Sunday, October 17, 2010

citra solv - a new frontier

Please excuse the black plastic and masking tape. This is what happens when you splash full strength Citra Solv natual cleaner (the original orange, concentrate) between the pages of an old National Geographic magazine (the older ones are supposed to be better). Mine was circa 1983 courtesy of Value Village ($.99). I found the Citra Solv at a health food grocery store in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, but I know that it's also available locally and online. If you google the Citra Solv company, you'll find lots of eye candy and instructions. I've been wanting to try this for a while and believe it or not, it's quite an easy process. Messy and stinky though, so be prepared to do this outside. Don't even start if you hate the smell of oranges!

Liberally splash or brush the Citra Solv onto the highly coloured pages (the mainly text ones turn out black and boring). Keep the magazine closed for at least an hour. If the pages look ready and you're satisfied with the effect, rip them out and lay them to dry on newspaper or plastic. Don't leave them too long or the pages will stick together. The ink quite literally runs off the page, so make sure you wear old clothes, gloves and remember to only do this in a very well ventilated area (outside is good!). Be responsible! Protect your clothes and your health and follow these instructions at your own risk! I doubt that you'll have problems, but be aware that I'm not responsible for any reactions you have to either the ink or the Citra Solv.

This photo isn't elegant, but it shows you the variety of pages I got. More black ones than I was expecting, but the ink movement is still quite interesting.



Three of my favourite pages......think of the possibilities!


The edge of a stream?





An underwater cave or grotto?





Fire or lava?




Any other ideas??

What will I use these for? Good question! My initial plan is to mix in a little fibre, collage is a given and the rest for the stash. Possibilities for inchies, artist trading cards, post cards and even larger pieces are limitless!

I'm itching to stitch! What about you?

9 comments:

kaiteM said...

Fabulous results, but i'm thinking already of doing it on fabric. i know it bleaches my clothes, esp when cleaning the bathroom. Love the 2nd last one. k.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Baby steps for me! Some people also use it for photo transfer. I was actually wondering what would happen if the Citra Solve soaked NG met the altered dominos. Hmmmm......but that's for another day! But then again, I wonder what would happen if it met my mx dyes???

Magpie's Mumblings said...

ooh - I have the National G. in my stash already, planning to try this only got bogged down wondering where to get the Citra Solve. Never thought of the health food store! Now that I see your great results, I'm going to have to give it a try too.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

MA, do it, do it!!!! It's so easy and really doesn't take any mental energy. Do it soon though, because you'll want all the smell to be outside. Of course, I guess you could probably do it in the garage, but a cross breeze would be even better.

Miek said...

This looks great. But can I buy this product in Holland?? With what can you comepare it??

Penny Berens said...

Yes, I have used it to transfer to cloth. By the way, I was wondering what would happen if you tried to transfer one of your gorgeous results to cotton at this point.

Judy Ferguson said...

I have tried some of this in a class given by Rayna Gillman. I was not that impressed with my results. Everything depends on the condition of your pages and what kinds of inks. Yours looks good. Just wondering what you do with it. Let us know.

liniecat said...

Great results! I wonder if when still wet, the patterns would transfer onto fabric if you laid it on top of the pages?
Got some citrasolve, bought it online and have been meaning to try this, but if you try it first, let us know if it works please!

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

I think that I'll have a go at trying to transfer it to cotton next weekend (Thanks to both Penny and Kaite for the idea). I'd bet that it would be even nicer on silk or even poly satin. I wonder how long these inks would last on the fabric? Not that I had any plans to wash them, but it would be interesting to know. Also, I wonder what would happen if you pressed them on an acrylic painted canvas or cloth? Hmmmm, must try that too!!

Miek - I suggest that you click on the link for the company and ask their marketing department if they have any European distributors. It might be called something else in your country.

Judy - I think the best results are with National Geographics that are at least 10 years old. I read that somewhere, but really haven't tested the theory. I'm not really sure what I'll do with these, but you guys will be the first to know when I start using them. Right now they're too smelly, so it might be later in the year. I really doused them!! Also, these mags were in perfect condition, so no problems there.

Linicat - keep tuned next weekend, because I'll probably be trying it. I probably won't use up an entire magazine this time, but perhaps a selection of a few choice pages.