Challenge 4 Katrina

This it what I have come up with for challenge 4 .I made a stamp out of the pizza base of the logo of Imperial Airways and then stamped it 4 times using paint on a painted blue background. I then printed out the banner ( I did intend to cut those out of the pizza base as well but thought I would have trouble getting a clean stright edge with such small letters ) The inspiration for the piece was an Imperial Airways luggage tag.

I was amazed with the quality of the print you get from the pizza base and I am sure I will use this technique again.

Challenge 4 - Elizabeth

I drew a daisy in my piece of pizza polystyrene with a pencil and blanked out unwanted areas using the rounded end of the pencil. I made a few prints using stamp pads and then used three shades of blue acrylic paint, watered down, to paint the stamp. Some of the previous crimson ink had not washed off so that has blended in too.

Ch 4 - poly ivy!

For challenge 4 I decided to focus on the ivy in my back yard. I've used a few techniques here. For the base (the brick wall) I printed off a photo of the wall and using gel medium I transferred the image to one of the polystyrene pizza bases that I had. With the 2nd tray, I cut out one ivy shape using a black & white print of a leaf which I then glued to the poly 'leaf'. The remaining ivy 'leaves' were cut out around real leaves that I took from my yard. After trial and error, I decided that one of the best ways to colour them was using brush, or artist, pens, although I also painted each 'leaf' with acrylic paints. Using a craft knife I worked veins and whiter patches onto the 'leaves' to more resemble the originals. Before assembling, I stenciled 3 or 4 leaf shapes from the cut out shapes onto the 'wall' with acrylic paints.

This is the first time that I've ever used polystyrene in art, and my first attempt at a 3D collage. Great fun, even though I cheated slightly and used 2 pizza trays ;> An interesting challenge that has whetted my appetite to try similar techniques. Also, focusing on the ivy itself has made me realise what wonderful shapes and textures these leaves have. I think that I'll be using ivy in future challenges, as I want to explore this plant further.

Challenge #4 - Kim

I made a quick a quick stamp on a piece of polystyrene - about three inches in diameter. The zodiac symbols are a little over-sized and crowded around the sun motif in the center. I simply "punched" the polystyrene with the tip of a pencil. I made a couple of prints on paper and on a couple of fabric scraps (pictured here.)

It was fast and fun. Why did I wait so long?

Challenge 4 - Kari

Thanks to Claire for her brilliant prints which have given me a starting point and I am delighted with the results!

I made myself a "plate" on which I "etched" my bowl designs and inked with ordinary stamping ink and pressed firmly into my sketchbook. I now have loads of ideas I want to try out: printers ink, patterns on the bowls, over-printing, like Claire says, and making simple stamps by cutting shapes out and remounting onto card or something.

Thanks Claire for giving my muse a boost!

Kari x
www.inkytinker.typepad.com

Challenge 4 Polystyrene Tray

My inspiration totally deserted me for challenge 3, sorry!

So moving swiftly onto challenge 4. Polystyrene pizza trays are great for making very simple printing plates.

I used a "dead" cheap bic type biro andthe end of a pencil to indent my pattern into the first block, I then used acrylic paint to print onto the second block which I etched in the same way. Using this method its unusual to be able to get fine detail, and mistakes are hard to fix. You can use a soldering iron or stencil cutter, I wouldn't recommend this unless you use a respirator.

Membership Tidy Up

Just in case anyone doesn't get the group e mail - I'm having a membership tidy up. Please have a look at the Yahoo group for more details