Jan 26
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

More of the keys from yesterday’s photo session. What a strange concept, thinking of myself having had a photo session! I printed them on fabric, then trimmed them out and fused them onto the postcard. I like the colors of them, and the contrast with the orange ribbon, and the way the ribbon flows off the card. I added the little gold one as an afterthought, but now it is clearly the postcard of the golden key.

I spent more time this morning working on fabric-for-the-future. This morning was experimenting with Pebeo paints. The use of keys as texture underneath the fabric was not a huge success. Sunprinting worked best with the flat keys because the contact with the surface was cleanest. I think some really bright lights would make shadows that would do interesting things, but working with the relatively diffuse light in the kitchen doesn’t quite cut it.

There are a couple of experiments with taking rubbings from some keys. The round barreled ones don’t work at all, nor the ones with the open heads, but the classic Yale-type ones do quite nicely. I ahve both Crayola fabric craons and Pentel fabric dyes in sticks which feel and work like oil pastels. I could also try the Shiva paint sticks. The rubbings mostly resist the paint as it goes on, making the images pop in a cool way.

A day at home yielded a lot of pictures of my box of keys. I have been hoarding this box for a couple of years, and now I have finally taken keys out of it, taken them off the rings, and started arranging them. I made circles, and found circles, there is a set of keys with a beautiful engraved plate that says who lost them. Today was mostly taking pictures and then messing with them in Photoshop. That is how I got this lovely x-ray looking image from this picture:

I still have thoughts about these keys. I want to use the Pebeo paints to sun-print the keys on fabric, and Pebeo also does interesting things when draped over objects to dry. The higher parts get darker, and the lower, shaded parts get lighter. It is a great way to get texture off things. I still dream of using on the ripples on the beach, but I haven’t had a chance yet, and I think someone would holler at me for polluting or something.