did not progress this as the curved cut shapes did not appeal as much.
Samples 10 to 13 & 18: Cracked glacier surface
This photo was very appealing and had yielded some good manipulated fabric samples previously, so I was keen to work with it further in this section. I tried 5 different ways to cut the photo, then experimented with flat and textured papers for nos. 10, 11 & 18.
On reflection I felt that some of these samples did not capture the essence of the cracked ice, so I went back and tried a few more (samples 17 to 19). The ones that worked best were nos 17 & 19 (unlabelled)because the cuts followed the patterns in the cracked ice. Sample 17B was an abstract interpretation which I thought looked quite good. Sample 18 was less appealing.
The final one also worked very well and translated nicely into a sample with the decorated papers. I decided to try to develop this one a bit more in the work up for the final resolved sample.
Samples 15 & 16: Section of iceberg
I had liked the contrast between the rippled erosion pattern and the more irregular ice in one of my iceberg photos, so decided to enlarge this area and experiment with cuts and textures. Photos 15 & 16 represent two slightly different close up views. I preferred sample 16A in the decorated paper samples. I think this could translate into an interesting resolved piece so will do some fabric samples in the next chapter.
Summary: After trying lots of ways of cutting the photos and interpreting them in decorated papers, I have narrowed the possibilities down to three I would like to carry forward for further experimentation with stitching and manipulated fabric before finalising my resolved sample. These are numbers 14, 16 and 19
