Fourth Year, Week 5

So this week started off with a group tutorial which I found really helpful.  I mentioned that I was considering how to present my works, more traditionally, or thinking of more imaginative ways, and someone in the group suggested fabric... So I have spent the week playing around with liquid light!  First onto paper, then onto fabric (white cotton), at the moment these are just contact prints, but I will be enlarging larger images once I get the hang of it!  It's reading week at the moment (writing this a little late...) and so I have been collecting some fabrics, bed linens, table cloths, napkins, hankies, etc., that were taken from my grans house to print onto when I get back in the studio!  Also considering scale - not sure if I want these big or small yet...  Personally, I prefer the actual photographs smaller, but I'm still not sure about the emulsion pictures.

The image on the right was my first attempt, painting the liquid light straight on onto acrylic painting paper from the bottle.  I didn't watch the wash timing very closely, hence why the emulsion is all crackled around the edges - it started to lift off when I removed it from the wash.  The image on the left is the same emulsion on the same paper, diluted 1 part emulsion to 2 parts water.  Apparently meant to give a more even coating, but I suspect this is only if you buy really swank water colour paper!

Another image with the emulsion straight form the bottle onto the paper, washed for the correct amount of time.  I think I will need to use a more absorbent paper (water colour paper) rather than acrylic to get a more even coating

....And following on from a reasonable success on paper, I applied it to cotton! Two coats, with the cotton mounted onto boards.  I'm really pleased with how these turned out, although the emulsion is slight fogged as you can see from the grey tone.  I'm ordering some brand new stuff (the stuff I'm using right now is very very old) so hopefully that will allow for very brilliant whites.

This week I am slowly drowning in applications and dissertation, so it will be nice to get back to the studio making things again next week!  I will be enlarging to 10 x 8" on cotton... when I've got that sorted, I'll start making some more final pieces (hopefully within two or three weeks)