.....and the answer is..............CRAYONS!!!!
Many years ago, I took a FIRE class at Sybil Rampen's place, before she opened the Joshua Creek Heritage centre. In one part of the class, she showed us how to gesso river rocks, draw designs on the bottom with a Sharpie and then heat them up in a toaster oven (sorry, I can't remember how long it took). When the rocks were nice and hot, you took them out carefully (tongs are good), placed them on a heat proof surface and then touched different colours of crayola crayons to the surface. The crayons melted instantly, and made wonderful patterns that flowed seeped and puddled under the bottom (the photo shows the top). We left them to cool and then polished with a soft cloth (pants, shirt or whatever!!). I love my rocks!
The nest was wet felted in a class at the Textile Museum of Canada from an instructor who's name escapes me. It wasn't originally planned for a nest, but it works well, so a nest it is!!! I didn't notice before, but do you see the ducks head on the nest? Totally planned, of course......ahem...cough.....or perhaps the inner serendipity muse at work!!!
10 comments:
so that's how - you had us all guessing. crayons can be used in many ways, this one is excellent. child's play of course!!
so the nest grew a head when you weren't looking? k.
You are such an artist. Better...an earthy artist. I love watching to see what you come up with next.
Kaite & Carol - thanks!
Kaite, Yes indeed! The nest has magical powers. Giggle!
Carol, I do love my different techniques. I suspect that I will come up with some new ones after the holidays. That and work on catching up on my bjp's.
Ohh I almost missed this post and am glad I didn't. Crayons! Cool! or hot, as the case may be. I shall have to give this a try. Do they need the gesso first? Well, I shall try without. I have a wood stove so I can just heat my rocks up on there and then apply (using great care not to get wax on the stove) the crayons. Thanks for this! And yes I do see the duck head, she looks like a mother cuddling her big rockegg. Thanks for sharing this.
Jan, I'm sure the gesso would be optional. The purpose was probably to give an even coloured base to the rock. I'd be interested to hear what happens with your wood stove experiments. Be careful that you don't heat them too much......you wouldn't want rocks exploding all around your house. Do rocks explode? Perhaps if they have flaws or cracks. I've often wondered about doing a large rock and what would happen if you threw the rock in a campfire and then used the crayons. I know, I know there would be a lot of soot, but that could be interesting as well. Perhaps I will try it with black gesso first to see if that makes a difference.
I was going to say crayons but thought that was too obvious! ROFLMBO
Thanks for sharing the technique! I have lots of crayons ;)
I love those bright colors!
I thought crayons too but, like Sara, I thought it was too easy! Hmmm....wonder if you could put a rock in a microwave? Don't think I'm going to try it though!
Karen, thanks! I love the colours too!!
Sara and MA,
To bad you didn't say something about the crayons. You never know, you might have won a prize. Yes, I know that I didn't mention a giveaway, but you never know what I might get up to.
MA, I don't think that I'd try it in the microwave, but the oven is a distinct possiblity. As a matter of fact, if I had some nice, smooth river rocks, I might just try making more myself. However, I think it needs to wait until spring because I'm not crazy enough to stick my hand in any stream or river right now.
Super!! I may be moving into rocks!! Congratulations re: the C&T Publishing blog...
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