Day 97 - rocking salt and lost control.

Sunday 7th April

Saturday did not end well and Sunday didn't begin well so I was a bit slow to get with the programme.  It happens.  Beyond that it has turned into a lovely day with more sunshine to feed our souls.

Usually Sunday is my gentle day of the week but the pressure was on a little as I move from pattern to fabric in the mixed media piece I am creating for my new studio.  Despite all my years experience my hand still shakes as I start to commit the paint to fabric.  Cotton is less stressful than silk as I have slightly more control so I sensibly chose to do the first cotton piece today.  The process of batik is not for those of you who like everything perfect a its makes up its own rules.  This is what I love about the medium and the accidents always turn out to the best bits.  So, over the years, I have learnt to go with the flow.  With this piece I even stopped chasing the paint around and let some areas dry just to see what happened.  I must be getting braver with age. 

The plan is to make two mixed media pieces but only one will be ready for the studio opening at the end of April.  The first is an abstraction of my view when the brambles (now long gone) were in situ.  The parallel thought process is my art work before I had my lovely new studio.  Attempting to create art in the home environment is not easy especially when we home school.  There are always interruptions and silk painting does not take kindly to those moments.  The brambles, therefore, became a metaphor for feeling that my creative voice was slightly pegged down.  The second mixed media piece is how I feel now I have a space that is just for creative endeavours.  I have felt much more connected with my creative aspirations since I started using my studio and I want the second piece to reflect this. 

The process is not a quick one and I am aware that I am off island for a week before my studio opening so I needed to focus.  Today was about creating some of the background fabric using batik on cotton.  I also used a diffusion method through the use of rock salt. 

You should be able to just make out the wax lines and the salt sitting on the painted areas.  By allowing the salt to sit for different lengths of time you have some control over the effect.  This is the section where the colour scheme needed to 'bleed' so the salt was there until the piece was dry.  The effect is pretty clear from the following images -

The white areas are where the wax has been.  You remove that by ironing it through greaseproof paper. 

 The diffusion is really clear in this image.  I am probably too careful in this part of the process as I put the rock salt on granule by granule and it takes ages to get this look.  I am not sure I am quite ready to leave the whole process to chance. 

 Obviously, the rock salt won't sit on the wax either but the edges of the two colours will bleed into each other.  I have long since given up trying to control that stage!









While the wax pot is out it might as well serve a couple of purposes so I used it to create some silk hair bands for one of my shops.  There is something timeless about 'Alice' bands. 

Leaving everything to dry I escaped to the beach for a while with the dogs.  To my complete surprise I had it all to myself which is always a bit of a thrill.  The two collies are fanatical about chasing the stick into the sea and bringing it back and that, I feel, is normal dog behaviour.  My dog, Lottie, is neither a collie or normal.  Why is it my dog that has her bottom in the air?  Don't you dare answer that!

 

Lottie is completely obsessed with digging.  My theory is this.  She is completely obsessed with food and I think she must have found something tasty to eat once (a long time ago) and now she just digs on the off chance she will find the same thing again.  One very focused dog.  We appear to have created our own infinity pool on Whiting Bay beach.

 

And, of course, while on the beach I take more photos for my next mixed media project entitled 'rock pool'.  Whiting Bay has the best beach for rock pools on the entire island and it is only metres from my home. 

 I don't think I can go down the beach without collecting something.  My favourite is pottery fragements and I give special pieces to special people in my life.  Each piece of pottery has its own back story but I take no notice of that and make up my own versions. 

Now back from the beach a quick blog before I turn to things more domestic and not worthy of sharing.  This is with the exception of my Borage seedlings which are possibly the healthiest seedlings I have ever grown.  It is best to direct sow borage but these potted version are for sale.  Arran can never have enough bees so Arran can never have enough Borage. 


I do hope your Sunday has been gentle and that you have successfully recharged your batteries for the week ahead.  My week will be dominated by home school as Zambia beckons once more.  Wishing you all a lovely week to come.  Happy birthday Tracey. xxx

Until tomorrow. xx