Slide film

Some time ago I posted about ordering some slide film and thinking it might be the last time I did that. (At least I think I did; I can't find that post.) Well, it wasn't the last time because I just ordered more yesterday. Some places, but not very many anymore, still want slides, and it's nice to have a hard copy record, instead of 1s and 0s on a hard drive. I know that lots of people are getting slides made from their digital images but it's far more cost effective to just shoot the slide film. For about $13 I get 36 slides, full frame and details. Getting them made from digital, I would only have a couple of each for that amount, figuring $2.50 for the 1st slide of an image, $1 each after that, and $5 shipping.

I am proficient enough at shooting slides that they come out well. For only a few extra minutes of effort, I get alot more. This appeals to my miserly side.


I posted a short while back about a piece that was having problems. I wasn't sure I could save it. Here it is after some additions of paint splatterings and markings. I think it's improved. The question is, how much? What do you all think?

1-It still sucks; maybe you ought to cut it up or something.
2-Somewhat improved; maybe this could be a donation to some worthy cause.
3-It's fabulous and I want to buy it.

Wha' happend?

On Monday I posted results of my fabric painting weekend. This was one of the pieces. On Monday I ironed everything to set the paint. Yesterday I decided to wash the fabrics because some of them were very stiff.


Below is the piece after washing. Quite a difference. It's not just a bad picture, it really lost that much color. The rest of the fabrics retained their color. All I can think is that there was a lot of gelatin transferred to the fabric because we were in the hot sun and it was getting soft and the color was mostly in the gelatin. Which all washed out. Hmph. Well, at least the fabric is soft.


And I'm sure I will find a use for it.

Fabric Weekend

Yesterday was a wonderful spring weekend. We had a play day with painting fabric and it was so hot we had to move the tables into the shade. Not used to that hot sun and we had to protect our tender skin. I made up a gelatin plate to print with and also did some sun printing. Results:


Gelatin plate printing. I really like the overlap look and how the edges move into each other.



Another gelatin plate print. I used a storm drain cover from the hardware store to make the impression in the gelatin.


And another gelatin plate print. Some storm drain covers, but mostly this is the texture from the paint roller and the texture on the gelatin, put there when I tried to wipe off the top and roughed up some of the gelatin.


This is a sun print. Wet fabric painted green with more green dribbled on and with lots of grass strewn about on top of that.




Back to a gelatin plate. The texture here is from paint brush strokes.



This started with a furnace filter placed under the fabric and red paint rolled over top. You can see the furnace filter circle shapes in the upper right hand corner. Then gold paint smudged over top of that, and finally red paint from a syringe scribbled over all.



I've had this cabbage hanging around in the refrigerator for a while, never really intending to eat it but saving it for the cool design the ribs make. The leaf is underneath the fabric and the paint rolled gently over top.



My bottle of copper metallic paint split open, I guess the heat from the sun caused it to expand, and there was paint all over the bottom of the bin. I used a piece of fabric to wipe it up, then doused the whole piece in a very wet yellow paint. Very cool.

One more thing

My donation to the SAQA One Foot Square auction has been posted on their web site.

Work in Progress

It's not true that I have deserted the blogging world even though my lack of posts recently would indicate that. Here's proof:



Granted, this is an incredibly bad picture, but it is pretty close to reality. This is the piece that had the paint that was chipping off. I washed it (because I had nothing to lose) and that loose paint all went away. Along with all the interest. This piece lacks something, or several somethings. I'm going to throw some more paint at it in an attempt to revive it, but I fear that it's not going to be enough. An additional possibility is to use more paint to soften up that hard line between the pink and yellow area. And/or I can cut the whole thing up into sections and make some small pieces.

I've already nearly completed the next piece in this series using the same fabrics that I did for the above piece. They are all painted, not dyed, and I used various surface design techniques such as salt spatter, shibori around a pvc pipe, and crumpling. This second piece looks far better, partly because the accent paint is still there to accent. And the pinks and yellows are overall somewhat brighter.

The weather here sucks. It's cold and raining. Things are turning green, trees and flowers and blooming and it's too cold to be outside to really enjoy it. I'm still waiting for hummingbirds to show up in my yard. They've been sighted as far north as Massachusetts and I'm feeling left out.