Surface treatments and other things

As I mentioned previously, I have bought the book Surface Treatment Workshop.  My initial reaction was to be slightly disappointed, but actually, I think I need to take that back.  Last night, with an empty house (whoo hoo) and the opportunity to make a bit of a mess and not have to explain what I am doing, I grabbed the book again.

I have to get this piece for Bletchley Park sorted.  Communication seems to be the way my mind is going so last night I played about with a couple of 'letters home'.  At the moment my thinking is that I want to merge methods of communication into the background of the piece with the switches and cogs of the computer in the forefront.  Anyway, that is still some way off and I am still on that journey to find the expression I want to create.

So I turned to the page in the book headed Faux Encaustic.  I pondered a while (not having any of the materials they suggest for making up the 'recipe') but then hit on the idea of using Mod Podge and acrylic ink, the idea being that you 'blend' things into the background.  Mod Podge dries clear and my idea was that the ink would be 'carried around' by the medium.  This is the idea that the book promulgates but they suggest Opaque or Clear Pouring Medium or spreadable gel.  The book is American, and frankly I have no idea what they mean by these ingredients.

Anyway, the other thing they suggest is to use blobs of acrylic paint.  This is put directly onto the page in blobs, then the 'recipe' is applied and the whole lot is spread over the page using an old knife (no palette knife was to hand).

What do you think?

This first one (above) uses quite a lot of acrylic (green and white) which rather obscures the writing too much I think. 

This one probably could do with a bit more acrylic - but I can of course add another layer.  I think there is something to this idea and I will work on it a bit more.  (Or of course I may go back to my print blocks!).

If you are interested, this is the ink I was using (specifically the one on the left, which came out a bit too yellowy) plus the acrylics.

Elsewhere there is a new debate on When is Craft an Art? going on over at the Tate website.  Being a big fan of Tracy Emin and Grayson Perry, both of whom use 'craft', this is close to my heart.  I haven't left a comment yet.