2018 #12 Transfers: Part 1: Grunge Paste Transfer {by Dounia Large}

2018 Topic 12: Transfers

This is part one of 2 posts from Dounia. Always experiments, this is such a great way to throw a bunch of ideas at you to explore further! ~ Leandra

Bonjour everyone, it's Dounia from France and I'd like to share with you an experiment with partial tranfers, adding relief and pattern to this already quite versatile technique!

I love Grunge Paste so I wanted to try transfering with it, as shown by Kaz Hall in this post. However, what else is Grunge Paste great for? Stenciling! I therefore decided to see if you could combine the two... Spoiler: it works!

I mainly see transfers done with faces, characters or scenes and while I like the results I personally love to use transfers to build background interest and texture. I find a good source of images for that is home decor catalogues with all their pictures of luxurious fabrics an wall-papers. So many patterns to chose from!

I however like to begin with a painted base, that might eventually be seen by transparency. Here I used the lovely Frescos Acrylic paints with a bayer and the fantastic abstract stamps by Ellen Vargo. The bold shapes of EEV03 provide a great simple first layer.

It can then built on with EEV05 or EEV06 for examples. I love that no matter how you stamp them, these stamps give you an organic, unique and complex look.

The idea is then to stencil with Grunge Paste and put the image on it as for a usual direct transfer, hoping that the magic only happens where the Grunge Paste is... In order to see the pattern from the transferred image, I believe it is better to use stencils with large open areas. Here I used the striking heart stencil PS054 by Tracy Scott. Perfect for the job!

The Grunge Paste is a joy to stencil and the transfer works quite well. I however find it a bit more fragile than the ones made with paint or medium. I can see several possible causes: maybe it is inherent to the paste as it can be sanded, or maybe the lighter than usual pressure I apply in order to not completely squish the stenciled pattern is not enough, or maybe I'm too impatient and the paste was not totally dry when I begun rubbing!

Anyway on this one, you can see I rubbed quite a few spots bald and then found myself at lost about what to do with this sample.... so I focused on the second one with the help of another great Tracy Scott's stencil, PS089:

This time I was much more careful and I'm quite happy with the result! Sometime you are able to pull big pieces at once and can see the "reverse transfer". The transfer is still far from perfect but I like the organic corrugated look, I think it fits this project. I am pretty sure that with more care, gentleness and patience, you could get a near pefect tranfer.

To provide a alternative focus point, I sneaked in another type of transfer but that's a story for tomorrow!

I think this is a interesting technique to vary your transfers, and it was not as fidly as I feared it might be! This was only an experimental project to see if it would work and this idea can be taken in lots of directions: you could use ultra thick gel medium instead of Grunge Paste for a transparent variant or you could substitute the abstract patterns for faces or little scenes in the bigger stenciled areas. I hope this post inspired you to try!

Lots of creativity to you
Dounia x

Blog: Doudoulina

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