Friday 21 August 2015

2015 #15 Magical Mediums {by Lynn Price}

 2015 Topic 15: Gels and Mediums


Hi, Lynn Price here! I am so honored PaperArtsy has asked me to play around with various mediums for this post. I am a nursing professor here in Connecticut, and have recently discovered mixed media as a fun way to re-charge by creating something unique using an entirely different part of my brain - working with various mediums satisfies all of that!
Today I am playing with a two-page journal layout . 


For this layout, I played with three mediums: Regular gel medium (matte) (familiar to most of us, but used here also as more of a faux encaustic technique), glass bead gel, and Clear Tar Gel (from Golden) – Liquitex calls it's version of this product string gel.

I started with card stock heavily sponged with Distress Ink in warm colors. I die cut dragonflies, butterflies and bees and applied with these gel medium to gessoed pages with a few dry embossed bits which created a light yellow and orange background from the ink reacting to the medium. After stamping with Paper Artsy Mini 44, I then covered most of the plain (non-embossed) die cuts with extra gel medium, to really blend them into the background.
Mini 44

Next I stamped with the end of a beautiful Lynne Perrella stamp from LPC28  in archival ink to create additional detail and added more gel medium.


Then I swiped Golden's Bead Gel with my finger in areas that I thought would pool when I sprayed on the final colors. Because of the gel medium already on the surface, the distress inks on the die cuts no longer react. I love the effects of the beads – so shimmery!


After spraying the two pages with various colors of distress inks, I used the end of a thin paintbrush to write and draw, by dipping into the clear tar gel like a pen. This medium not only dries clear, but is also self-leveling, so small areas originally left open will likely fill in (like the loop in a small “e”, for instance). Here you can see how the clear tar gel indeed dries clear, so that the stamping and colors underneath come straight through - can you see the word “Love” ?


Below is one more close up, showing the beautiful beads after spraying, as well as the phenomenal effect from the Clear Tar Gel on stamping and background color. I have more examples on my blog if you’d like to see more of this finish.


This was such a fun make, that I actually made another one, with clear tar gel which you can see on my blog Experiments in Paper, along with more details of this layout. 
Lynn. 

Welcome Lynn and thankyou for creating such a fun page. You have show just how versatile the gels are, from regular 'sticking' to adding the shimmer and texture of the beads and the dreamy, fluidity of the tar gel. Indeed magical. ~Darcy

We would love you to join in with challenge #15: Gels If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Gels link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Aug 23rd winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

13 comments:

Helen said...

Lynn, this is just gorgeous!! I love the writing in/with the tar gel, and the colours on the piece, especially your die cut butterflies are just fabulous.

Craftyfield said...

Love all these mediums thrown together. The bead gel does look awesome and I am so curious about this tar gel...

Lauren Hatwell said...

Lynn, I don't know what to say other than WOW! What an awesome piece of work. Brilliant step outs too. Lx

rachel said...

wow - looks amazing - love it xx

Hazel Agnew said...

The mix just works beautifully...fab post! X

Unknown said...

Wow, so interesting Lynn. What fun. Thanks bunches for a great tutorial and lovely inspiration. j.

Anonymous said...

A stunning piece of work.
Wishes
Lynne

Ruth said...

Fabulous pages Lynn, so lovely to see you over here! Ruth x

Astrid Maclean said...

Great to see you here Lynn and you have created two stunning projects!! Love what you did with those gels and you have just convinced me that I "need" them!

Julie S said...

I've never tried the tar gel medium - looks like a fun play. Beautiful work.

craftytrog said...

Wonderful use of the gels, gorgeous spread Lynn!
Alison xx

Words and Pictures said...

So many ideas and so many fabulous textures! I love the tar gel lettering, and the die-cuts incorporated into the background, and the stamping adds so much depth and detail.
Alison xx

Kirsten said...

That looks great.