Where's the Rock?

With new products come more understanding. The new hybrid gypsum material I previously mentioned it a complete polymer resin. The good news is that it will mix with the metals that I have been working with. The bad news is that it may not be as fine when mixed as the Gouache and Polyester Resin mixtures and therefore I may be limited by the detail that I can accomplish. I have been working with extremely thin layers, so thin that if I give them a scrub I can remove the finish. Obviously the durability of working that thin is questionable, but I appreciate the economy of a very thin veneer. I haven't even gotten to the sealing stage yet as the pieces I have made are still damp, but I can't wait to see if a spray darkens the color and/or enhances the appearence of the metals.

Today was much like any other day and I mixed a new batch of prints and backings on different materials. I also stewed a batch of Gum Arabic in an old school cappucino pot that emulates a double boiler. I have been working with stars using a combination of bronze for the star and steel for the background in black. By working with thinner layers I have come to the conclusion that it may be easier to bind layers of different materials as the thickness doesn't work against the binding effect of the plaster. There is only a short time for the binding to take place and if an image is too thick it may not saturate and bond with the plaster medium, so working thinner potentially gives a better bond with the base material than a thicker image. This also proved to be true in practice.

I browsed the pigment section of Douglas and Sturgess today and noticed some materials that I have looked for in previous experiments, most notably cadmium. I have tried to get enough information to experiment with screen printing solar panels and cadmium was one of the active materials that could assist with making photovoltaic films. The simplist form of a solar cell that I have found was a aluminum wire wrapped on a coated copper plate. These pigments may be printable with cold casting either with polyester resins and or gypsum hybrids. I am going to find some of my materials and see if it is relevant. Conductivity, thin and layered were the keys to creating multi-layered solar films that create electricity. I don't see how this wouldn't work if printed efficiently. The old site I worked on was SolarPowerIsHot.com. I am hoping that I uploaded my data so that I can find the materials list and start anew.