Professional Development 2

Last Saturday at the Artist's Nook, I took a class on how to do transfers. I am SO thrilled about this new technique! The class was taught by Jacqueline Sullivan, an artist from Michigan (you can see her website here.) This was the first time she had taught how to do transfers, and I learned tons. Also, she gave us great notes so that when we're back home practicing this on our own, we'll hopefully have a clue.

First one we did was onto metal. This metal is thin but strong, and not sharp on the edges, about 2"x3". She first had us sand the metal, to get the surface finish off (apparently, it is like a thin layer of oil). Then, you lay a color laser print (like a color copy) face down on it, binding it to the metal with a gloss medium (fancy name for glue). Then you let it dry. Once it's dry, you soak it in water to get the paper wet, then slowly rub the paper off with your finger. The image stays! Amazing! I learned a good lesson here: when dealing with words in your images, make sure your original color copy is a mirror image, so that it turns out right on the transfer.


Next, we did what Jacqueline called "old fresco." We mixed some acrylic paint in with gesso, a white base primer that has a really chalky texture, which helps it bind, and painted it onto some watercolor paper. Then, while it was still wet, we plopped our image face down into the paint. Again, left it to dry, then later wetted the image's paper from the back side to rub off the paper and leave the image. You can see that I still have some rubbing to do on this one, but once it gets close to the image, it is important to be really gentle, otherwise the image can come up! This is my favorite one of the transfer techniques.


This was an "aged" look, using paint to first color a plain copy of an old document to make it look old. This transfer was from an ink-jet transparency, which I did over the aged document, again using the glossy medium. Didn't it turn out cool?


This next one is amazing. Ink jet transparencies and get this: hand sanetizer as the medium to transfer the image! Some people were more successful with theirs, getting their images in focus. My second try, on the left, was better, but still not sharp. But that's ok.


Finally, one of the easiest methods. Spray an ink-jet transparency lightly but completely with rubbing alcohol, plant face down on paper (we used this delicate writing paper), and less than 30 seconds later, carefully lift the transparency. If you leave it too long, then some of the image doesn't stick to the paper, like the one on the left around the edges, although that one still worked out fine.


I see great potential for using transfers in my work, and can't wait to try more. It was a lot of fun and I definitely feel "developed" in a professional way.

First card swap cards arrived in my mailbox today! Fun!