Elaine's July and August

I am  w a y  behind! We were overseas until the middle of August and then there was lots of catching up to do, but here at last are the letters for the past two months.

I have used a material called Tyvek, a non-toxic sheet of bonded, spun polyethylene fibres, which changes its form when heat is applied. I painted both sides of the 7cm square with fabric paints and then using a brown iridescent oil paint, in stick form, I wrote a monoline capital. The squares were then heated with an iron. The result depends on the length and direction of the iron’s heat. A little bit of control, but not much, which I find exciting! Whether the shapes are concave or convex depends on which side the heat is applied, eg. ‘A’ and ‘H” were heated from the back and all the others from the front. The squares have now shrunk in size to between 3.5 and 4 cm. The letters aren’t always recognisable and often distorted, but I like the way they have now become integrated into the material.

 

Elaine's February alphabet bits

I am continuing my ‘transparent’ alphabet on the ‘Mylar’ film, using my double ruling pen and FW drawing ink. The colour of the threads are slowly changing, moving this time from ochre through orange to red.

e,f,g,h

This is fun. I now know I need to do all the letters in one go if I am going to remember how I did it. This becomes quite a challenge if I don't make notes. Hmmm, note to self, make notes. Hmmm, note to self, find notes.

e, f, g, h, Liz Davidson

Elaine's beginnings

I am really looking forward to this exciting challenge again, thanks Fiona. I can hardly believe the first month is over already!

For my ‘black and white and a touch of….’ alphabet I wanted the 7cm squares to be transparent. I first worked on tracing paper, but it didn’t give me the transparency that I wanted, so I then tried ‘Mylar’ (a strong polyester film) which was perfect. For the freely written capitals I used one of my favourite tools, a double ruling pen, and FW non-clogging waterproof drawing ink. I was quite surprised to see that Mylar is mentioned as one of the surfaces that the ink can be used on. I don’t have the control I would have on paper because of the slippery surface, but I am enjoying the challenge. I have made the white dots with a fine round-tipped ‘Uni POSCA’ pen which is also waterproof and does not rub off the film..

For the ‘touch of..’ I am tying a coloured thread to one corner, gradating the colours as the alphabet progresses. I plan to put all the squares on a spike, reminiscent of the way we used to save receipts, etc . The hole for the spike will be on the opposite corner from the thread and I will put a bead or something similar on the spike between each square, providing a space between each one so that the letters are not obscured by each other. I imagine the letters spiralling around the spike and hopefully this will work out.