Alcohol Inks - Play Day 2

First!  HAPPY EASTER!  

No, it's not one of my dogs.  I captured this from the Mod.Dog grooming salon in Florida!

Yes, I am a tad behind in my posts!  We are only here in Florida for another 2 weeks and these last two weeks are always SO busy for us!  Between getting with friends to meet one more time, or to go to our favorite eatery or just packing up can really keep us busy!

I finally uploaded my pics for the pieces I did last Monday at our Alcohol play day (Play Day 1 is here ).  These are the pieces I sprayed, dunked or brushed with alcohol inks!  With the exception of this piece, which I've left as it is/was!  It was a thermofax screen printed piece on while that didn't have a lot of definition from the printing.  I did some rubbings on it from one of my hand cut stamps but it will remain as is until I decide what to do with it! I don't think the inks would have enhanced it much.  I do want to thank Beth for showing us some tips and tricks to using the inks!

This was the quilted piece that I wanted to spray.   I couldn't really decide what to do with it or how to spray it but luckily I am surrounded by great friends and artists!  Kay (Quilts + Color) suggested I just fold the piece and spray!






And that's exactly what I did!

You can see the folds, then the piece was clipped which helped it stand up so I could spray!

And here is the first spray using red Dynaflow paint (mixed with water and alcohol).  Next I folded the opposite way and sprayed with Rit dye (mixed with water/alcohol)

And the end results...well, so far that is!  I'm not finished with it yet.  Just another piece that I have to meditate on for awhile!

And this is my 'drop cloth' I used to mop up the remaining inks!  Again, suggested by Kay!

 You'll need to look at the play day 1 post to see this piece before I play with the inks.   I used different crayons to do rubbings on the white fabric.  I couldn't decide what to do (I know...I was very indecisive using the alcohol inks!) so I just took the piece of fabric and placed in a bowl of yellow Dynaflow paint (again mixed with alcohol and water) and let it soak for about 20 minutes.

 Here are the 3 rubbings alone.  This rubbing I had used Inktense blocks,which you can see washed out.  But that's because they are watercolor blocks! You can still see some of the rubbing.

This section I used oil pastel crayons

And this section I used Neocolor 1 crayons.

I made a freezer paper stencil and sprayed blue Dynaflow paint (yep, mixed with alcohol and water).

I removed the freezer paper...spray did cover quite well.

This was another thermofax screen printed piece that was blah.  I sprayed the upper left corner with alcohol, then laid down a 'gear' stencil, then sprayed with Rit liquid dye (mixed with water and alcohol).  I was disappointed that the colors ran.
So, for the rest of the piece, I just sprayed the dry fabric with the Rit/alcohol mixture.  I like this much better.  I did get another suggestion from Beth to lay the stencil on top of the area that ran and use oil pastel crayons to define the edges!  How cool!  I will do that when we're back home.

This was just another small piece I used the Neocolor 1 crayons and did rubbings.  Should be a good piece for fiber cards.









All in all it was a fun day and my  last get-together with the ladies this winter.  Would I use the inks in the future???  Not sure...I do like my thickened dyes, color pencils, etc.  Not sure I see a lot of benefit on fabric although, Beth has done some beautiful pieces using alcohol inks.  On paper you get some great results but I don't make cards anymore so - but maybe I should!  HA

Alcohol Inks Play Day Part 1

Not a lot of words on this post but a lot of pics!  But first...check out the message inside the Dove wrapper I had last night!  How perfect for today's post!

 I had a fun day on Monday with some of my Florida buds playing with alcohol inks on fabric!!!  Sure is a different technique, which I don't think I have the hang of yet but I'll keep trying!

Nancy played with some inks and alcohol on freezer paper!  Pretty cool!

This was Beth's piece - inks on Yupo paper

Yes, we did use inks on fabric too!

Kay was giving me some good suggestions for using the inks/alcohol on fabric!  This is a quilted piece that I sprayed on alcohol ink. 

This was Beth's fabric which was under some freezer paper she was playing with!  Love this piece!

This is Nancy's piece that she added more alcohol to!  

Beth's piece using  a stencil and spraying with alcohol inks and alcohol

Another one of Beth's fabrics that were sprayed with inks...some areas had alcohol sprayed direct on fabric and others sprayed with alcohol on top.  my favorite area is the upper left!  

I haven't taken pictures of my pieces yet...will do that tomorrow and post the next day.  I really enjoyed the process but also realize that I need to get better with the spraying.  I don't like the dribbles that occur from time to time.  Or I just need to ignore that!

Playing with Alcohol Inks - 2

So here are some of my results.  I am showing the failures first!  Probably should wait until the end but heck, let's just get it out of the way! HA

Failure 1..bottom..
I used a heavy weight paper so my straw didn't move well and the ink just soaked into the paper!

Drops of ink are placed in a row (red/yellow/green/blue/purple for example) then use the side of a straw to move the inks creating a round shape.  Peggy's turned out great (see my post from yesterday)!!!

The top piece is just a bad choice of inks!  HA

Failure 2...spraying paper with alcohol then drops of ink on top.  Again, I was using a heavy weight paper and not the Yupo.













Failure 3...I was using Tyvek fabric/paper...colors awful and the paper just soaked the ink right up!

Now some success pieces!  At least I think so...These were my  Yupo paper covered with hand sanitize!   Then drops of alcohol inks dripped on top.

Both of these turned out quite nice.







Back to covering a sheet of paper with inks, although I was using the shiny side of freezer paper.   I used my  fingers to spread the inks!

 Next you squirt several lines of ink onto the paint then take wax paper that you have fan-folded and press the paper/folds into the ink; tilt the paper and squirt another color of ink under the waxed paper folds allowing the ink to drop down under the wax paper.

These are my favorites!

I kept the wax paper with the ink on them!  I know I can use them somehow/somewhere!!??

This piece was using saran wrap in place of wax paper.  Similar technique.  This is always a good technique to try.  Works really well with sun printing to give a crackle effect.  

This next piece was just placing inks on freezer paper (shiny side) and spraying with alcohol.  

Of course, you always have to save your 'rag' or drop cloth.  Peggy is curious as to what I'll use this for!  Actually so am I!  But hey, you never know!

What fun!!!  Next month some buds and I are going to play with alcohol inks on fabric!  Now that's going to be a fun one too!!!!  I know...I just have too much fun!

Alcohol Ink Play day #1

On Thursday, Peggy, who is  a wonderful watercolor/acrylic artist, and I played with alcohol inks on paper.     Interesting, last year we did a similar activity!  You can see those results here.  What a fun few hours both years but this year we used some of the techniques from the book 'Pigments of Your Imagination'!
The book is really quite good and gives  you so many techniques for you to start playing with inks!

I'm going to post  Peggy's results today then show mine in another post this week.  I haven't taken pictures of all my results yet.

First off, we covered an entire piece of Yupo paper with hand sanitizer!   Then we applied drops of alcohol inks on top.  The rest just happened!

Another technique was placing several drops of ink in a row on (plain) Yupo paper.  Next we used the side of a straw to move the inks creating a round shape.  Peggy's turned out great!!!  She makes cards as well as mounting her paintings to sell.  I think Peggy will be able to use her pieces in cards or mounting.   I love this piece!

We also did some mono printing....sprayed paper with alcohol then drops of ink on top; covered this piece with another piece of paper and gently rubbed.   Two prints!

This was Peggy's paper she placed on top.

Back to covering a sheet of paper with inks.  The book said to use a craft foam square but we used a paint brush and our fingers to spread the inks!  Next you squirt several lines of ink onto the paint then take wax paper that you have fan-folded and press the paper/folds into the ink; tilt the paper and squirt another color of ink under the waxed paper folds allowing the ink to drop down under the wax paper.

Peggy's wax paper is on the left and on the right she played with a brush to make a  flower design.

Her wax paper piece dry!  Cool isn't it!

Again, wax paper in the drying stage!  I love the colors Peggy used in this piece!

And look at this piece!  WOW!  It is my favorite and I know Peggy will have this in a frame and mounted!  She has a craft sale coming in the fall so these last two pieces won't last long!



Next post I'll show some of my pieces.  What a fun afternoon with Peggy!  Our next outing is a walking one!  We're going to the Sholom Park in Ocala!  This is a natural botanical garden and only a few miles from our community.  We have talked about going to this park for awhile now so I hope within the next few weeks we make it!  We may even talk our friend Sally into going with us!

Play day with Peggy and alcohol!

Last year I showed Peggy how to arm knit (you can see that post here)...well, Peggy thought it only fair to show me a new technique this year!  And believe it or not, no wine or alcohol was involved...other than rubbing alcohol, which we didn't drink!  Instead, we painted papers using alcohol inks as well as a spray or two or three or four! of regular alcohol!   The fumes finally got to us after about two hours!
Peggy paints with acrylics and watercolor and took a class this year learning lots of new techniques to paint and play with (the instructors name escapes me but I'll remember or I'll ask Peggy!).
Here are some of the pieces Peggy completed and framed!  Aren't they beautiful!

Peggy uses a paper called "yupo"??  I think that's how it is spelled..I was using photo and palette papers to play with.  Peggy frames her work or uses pieces of her artwork in cards she makes and sells.








 So here are some of  Peggy's work from today!

Doesn't this remind you of a field of flowers!

This is a landscape Peggy did!










The video (below this pic) is Peggy creating this piece!  It turned out great!!  As did all of hers...

Of course most of mine are darker and more of a southwest palette!  OK, the truth is I'm bad at blending colors and usually get mud but I'm quite happy with the results!  I will use these somewhere in my art work!!  They really look better in person!  Yea, you've heard that before haven't you!

 It was just a fun afternoon!!!  I love playing with new techniques...you just never know when you might use it again.  I can see cutting these up and using fiber cards or maybe even fabric!  You just never know...'stuff' isn't safe in my house!  Thank you, Peggy!!!!   And I didn't even miss the wine!

Also, check out what comes to visit at Peggy's quite often!  Peggy said the hawk grabs her/his food and heads to their roof to eat dinner!  They hear him quite often pecking away!  Gotta love Florida!