Severe winter storms have continued to disrupt my work on the carousel. Although main roads were clear early on, it took twelve days to get to the neighborhood roads. Days of temperatures in low teens to single digits Fahrenheit have kept the icy roads in place. Schools started back in person just this past Friday and then had to release early due to another snowstorm. A windstorm came through with forty mile per hour wind gusts. The wind chill was below zero. Some of the ice melted during the day and refroze night after night. The yard is still mostly covered with snow and ice.
The icy streets and cold winds have discouraged me from going out to the craft store. Until I do get out, my carousel project is at a standstill. The good news is that we may have one more day of really cold weather before we return to what would be normal temperatures for this area. Although I have felt frustrated about not working on the project, I found that what I really needed was a good rest. Spending days with a book and a warm blanket have restored my sense of peace. I have had a lot going on, and I had been pushing and pushing trying to get everything done. I was worn out and running on caffeine and adrenaline. I did not even realize how burned out I was. I feel much better now and I am looking forward to getting out and about.
In the meantime, I headed back into my studio to play around a little bit. I had seen some posts on the internet of people making faux stained glass by using glue and food coloring. I decided to give it a try.
I tried Mod Podge and food coloring for the first few pieces and later changed over to Elmers Multi-Purpose with food coloring for later experiments. (I had a lot more Elmer's than Mod Podge.) I had a few questions that I hoped to learn.
- How well did the glue mixture look and peel off on different substrates
- How translucent was the piece
- Could you make complex shapes
- How flexible/strong were the pieces once peeled up
- Could you paint a different color over top of the first one
- Could you scribe through the dots to make see through areas
- How did the dots react if decoupaged onto another piece of paper
Here are some of my findings.
The large sheet of paper that most of the dots were on is a sheet of freezer paper. I painted the dots and leaves onto the freezer paper with a paint brush. The dots peeled up well and were fairly translucent. The dots also easily peeled off a sheet of clear plastic report cover. The downside was even though the food coloring and glue were thoroughly mixed, when the glue dried, the food coloring tended to pool in spots, making some areas darker than others. This is most noticeable on the maple leaf. The dots peeled off the plastic report cover but were streakier than ones painted on the freezer paper. I also painted some of the dots on the plastic cover with gesso before painting with the glue. They looked the worst of all, and the gesso did not peel off the plastic. As expected, the dots did not peel off poster board, printer paper, or paper towel.
The dots painted on the paper towel were interesting. I had used a two-ply paper towel. The paint and glue mostly stayed on just the first layer, and the paper towel tended to crumple up as it dried. I tried that experiment again with a single ply. I made sure to paint it down firmly on the freezer paper. It dried flat and was quite strong. I feel that it could have a hole punched into it and it would stand up to being hung on a string. The green color glowed nicely when held near a light but was not translucent enough to be see through.
When the paper towel was held up to a light, (third photo) each piece glowed nicely, but pooling spots and streaks from the paint brush were visible. Perhaps a different paint brush might have made a difference, but overall, the pieces were disappointing.
The oak and maple leaves peeled up nicely even though they had some narrow and pointed places. I was able to paint another color over them without it running one color into another.
The shapes were not as flexible as I would have hoped. There was some bend to them, but if too much pressure was applied, the piece would snap. I was hoping that they would be strong enough to punch a hole in them and hang them on a string, and that might work, but the smeary streaky discs were not what I had hoped for as part of a project.
The pink dot near the center of the first picture was used to see if you could make see through areas. Once the glue set up a little bit, I used the tip of a wooden skewer to carve through the dot. The dot stayed together even when a spiral was carved into it.
And finally, I wanted to know how well the pieces would work if decoupaged onto another pieces of paper. That was the big surprise. In the second photo, you can see that when decoupage medium was used, the blue dots smeared across the page. None of the other colors ran. So be forewarned if you should try to use them on a journal page. I had hoped that the dots would be translucent enough that you could see writing underneath them, but they were too opaque for that.
I tried one other experiment, but so far that one has not worked out. I wanted to know if I made a dam of hot glue and made it two layers high, how that would affect a deeper pouring of the glue mixture. I checked it this morning and it was not a success. The glue stuck to the hot glue and pulled up the shiny freezer paper. I tried to push the dot off the paper, but after seventeen hours, the glue had not set up all the way. I ended up just gushing sticky glue over my fingers. I am leaving the other one until tomorrow, and I will try again to see if a thicker dot would look better than the thin ones.
All in all, I do not think the glue shapes would work on a project that I hope to make in the future. I want to make a mobile of lightweight leaves that would swirl around in a breeze or when the air conditioner or heater turned on. I had made a mobile with leaves made from air dry clay and painted with an air brush. It looks okay, but the clay leaves are so heavy that air from the ac/heat is not strong enough to move it. It only spins if you give it a push. I am hoping to make a better one that will spin and sway easily one of these days. I just have to find the right medium.
Anyway, it was a fun day or two of playing with glue and color just to see what they would do. Soon I will be out to get the pieces I need to get on with the next stage of the carousel.
Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.
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