This post contains affiliate links, marked with an *
There’s a particular kind of emotional attachment that I feel about my websites. I don’t know if other artists feel the same way, or if it’s just because I’ve spent so much time labouring over them; anyway, they’re more to me than just a shopfront or a way to make money from words.
Sometimes I think that updating a weekly journal of creative accomplishments is a bit much. Other times I think it’s the only reason I get anything done.
It’s only because I realised all to soon that Friday had rolled around yet again and I hadn’t got the jump on anything I’d planned to work on that I got moving so I could come here and write, “look, I tried!”
Just like that, the summer holidays are coming to an end. I feel as though the weeks just slipped through my fingers, but I don’t want to whinge about it too much; at least we’ve got another week left.
This post contains affiliate links, marked with an *
After a long weekend travelling back and forth to Liverpool – and not going to the Tate – I had a shedload of catching up to do.
Unfortunately most of the catching up had to do with housework, DIY, writing new articles, updating old articles and creating new graphics for them.
Before all that I did manage to find some buttons in my vintage stash to update a 1930s top that I’ve been meaning to fix for something like ten years. I do get around to things eventually.
Feeling a little frustrated with myself for having another week go by without much happening in the way of artwork, I tried out a bit of an experiment to see if I could get the next week off on a speedy start.
When you get a home cutter-plotter machine, you’ll need a cutting mat, which is essentially a square bit of laminated card, onto which your material to be cut will be stuck.
You’ll need to stick it onto this cutting mat (or carrier mat) to be able to cut shapes out without the entire thing falling apart, so really it’s an essential.
The problem comes when the stickiness wears off and you haven’t got anything to use to renew the adhesive! Basically that’s where I am right now, so before I order this sticky mat adhesive* I tried using watered-down PVA applied with a foam brush to see if I could recreate the low-tack effect without spending any money.
It worked, after beefing up the ratio of glue to water, but the problem was, it was a little too tacky, and some of the kraft paper stuck.
Still, as I understand it, that’s just what happens with these cutting mats – working out the right level of adhesion is part of the process. I’m still going to get the proper glue though.
I’ve got a very different design in mind for a smaller coin; I had thought of it as being much smaller, but having just cut several basic shapes out of kraft paper for my experiment, I might just keep it at the size I produced. Maybe next week I’ll be able to show some more of that.
Oh, and the copper leaf on my shoes survived! Although it’s flaking off terribly now… at least it did the job for the day.
This post contains affiliate links, marked with an *
When I think about writing up my creative activities for this blog, it’s always focused on the visual art side, because that’s how I mainly see myself.
When I talk about my writing here, it’s always focused on the creative writing or maybe critical essays, and even when I mention the journals I’ve published so far I don’t link to them because they belong in a non-art genre.
But this week my other writing career got a major shot in the arm, and took me off on the crest of a wave that’ll probably last for at least another week and pay off hugely for a long time to come. So far this week I have:
Often whilst balancing a cat on my lap. Oh, and I’ve experimented with copper-leafing a pair of shoes. Seriously.
Not entirely sure. Something started it – my guess would be finally committing to pay for Tailwind and accepting that I’d have to make some better images to make that investment worthwhile – and then I realised how very out-of-date a lot of my articles were, and how much better my entire publishing business could be if I just woke up and pulled my finger out.
Sometimes you just get into a rut with a creative business, and there’s nothing like parting with some money to create enough pain to snap you back into action!
So my big blog will get the benefit first, and then I’ll overhaul this one once that’s ticking over.
Well, it doesn’t hurt to try. I have a cat who particularly likes new shoes… he specifically likes to scratch them to bits.
I thought I might as well have a go at rescuing a pair that fell victim to his claws. Of course, being an art materials hoarder, I had one single sheet of metal leaf left from a sculpture I made in 2003, and the little bottle of leaf size to go with it.
Will it look good? That’s subjective, and high fashion doesn’t usually mind looking dreadful, if we’re telling the truth.
Will it stick? Now that’s something I’ll have to answer after the weekend.
