Lee Thomson

july 18

July 18, 2012

More gelatin printing – today with ferns, baling twine and bottle caps. This is a very forgiving medium.

It is absurdly hot and dry. The studio is not air conditioned, while the downstairs is, so I spend more of my time experimenting with the gelatin plate and various paint options than I do with the stitching.

I think I am letting my brain refill? or sort things out? Processing would be another good word for it. I am not strongly moved to make anything in particular, so I have found a process I am content to explore for the remainder of the month.

Gelatin printing produces astounding numbers of more-or-less gorgeous or interesting prints. I like the print quality best on the quilting cotton. The prints that don't go into circles will be stitched together into a very light quilty thing. I may have to research bojagi – the Korean single layer piecing process.

july 16

July 16, 2012

via www.flickr.com

I've always had a thing for Queen Ann's Lace – here and yesterday I was experimenting with how to get nice prints of the details in the blossom. It is trickier than I thought.

july 15

July 16, 2012

via www.flickr.com

materials, tools, process

July 14, 2012

I got a smaller brayer for rolling paint, because the brushes (shown lower left) make streaks and bubbles, but the brayer wouldn't turn freely and I had to wait for Al to come back and break it loosen it up for me. Which he did, with style and grace, but not until I was done with the process for the day. The lower right shows some swatches I made, still working with smaller pieces of fabric. That great sun shape is a washer I found and used for a resist.

summer blues

July 13, 2012

and also summer greens, and whites – and in our case also oranges and yellows, as in sails and hulls:

This was just before Alice and Emma paddled and swam the tiny (and moderately useless) kayak out to instigate an epic (epic I tell you) squirt gun battle that concluded with swamping the kayak, boarding the Laser, and a salvage tow for the wallowing and ultimately upside down kayak to shore.

Epic. And quintessential summer.

gelatin again

July 12, 2012

The thing about gelatin printing is that complex and layered pieces happen after 3 or 4 or 5 prints. For instance, to get to the above piece, I had already made these prints:

I started with green paint, covered the plate, and put down a leaf, then printed (that is not here – I have that for another project)
I removed the leaf, leaving green paint that had been hidden, and printed (that is on this piece)
I put down a piece of fern, and rolled ink over the whole, block, peeled off the fern and printed (that is the purple circle on this piece)

And each time you can add something, or remove something, or mask something, or unmask something… It is a lovely process for experimenting.

In other news, Al is home from Ann Arbor and we are both home at the same time for the first time in nearly three weeks. It turns out, part of what I was homesick for was home-with-Al, so I am happier now.

gelatin plate printing

July 11, 2012

Imagine, if you will, making Jello extra strong and wibbly, and then painting ink or fabric paint onto it, placing interesting things onto the paint, then placing fabric over the paint and pressing gently. That is gelatin plate printing. My bestest table-mate ever from Haystack (hi Cami!) said it was a fun process, and she was exactly right.

There are some very good sources out there, which I will list tomorrow once I've got them straight.

This is my first piece – purple fabric paint from Jacquard with a piece of Queen Anne's Lace flower and a fern. The plates keep for a while in the fridge. I'm entertained by the idea of printing with Jello. Now all I need is use Kool-Ade dye, thickened with marshmallow fluff and I'll have a pleasures of childhood trifecta.

May I be excused please?

July 10, 2012

my brain is full….

When my brain is buzzing, or tired, I prefer to doodle rather than do nothing. I can use the time at the machine to practice making patterns, or filling space, or connecting dots, and let my thoughts wander. That produces more abstract things than the landscapes I've been working on so steadily.

I am thinking maybe I need a short break from reality!

Here is July 9 (late because of a migraine)