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Monday, September 03, 2012

Time Flies 3


Back again, like the buses don't see one for ages then 3 come along together :)  
After  enjoying myself  making, dyeing and painting for a couple of weeks, 
I went to Manchester to meet up with my husband on his last weekend, he was at 'work' during the day and I had a lovely time roaming around Manchester, I had forgotten how much I like this city, I enjoyed the Picnic in the park at Piccadilly Gardens with great music and food on offer, the Lowry exhibition at Salford Quays.
The Lowry Exhibition

and best of all the 62 Group @ 50 exhibition  I arrived early I had plenty of time to look around and talk to Jae Maries who was stewarding that day, fabulous work on show, if you missed it it will be at the K&S shows later in the year
62 group @50

Arriving home and getting back to normal I was back in the workroom ready to get some pieces finished, 
( okay if I am honest just starting ) for  Helfa Gelf  this is our group  Arial Arts.

I tried to start creating some fabric with the molding paste on Lutradur and couldn't get the tub open, I must have forgotten to rub the lid with Vaseline last time I used it, 

being impatient and wanting to start work while I was in the mood I looked around to see what I could use and my eye fell on the PVA tub that I use in a lot of things I do lately,  I use the builder grade which is quite thick,  I spread it over my mask and left it to dry, I used the heat gun to burn away the Lutradur and the glue bubbled and flaked leaving an interesting texture.



 





The next sample I decided to heat straight away while it was wet and it bubbled and popped but the Lutradur burnt away and the resulting piece was ready for painting within 10 minutes.

The image is not as clean as when I use the molding paste on the masks but I really like the  results like old paint flaking off walls and using different designs will possibly give a more worn and weathered look to the image.




I thought the surface needed a bit more texture so I added some Polyfilla powder to the PVA and after applying with the spatula tapped the surface to make it more textured, this was left to dry.

 
 
Once dry I burnt away the surface of the Lutradur, sample below.




This sample was made the same as the one above but I burnt away the Lutradur while still wet and it worked a treat, in fact I think it gives more definition to the design, and the great thing is you can start the painting on it straight away,

 


As the PVA had worked so well on Lutradur I thought I would try it on scrim, PVA on its own was left to dry, the glue was barely visible when it dried but the result after painting was a  delicate design showing up. I will take a few pictures once I have painted them some more.

 


The piece below was PVA mixed with the Polyfilla and applied through a stencil with a spatula and left to dry.

 

Once dry when you turn it over the design is raised through the scrim the same as when I do it with molding paste as seen in the bag belo,


 

because Polyfilla had been added to the PVA I was not sure if the glue would stay on the fabric once it had been handled so I scrunched it up into a ball and then painted it, there was no cracking or flaking


 

This is the bag that molding paste was put onto scrim the purple and green is the paste area and the gold is the surface showing through the scrim.



I needed to find out if the PVA could be heat gunned on the scrim while it was wet and it worked, I kept flipping it from back to front while I was drying it and it was ready for painting within ten minutes.
The down side of this is you have to be very careful when moving the scrim while wet as it can distort the design but if you are making fragments it won't matter, also if you use an ink or dye to colour the scrim the glue will go tacky while it is wet, it dries out okay though, acrylic paints dry brushed on the surface is fine.


This will be a good addition to my workshop as we can go ahead with the painting technique without waiting for the molding paste to dry or preparing samples ahead of time.

7 comments:

Heather said...

Wonderful results from your latest experiments and thankyou for sharing your secrets with us. I've never tried the builder's PVA but next time my husband goes for DIY supplies I'll ask him to bring some home for me to play with.

PaulineC said...

Have you ever tried using Wilkinson's flexible filler? It comes in an easy to use tube and is very inexpensive. I use it all the time.

Unknown said...

Hi Paulene,I can't answer you as the comment came through as no reply so will answer here.
I haven't tried the Wilkinsons filler, but will give it a go, can you heat gun it on things like Lutradur and is it available from the usual DIY places.
I am always looking for a cheaper alternative to the Golden Molding paste as much as I love it :)

I like using the powdered filler as I can adjust the texture depending what surface I am using, its great on mounted canvas and board but its not as flexible as the molding paste on fabric and tends to flake off especially when I am trying to stitch on the piece.
I had stopped using it on any fabric surface so it was a nice surprise to find it stable on the scrim.

PaulineC said...

Sorry I should have ticked the follow up box.
I can't remember if you can heat gun it. I think so but I will give it a try and let you know.

I use moulding paste if I want to sew through it but most of the time I use the filler. You get it in Wilkinsons stores. There are loads of them here in Wales but I think that they had English stores before they came to Wales.

Unknown said...

Hi Paulene,
I haven't seen a Wilkinsons store around here
I just checked and found they have a store in Rhyl which is about 17 miles from us, will get some of the filler and have a play :)

PaulineC said...

I finally got round to trying out my heat gun when I put Wilkinsons (brand name Wilco) flexible filler through a stencil on lutradur. It just made it puff up a bit more.

Buy Zeelon said...
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