Sleigh Ride (experiment #1)
Couple (experiment #2)
Eiffel (experiment #2)Jacqueline shared her techniques for making paper & fabric postcards a few blogs ago. I decided to experiment on my own. The Sleigh Ride represents my first pass, using an image from an old Russian postcard, printed from my cheap inkjet printer. That first batch was difficult because the inkjet ink runs when it gets wet. I had to work very quickly with matte gel, muslin and the print before the image washed away. I sprinkled fine white glitter over this card. This was one of the very few that didn't end up with an ugly crease running across from bubbles underneath the paper. "Couple" and "Eiffel" represents my second batch. This time I went to Office Depot to use their xerox machine to make copies of an old photo and postcard. It was much easier working with them because I didn't have a "bleed" problem. However, I still managed to get an ugly crease running down the Eiffel piece. For both images, I placed hairnets and airmail stickers over the image. After playing around with different materials to add to the composition, I decided that the delicate hairnets integrated well with the images. After the gel dried, I painted. The Sleigh Ride was the only one in the first batch that I painted in more than one color ink - yellow and indigo. Eiffel was painted with watercolors. The red heart at the bottom came out too faint so I added some red ink color to it. The couple was painted in watercolors. Once the paint dried, I painted over the couple with a wash of metallic bronze ink. I also painted over the second batch with matte gel but that was a big mistake. I covered the tops with wax paper and weighted the cards so they would be flattened but all that did was keep everything moist and unflattering. I ended up airdrying the cards. For more examples, see http://mrpotani.blogspot.com/.
