the sky was full of song


sky_fullofsong
and the sky was full of song
mixed media, 6×6 inches
-sold-

This was an experiment that I have been meaning to try for a long long time. I’ve often thought how beautiful would it be to print out one of my images on tissue paper and then encase the image in wax. The tissue would be absorbed by the wax and the image would be a strong contrast within the wax itself.

Several people told me, oh it’s easy to print out on tissue. Just tape/glue the tissue to your paper and then run it through your printer….I was able to do it, but my printer protested quite a bit. So not sure if I will be doing this experiment again in the near future.

I will be binding this piece as a cover to a blank journal as soon as I can find time to poke my holes. Sounds like an easy task, but my run-downedness has become a full blown chest coughing, sinus headache, nose-dripping, tired, exhausted state of being. so with that, I am going to go an wrap myself in a blanket and be still.

*************

But before I do that, just want to jot this down. I just finished reading Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe by Laurie Lisle.

“Too much complaining and too little work…You have a chance to get what you want if you go out and work for it. But you must really work, not just talk about it”.

She was one tough woman. It was very interesting reading about her journey as a female artist. Her life was her art and her art was her life. There were no gray areas. I am drawn to her southwest paintings more than anything else. The black crosses in particular.

16 Comments

  1. That’s a great quote…

    Lovely image too.. there are a bunch of new multi-media products for printing on different surfaces from Golden that I have been meaning to try…wonder if I can find a free sample of them somewhere…

  2. hey julie- that’s right, i’ve heard that golden came out with a new product that is easier to use thank inkaid. Which i have inkaid, but have yet to experiment with. thanks for the reminder about the new product. i will go investigate…

  3. i have been wanting to try copying an image onto tissue or rice paper for some time now but always seem to busy to devote the time…thanks for the information and inspiration. this image looks amazing. i haven’t had ANY success with image transfer and this seems perfect. bridgette i hope your illness passes quickly…it sounds like a warm sweater, a cup of tea and a good book or some knitting are in order….best wishes
    beth

  4. oh, Bridgetts, I love this – you have inspired me to try the tissue paper thingy, albeit, I’ve ruined one printer already with my experiements, so will go the photocopy route – I have printed on rice paper and waxed and in fact, the center piece that was on the painting now up on my blog? (the one I ripped off) was a printing of one of my paintings on rice paper – hope you are feeling better – very gray, wet and windy here this morning and thank you for the Georgia quote! – it is about the work!

  5. Feel better, Bridgette! I love the poem of hope you wrote in your last post… as well as you tissue experiment. Beautiful, both.
    xoxo, Shari

  6. Miss Georgia was truly a pioneer and trail blazer in so many ways!

    I like to use a transfer method in getting my images onto tissue paper. It does yield a softer image, but yes, it does become more intense within the wax. I use the plastic overhead projector sheets since the inkjet ink will not dry on that surface. I spray a fine mist over the tissue paper it doesn’t need much because if its too damp, the ink will smear). Then I transfer the image from the plastic sheet onto the tissue using a Japanese barren to help with the transfer.
    The nice part about this kind of transfer is that you can do it in color too.

  7. Bridgette, this piece feels so sensitive, I love it.
    The tissue paper is worth doing. You can try strengthening the tissue by this technique…layer a couple of pieces of tissue together, on a plastic bin liner, spray them down with a fine mist of water, then brush them with
    ‘matte medium’…let them dry in the sun or overnight. Once dry, peel away from the plastic bin liner…they look like beautiful pieces of Japanese paper!!!
    Printer may be happier! I like Paula’s technique too:)
    Love the quote from Georgia, she was strong & talented!

  8. I am truly inspired by your work! I had only heard of encaustic painting once by a customer that came into the craft store I used to work for. Honestly, I thought I knew about most art mediums. That day, I was proven wrong. Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us all!

  9. Hi Bridgette,

    I’ve been reading your blog for a while and I love your work. I have been printing on tissue paper and using it in my encaustic work for a few years now and through experimentation have found a way that works perfectly. I use REPOSITIONABLE spray adhesive and spray a VERY LIGHT mist on a heavy sheet of backing paper and smooth a sheet of tissue paper onto it and run it through my ink jet printer. I’ve found that you can use the backing paper several times without respraying the adhesive. You barely need any to hold the paper and don’t want too much or the paper will tear when you try to remove it.

    I hope you’ll give it another try… it produces some beautiful results. The paper visually disappears in the wax and all you see is your image floating. You can see some examples on my website of pencil drawings that I did and scanned and printed on tissue paper and collaged in the wax.

  10. Your piece…”the sky was full of song” is very beautiful, (as are all of your pieces!) I also love all the comments on your post. I am learning so much! Someday I Will try encaustic painting! Do you ever layer wax over collaged rice paper? Roxanne

  11. Oh, this printing on tissue sounds wonderful and very high on my list of to-dos!!!!!

    One question, though. Jo referred to plastic bin liners ~ what the heck is that???????????????

  12. okay, here’s whatcha do! :>
    spritz a piece of regular copier paper with easy tack (repositionable adhesive spray), press the sticky side down a couple of times on a piece of cardboard. Then press your tissue onto the paper, and run it through your printer. easy peasy.

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