New Leaves

Moss pulp leaf no.6  

In the last couple of weeks, I have cast about 10 leaves from the pulp I made in early February. Half of them were made from the blended paper pulp and dyed moss green. Two were made from the torn paper pulp and dyed khaki green. The remaining leaves were made from a composite pulp using the remnants of the two dyed pulps and leftover cotton linter pulp from last semester. 

I've made some progress toward reaching the goals I set in January. I learned that the dye must be used in a higher concentration to more achieve more vibrant results. I also discovered that the blended paper pulp yielded the best results in terms of leaf texture and legible text. The color, however, was less than ideal. Once the pulp was cast, it dried to a hue that appeared more bluish-grey than green. The next step will be to experiment further with color and look for a new source for library catalogue cards. 

This week I will also paint in the veins, experiment with using ink instead of acrylic, and reinforce the back of the leaves with gel medium. The cardstock fibers do not create as strong a pulp as cotton fibers. Its also time to think about using different leaves and begin making some new molds.

Moss pulp leaf no. 2 

Khaki pulp leaf no. 2

Khaki pulp leaf no. 1

Composite pulp leaf no. 2

Composite pulp leaf no. 1

Results from using Rice Paste Resist

I recently finished the last of three cotton panels I made to explore different types of resist for cool water batik. You can check out the original post here. The design on the final panel was made with rice paste resist. I found this process takes longer and is much more labor intensive. To create the resist, I boiled 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes adding more water as it was absorbed. When the rice reached a thick, starchy consistency, I used a blender to pulse it into a paste. This paste was too thick to apply with a brush, so I used my fingers to press it into the fabric. Since I was concerned about the paste breaking down as I rubbed coffee into the fabric, I reinforced larger areas with more rice. The resist was very thick and sticky and took a couple of days to dry completely. To my delight, the resist held up much better to the coffee application than I expected. I let it rest for overnight instead of the day and a half that I waited for the original 2 panels. 

The next afternoon I rinsed out the resist and ran into some issues. Either because of the shorter set time for the coffee or because I had to use warmer water to rinse out the (super wash-resistant) rice starch, the color of the coffee barely registers in some areas. Depending on how the light hits the panel, at times you can't even see the pattern at all. These presents some new problems. Out of the three types of resist; I think that rice has the most potential formally and content wise. It creates a line that is softer than the wax resist but more definitive than glue gel. I have to figure out how to apply the coffee so that the stain remains as I remove the resist. I'm currently working on a pattern that includes an encoded map of a particular path I walk every Tuesday and Thursday. I planned for this work to be much larger than the 12" x 36" panels. However, since I can foresee a lot of experimentation necessary to nail down the process for this work, I'm going to divide this pattern into smaller parts that will be assembled together later so that I can work faster.

The pattern on the top portion of the panel is barely discernible.

The color on the bottom portion of the pattern is more successful, though I'm not exactly sure why.

Progress is Slow but Steady

I've made progress on several fronts this week and look forward to seeing where things end up. I've spent much of the last few weeks feeling a bit lost and frustrated that some projects I'm working on are too different and don't relate to each other much. Today, I came to the realization today that I just need to think and worry less about where I'll end up.

One project that I'm working on is a series of object/painting hybrids. I started by building cardboard forms on a masonite base, then covering those forms with papier-mache. This week, I finished painting several coats of gesso on the first two. The built forms are inspired by imagery from the childhood landscapes I've been exploring in my sand work. The paintings I will use them for will focus on experimental surface treatments and abstracted patterning. It takes a while for them to dry in between layers of papier-mache. While I waited, I started building a third object also based on my grandmother's backyard. Today, I will finish applying the 2nd layer of paper.

I also made some progress on the coffee-batik panels this week. I was concerned about the edges which unravel erratically during the dyeing process. I intended for these panels to portray an immediacy that will be lost if I hem the edges. After some experimentation, I found that fraying the edges can be an appropriate solution. I've also learned that for future panels, I need to pay better attention to how I cut them to help the fraying process move faster and more efficiently. I have a rotary cutter for fabric I used a while back to make fabric collages. I plan on digging that out from its hiding place so that I can use it to make precisely vertical cut. While researching African textiles for this work, I uncovered a possible link between West African textile techniques and African American quilting traditions. I'm trying to get my hands on a book of the subject called Accidentally on Purpose to research it further.

Lastly, I'm working on collection of  slip-cast biomorphic forms used to create a pattern which will be partially submerged in sand. This project is moving more slowly than I anticipated because I'm working with molds that have to dry between castings. The first firings resulted in work with disappointing surface texture. For these newer pieces, I'm using rubber ribs to burnish the work while its leather hard before smoothing it further with a bit of chamois.