Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Dreams and Memories by Firelight : Texture Tuesday


Kind of a nostalgic picture for me.  That winter, my husband and kid built a Quinzhee (kind of like an igloo, but not).  The kid really enjoyed it and treated it like a fort.  He was allowed to bring matches and candles into the quinzhee ...   I took this picture and I almost deleted it as a failed picture--but now I kinda like it.  It came up naturally with certain effects we try to add by other means.

It's got that warm firelight texture and the dreamy blur of memory ...   It kind of looks like  he's riding a flying carpet with mountains behind him.   Added Kim Klassen's Appreciate Texture.
 

Sharing with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday and Texture Artists's FaceBook Group.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Iron Gall Ravens


I've been playing with the Iron Gall Inked pieces I made in an earlier post.  I'm really pleased with the way these came out!   Definitely makes me want to play some more with these inks (I have quite a stock of walnut ink, too)  and techniques.

Recipe for Iron Gall Raven (above)
Layer 1) Iron Gall Ink Wash as Background (My Own Texture!)
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - turned 180 degrees - Multiply Blend Mode - 62% opacity
Layer 3) Inked Raven - Darken - 100%



Recipe for Iron Gall Raven #2
Layer 1)  Iron Gall Ink Wash as Background (My Own Texture!)
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - turned 180 degrees - Multiply Blend Mode - 62% opacity
Layer 3) Inked Raven 2 - Darken - 100%
Layer 4) Copy Layer 3 - Multiply 39%
Layer 5) Raven Text - Papyrus Font - Overlay Blend Mode (brings in some nice blues)


 
Iron Gall Ink Wash Texture #1 (My own Texture!)
Made with home-made iron gall ink, spread as a wash on watercolor paper.
Water sprayed in the middle, and blotted off to make it lighter.

California Iron Gall Ink



Raven painted with my own Iron Gall Ink.

 
 Raven #2 - Iron Gall Ink


 Iron Gall Ink Wash Texture

I painted the new ink onto a sheet of watercolor paper, then sprayed water in the middle to dilute it and blotted it off to make the middle a little lighter.  I'm quite pleased with the result.  ;-)





Of course, you can also WRITE with this ink.  It's recommended that you use a glass pen, or a feather quill, as this ink will damage and corrode metal nibs.   Writing isn't my real purpose for making the ink, though ...   It takes too long!

I had intended to use this recipe from The Fountain Pen Network, with California Oak Galls from JBB Pens and Paper at Etsy.

Local galls from Hartman Creek, WI - Noticeably smaller than the California variety below :

California Galls from JBB on Etsy

I would like to try the famous Aleppo Galls at some point with Dr Stark's Recipe, but I don't imagine much is coming from Aleppo these days with the war and unrest in Syria.

If you don't have the patience to wait for the fermentation process (or it's just too darn cold to ferment anything where you live this time of year), try this recipe from Scribe Scribbling.  He even has pictures of the process in this post.  It sounds like he's an SCA scholar and scribe.

I made a batch this afternoon with success!  Yup--sometimes the delayed gratification-thing just won't do!  The spent California oak galls didn't smell bad as they were cooking --  it just smelled like dried herbs--probably because I didn't ferment them.

Spent Galls
After I strained out the tannin-rich juice, the spent galls looked a lot like spent walnut hulls from making walnut ink.   I saved them in the freezer with the idea of trying to get a second batch out of them.



The Oak Gall Tea looked a lot like regular (black) tea -- with a rich red color.  Which made me wonder if this whole process couldn't be done with tea instead of going through the trouble to get Oak Galls.  I think the answer to this is that it is indeed possible to make Iron Gall ink from tea--the secret is to get enough tannin to interact with the iron.  To that effect, I found a few other recipes that I want to try out with strong tea and steel wool ...


Shortly after I added the iron sulphate, the red-brown tea turn black.   Like magic!  Closer -- but not quite ink yet ...   I next added the powdered form of gum arabic, which immediately gelled into something that looked like globs of amber.  I guess it was going back to it's original gum form -- which is basically a tree sap.  It eventually dissolved, and is said to be a binder that helps make the ink flow nicely.

This is all very reminiscent of rust-dying, too.  Where you mix the tea with the rusty liquor to get the stormy gray colors. I also found a recipe to use iron sulphate brine to age wood to that wonderful dark gray weathered barnwood color.  I have a project in mind for that, too!

 
Ink stain on paper.  
It goes on gray or translucent.  On one of the ravens, I kept adding more ink to make it darker, not realizing I only had to wait a bit for the ink to oxidize.  After a few minutes, the ink stain looked like this with no extra ink added :




I have a bottle of PH testing strips on order.   It's said this particular kind of ink is quite acidic.  Some recipes suggest adding crushed egg shells to balance out the PH levels.  I'll be experimenting with that in coming weeks.

Here, I bottled a smaller, more manageable portion for writing and painting.  You can see just how black black black this ink is in the jar.    Here you can see one of the ravens in in the background with the ink still wet.

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Light Painting with LEDs

 

It's the perfect time of year to take advantage of the long nights.   These images were taken with a Canon S110 -- just a little point and shoot on the automatic settings.  I made sure to move the camera while taking the image in effort to capture the streaky lights.  The pulsing of the LED Solstice Lights creates the multiple points of light rather than a straight streak with the regular old-fashioned Christmas lights.   Just a little post-production editing to bump up the shadows, making the colors POP on the black background.   Scroll down to see some of the other images from the set, or watch the video to see them stream by as if in a dream ... 



Here's a little slide show video  I posted to You Tube with some wonderful music by Midival Punditz called Naina Laagey (Hello Hello).   (I am amused that Picassa calls this a movie--like I'm now in the ranks of Stephen Spielberg!)



 














Sharing with Texture Artists FaceBook Group

On another Photography note : 
Flickr is running a series of Concept Collaborations this year - with a different theme every month.
The January Theme was Catalyst of Light.  I wish I would have known about it soon enough to participate.  Some beautiful pictures there!

The February theme is Spiral-- I'm pretty sure I can come up with something!

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Everyday Inspiration : Light Abstract



Everyday Inspiration : What do you think this is?
 Scroll down for the answer ...








This abstract came from some Christmas lights reflected on a groovy shade material my parents have over their patio doors.  It created these really neat abstract patterns.  This image is pretty much straight outta the camera.

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group.  

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest, exploring all aspects of Light
Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf
Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf
Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf
Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf
Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf
I am continuing my year-long study of Light.  Thanks for joining me!