New store window

Halloween

Updated information and future post will be managed at PhotoFresco.com

Updated information and future post will now be managed at photofresco.com Scroll down and look to the right to see prior archive of post from photofresco.blogspot.com

Garage and Truck Art Gallery Show in Mill Valley includes the complete recent batch of Photo Fresco work by Bill Wyatt

Click here for a complete photo catalog of the Garage Art Gallery Show - Fresh Rust by Bill Wyatt

I modified my travel plans and because of weak vehicles I didn't want to drive all these pieces to Los Angeles without having a show in Mill Valley first. I spent the afternoon hanging the remaining 30 pieces to complete the show and all them all to be seen in my driveway at the intersection of Shoreline Highway and West California Avenue. Its just off the road that goes out to Muir Beach and Muir Woods. I put up a listing as an event on Craigslist and am going to have wine and tri-tip tonight between 6pm and 7pm to make it official. All of the pieces are for sale for $100 and any remaining pieces will go to LA and be displayed at Y-Que Trading Post after this show. Since these are all hanging on my Garage door, you could call this the Garage Art Gallery Show too.

Read/click the post on the right to get more information on this work.

Next Truck Art Gallery Show in Mill Valley; the pieces that survived the first show

Announcing a new display of the Photo Fresco work of Bill Wyatt on the Truck Art Gallery parked at West California and Shoreline Highway (Hwy 1) in Mill Valley. These pieces have been listed for sale on Etsy and are still on the Truck that was used for a show last week in Sausalito during the Art Festival on Bridgeway. I have since driven to Davis and back and these are the pieces that survived. Although I have a bunch of new work that I have not displayed on the truck, I am not going to leave that for this show. I am going to transport the remaining batch of work that has varying degrees of stability to Los Angeles for display in Y-Que Trading Post in Los Feliz. The reason is that the structure on the frames is not quite as solid as the work that is currently on the truck and I don't want to take the work that survived off the truck until it weathers a little more.

The pieces on the truck are available for $100 each and can be purchased directly or through Etsy. I have assembled the truck so that the individual pieces can be removed when they are sold.

Truck Art Gallery Show in Mill Valley

West California Ave and Shoreline Highway
Photo Fresco work by Bill Wyatt
From: September 6 through the 12th

To purchase any work show here email: admin@yque.com or call 3236640021 for more information
Link to Etsy Listing: http://www.etsy.com/listing/160517896/set-of-12-screen-print-montages?ref=listing-shop-header-2

Link to work on display on the Truck Gallery Art ShowL Fresh Rust separately. All the work shown in the photos is not necessarily represented in the Final Truck Gallery show as some of it was edited out at the last minute and moved to Los Angeles for display at Y-Que Trading Post.

The Truck Art Gallery Show in Sausalito was a success; no parking tickets.

Sausalito is a notorious town for parking tickets and I have run afoul of their system of hiding signs and charging enormous fines before. This time I had my art show on the truck for two consecutive 3 day runs at different spots and I did not violate their parking rules or get any tickets. Several people mixed and matched the letters on the truck and nothing fell off, which means I succeeded in mounting and presenting this batch of photo fresco work.

Next I loaded up the truck and did some reinforcements, then drove off to Davis California for another brief show on the streets of Davis around UCD, my daughter goes to school there. This was a much tougher drive and at 8mpg it's quite expensive. I lost one frame rather quickly, somewhere on the 101 heading north to Novato. This scared the shit out of me and as I pumped gas I walked around the truck and banged on the frames to make sure the ones that were left felt secure. The wind picked up through the afternoon and I kept turning as I drove to check the back of the truck and see if the remaining frames were coming loose. I got to Davis without losing any more pieces and got to show off my truck to my daughter and her college friends. I took a tour of the local area and headed back before it got too late.

In a way this felt like my own personal Burning Man trip, since I have never gotten around to going to that event and it just finished. Of course this is as far as I would have gotten had I tried to go there anyway. I made the trek back, gripping the whee the entire way and looking back over my shoulder every few seconds. The wind was stronger on the return trip and the road seemed bumpier, until I got to Marin, where the roads are like flying carpets, smooth and flowing. The roads in Marin make me feel like I'm flying as I glide over them avoiding the many police officers that are thankfully occupied giving tickets to others so that I could sneak by and get back to my shack. I made it back and the truck was still in one piece, so that was truly a success in many ways. I'm going to go out now and see if the truck starts and what cracks and chips occurred during this sojourn.

Just add lettering - Truck Gallery in Sausalito emerges as a spelling board for magnetic punk rock ransom font lettering

Here are some closer photos:

The Truck Gallery emerges just in time for the Sausalito Art Festival

It started out as an art cage, but by the end of the night it almost made sense and looked like an art wall. I started off in the morning with some grid wall and connecters. I just kept adding a piece of wood here and bracket there and by 3pm I was able to put on actual photo fresco pieces. As I added the actual framed pieces to the structure I was able to remove most of the grid wall and the printed frames themselves tightened up the structure. I hardly stopped throughout the day, except to help my daughter for 15 minutes paint her car with chalkboard paint, and worked up a good sweat jumping up and down on the truck. My battery for the drill was worn out and by the end of the day I was only able to do one or two screws before I had to put the battery back in the charger.

I didn't have to go to the hardware store at all and was able to use wood from other projects and bent nails. Some of the brackets and screws had already been purchased, but I felt like I didn't want to stop and just moved forward with the things I had. I hand sawed the 2 X 4s and found nails in the leaves around the yard. My anxiety increased throughout the day when I realized the Sausalito Art Show was starting Friday and I would need to get a parking spot on the street in order to have a chance at displaying this work in the area that I like to park.

I removed most of the original grid wall and put some diagonal strips of wood all around the structure for additional support, then nervously pulled from my driveway and onto Highway 1. I drove extremely slow and held my breath on every dog legged turn down the mountain. Traffic looked like a nightmare going North because the Bay Bridge is closed this weekend, but it wasn't bad in my direction. I didn't have to merge onto the main freeway and was able to get off the freeways as fast as I got on since I was barely going one exit. I found a parking spot where the sun would hit the truck and then sat down on the side of the road and thought about how the truck would do the rest of the work by just sitting there.

Building an art cage

On the back of the truck.

Never Been Shown - New work going out on the street this weekend

16" X 19" Recycled Screen Printing Frame with epoxy acrylic and rusted background print.

I'm not a real sort of artist that touts my credentials and has stuff shown in a gallery. The best I have done over the years is sit on the streets in the late Eighties and sell a bunch of pieces, hang some quasi-political stuff in my own space in Hollywood, show and sell a few things in my store in Los Angeles and put some of my photo-fresco pieces on my truck and park it around Sausalito. I've sold a few things over the years and the process of getting something out of my system is complete once I either let things weather outside on my truck or once the pieces I've made have been subjected to the hot sun of the front window of Y-Que in Los Angeles. If the work survives those challenges by then I have moved on to a new attempt at the same concept, but with different materials to fix whatever problems came about through the process.

Create, Expose, Destroy; is the cycle of my craft. I've got a shellmound in my backyard that is the final resting place of pieces that can't survive a good toss. I've got a storage warehouse with cracked and separated pieces that didn't make the cut. It's a workout moving these things around, but each time I go through them it's a reminder of what not to do. This is what keeps me mixing, pouring and painting on epoxy and cement, acrylic and fiberglass, wood and screws; testing and printing until every possible combination has been had. Still my work no more complex than the stuff I did in the 90's, except for the inks and the background materials. Instead of canvas I use epoxy and instead of gesso I use rusted steel. I like the quantity of consistent pieces that I have recently made and now comes the time to put it out on the street and down into the store.

This weekend is the Sausalito Art Show and I somehow like vaguely being on the edge of a recognized art community, sort of the same with many things in my life. Are these my peeps? Wine drinkers, yes, craftspeople, yes, fun loving rich people, not so much. That's where the edge comes in because I can't really hang with regular stable successful people who are the patrons of the craft art world. I call it craft art because to sell it you have to go the whole route and set up a booth to show your stuff, like a craft fair. I've seen some well presented exotic work from the edge looking in at these events and realize that it's just like a trade show and by the second day I might be too hung over to talk about my work or too let down to want to try. Still I feel drawn to want to get my stuff out and that means mounting some wood and created a sort of wall on the back of my F250 and parking it on the street.

In my head it's like a statement, "I'm still here doing stuff!" As if to say, I'm alive and I don't need your stinkin' walls. It's true, but for some reason I do need viewers and I can't get that by sitting in my backyard or on Etsy. It's never been overly gratifying to watch people walk by and not even notice the large bright colorful pieces mounted all over my truck, but I still want to do it. I keep thinking that I have done something different that will make a difference and cause people to stop and look, even for a moment, or to raise their head from their iphone and glimpse at my truck for a second. Maybe I have this time, I have a bigger truck and can go higher, to eye level and possibly two levels of paintings making it 12 pieces on each side of the truck. It's gonna' be big, I say, dangerously so.

This brings up the next set of issues, which is to make is stable and safe. I have a schedule and a parking problem, 3 days, 72 hours and a very busy town. I may or may not be able to get a parking spot that can go from Friday to Monday unless I finish the truck and get it down there Thursday night late. I could do all of this work and then drive by and not be able to find a place to put my vehicle. There isn't any reason to go check though if I can't leave the truck, so for now I am going to get my butt in gear and put together a truck gallery.

link to old truck gallery work on my smaller truck. http://williamwyatt.org/

Collage or Montage? That is the question.

The collage and montage description seem similar to me, but I think what I am doing is more of a montage. I have developed a background piece for working on, which are my used screen printing frames that I recycle and clean the old ink out of then coat with shellac to create a base to paint and print on. In some cases I fill the back with wire and cement to create a strong durable backing and then I remove the screen printing mesh entirely from the front of the frame. In other cases I coat the screen with epoxy or water based urethane mixed with steel pigments, then cause them to rust which creates a brownish metal looking background. Lastly I work through my screen printing designs that I used for t-shirt printing and mix them randomly creating compositions from the various images on each individual frame and this is a finished piece.

I am going to post a batch of photo jpegs of my first production run of 12-15 pieces.

Now I have a bunch of finished pieces

Finished a bunch, finally.

All this work and nothing to show

I keep making frames and finding materials to print and press onto them, but I'm yet to finish a single piece.

The original plan; make some recycled screen printing frames into prints

When the new stuff fails, just go back to the original plan. I had no success in building a thermocouple using the atomized metals and printing them onto a surface. There was not enough contact between the powder to even conduct electricity on it's own, so I have had to move on from that. Actual metal pieces would need to be put in contact with each other to make a thermocouple and without melting the metal pigments that I am using there is not way to force them together enough with binders. I did order a thermocouple online, like the one shown in a previous post, and I am waiting for it to arrive to play with it. Unless I have something that I can use electricity for, there isn't much need in trying to build a thermocouple anyway.

My original plan was to simply clean off and recycle old screen printing frames to use for new projects. I would like a completely waterproof durable final piece and have been using a combination of paint and cement to fill the frames and create a flat solid surface where the dirty screen once was. The methods of cleaning out the frames has changed over the last week to where I am hardly cleaning the frames any longer and spending more time providing some structure using screws and chicken wire before pouring the cement.

My cost are approximately $12 a bag for cement from Home Depot (12 frames) or $1/ea for a , $5 for a box of screws (15 frames) or $0.35/ea, and I am going to estimate the chicken wire at $0.50/ea and paint at $0.15/ea. This brings my recycling cost per frame to $2.00/ea without using any epoxy to create a waterproof top surface. If I did use epoxy I think it would take approximately 3-5 ounces and some pigment, so it would add at least $3.00/ea to the frame cost. None of these cost include any labor as my work is worth nothing.

The original plan was to simply recycle the frames into something that could be used as a decorative piece and then resell them cheap to get rid of frames and make a little money. Without using epoxy I could sell these for ten bucks, but I have to put a design on them next. My daughter and others really like the frames when they are coated with epoxy, but I have to consider the design first since the epoxy is just a top coat that can be added later. I have put a painted latex exterior paint as the top surface without filling small holes or sanding, but the color is a flat green and my next layer needs to be something that bonds with the latex.

To keep the cost low I could just use an acrylic, but that would cause weathering problems unless I coat the top surface with epoxy. I could use epoxy directly with pigment, but when I paint it the top surface is shiny and glossy and no other paints will bond to that. I have mixed some multi-purpose screen printing inks with pigments and gotten a decent finish, but those inks are a little pricey. I have even used some plastisol screen printing inks, which has a great thickness, but I am not sure that the latex can handle the heat required to make the plastisol dry. I kinda like the plastisol concept because of it's thickness, but if I remember correctly, the cool temperature of the cement underlay keep the plastisol from reaching the 300 degrees required for it to set properly. In some cases the plastisol may not need to set, especially if I am going to cover it with epoxy. The plastisol could remain in a semi-liquid state and hold it's shape or design until the epoxy is layered on top, but this is probably not a good idea. The exterior paint may be the best solution because it is made for being outside, unlike the acrylics. I have been getting cheap mixed exterior paints for $7 a gallon, so you can't beat the price, but the color has a lot to be desired. I am going to try and put pigment on top of the paint today and see if I can get rid of the ugly paint color from the can.

Screen Printing and Strip Casting a Thermoelectric Module or Thermocoupler

I have recently seen a few things that sparked my interest in this subject, again. One was a the Canadian girl who made a flashlight to work from body heat.



This could have been done using a thermocouple and a voltage booster as shown here:


This got me thinking about how to build and construct the actual thermocouple.

The basic idea of a thermocouple is that two different types of conductive metals that are put in contact with each other will create electricity when heated. Since the metals aren't creating the electricity, the heat is, then somehow electrons flow through the metal which can be read and potentially harnessed as in the case of the led lights shown above. It's not much electricity, but this method is commonly used to create thermometers and even some waste energy retrieval systems. This Seebeck effect does not require electricity it is almost mechanical from my standpoint.

I have had a couple of problems relating to my frames in that they seem to generate heat on the top surface when exposed to the sun. Also I have been using plaster inside to stiffen these pieces which has been working as a cooling surface, which is almost in direct contact with the exterior, except for a few veneers. The flashlight and voltage booster shown above seem to have a thermocouple embedded in a tile that transfers the heat from the top surface through and to the thermocouple. From there the electricity is fed to the led light with some regulation and boosting to get the voltage to where the led light can operate. I don't think I can make anything as efficient as the ceramic tile and I am not sure if the thermocouple inside the tile is complex or simple, but I have seen that some of the thermocouples shown online are basic metal wire wrapped around each other and heated, which also means this should work as a flat contact. There are some homemade thermocouples that are linked in series and others that generate electricity to run a fan when they are placed on a wood stove. I haven't seen much detail about thermocouples that work from the heat generated from the sun, but if hand heat can create a flow then the heat caused by reflecting sunlight should generate that much heat as well. Ideally if the heat is generated over a larger flat area then it may be enough to actually read on a meter and then theoretically do something.

I purchased a thermocouple from Grainger and could not get it to generate a current when I put it in a toaster oven. I have also started coating some surfaces with metals to see if I can get any sort of current between them. This also reminds me of electrolysis which is something you don't want on boats in the water. Electrical currents can be created between vessels of different materials like an aluminum hull parked near a steel hull and if there is any corrosion the salt water allows a current to flow between the vessels like a large battery. The end result is that the electrolysis wears away the metal causes a leak or worse. I imagine the same thing can happen in buildings when they are constructed with different metals being attached as the contacts could create electricity and that could also cause corrosion over time.

My problem has been to simply put together the pieces so that I can feel confident that I am going to get a current out of the different metals with the low amount of heat that I am going to be able to apply. I am not sure if the cooling surface below the exposed metals is also relevant or not, as it seems to be with the tiles around the thermocouples mentioned above. Heat flows to cool, which is the absorption of the energy from the heat and that converted energy can be electricity in the case of the differing metals connected to each other. As electricity will flow towards the path of least resistance then the contacts and cool surfaces are providing a direction for the heat energy to go. Heat is not directly electricity, so electrons must be getting released between the two metals which seems to go through the metal creating the current. Assuming I have this kinda right, then if the contact spaces are larger then the reaction can create a cumulative effect as long as the energy has a place to go.

This is where I am confused since all of the pieces I see are concentrating the effect on small rod light devices or wire that comes to a point. These types of thermocouples are devised to make an easy transition from the couple to the wire and therefore the path of least resistance is clear and the wires are treated like a positive and a negative. I am not sure how you decide what is positive and negative, but the underlying theory or Seebeck effect seems very simple with the metal wire and direct heat. The air around the wires may be the cooling element with the exposed wires and therefore the amount of current being created is less than with the ceramic tile effect, but for me any current would be neat. The cooling area or contact area may be a surface that simply pulls the heat into the surface and then the wires and metals are able to conduct the heat and transform it into loose electrons. That's the best I've got so far and the only metals I have are aluminum and steel. I am trying to figure out what pattern to use for the contacts and if the contacts need to be limited to a small area or not.

Never a dull moment when screen printing thermocouple electric generators

It's a dream more than a reality, but I am getting ever closer to making something useful. This time I am attempting to convert some of the frames I have reclaimed into electric generators using a thermocouple concept known as the Seebeck effect. The basic concept is that dissimilar metals when connected and exposed to heat can generate electricity. Whaaaaat? My concept is to merge art with science and use my frames at the same time. All I have to do is print the conductive metals so that they can be exposed to heat, sunlight, and then get the contacts and flow arranged in such a way that an electrical current is established. The details will follow, but in the meantime it's one small step for photo-fresco and large step forward for screen printing technology.

Lessons learned is logic lost

I just like to make up titles that sound good, then try and apply some logic. I keep thinking I am learning stuff and progressing with my experiments of epoxy, screen printing and faux fresco techniques, but when it gets down to it I just push forward with the things that are closest to me. I find myself working in a daze sometimes, just printing and mixing and slapping things together. The only logic that seems left in this is that I have gone to the trouble of putting things around me that I think will work together.

The variations on the types of things I have been making keep me running in circles with finished products. Each time I get close to something finished, like a pendant or emblem, I think that the finishing steps are too cumbersome and I trash the concept. What seems to be the problem is that I don't want to make things that are not going to keep being fun to make once I figure them out. I like figuring them out, but sanding and applying adhesives to make pieces into something useful like a key chain or sticker keep pulling me down. The larger products like prints and framed pictures are difficult to carry, display and sell, but these types of pieces seem easier in that when you are done with something it holds itself.

I've taken to spray painting the edges of frames to make the finished prints on frames even easier to give a slight sense of finished without attaching a frame. I can't say I am a huge fan of that technique, but it works, it's cheap and it's fast. My last batch of screen printing frames converted to printed frames are still being finished, but I did get an assortment of techniques into a finished set of pieces by doing some down and dirty processes.

First I cleaned and scraped the ink and residue off a bunch of old screen printing frames using a putty knife, mineral spirits and rubber gloves. After they dried I put some tape on the inside to block the design and then put a couple of coats of some old latex paint over the emulsified screen without trying to clean out the emulsion or remove the design, I just painted over it. After two coats I removed the inside tape and put a coat or two of paint on the inside of the frame to seal off the emulsion and screen, as well as, to cover any ink residue left on the inside of the screen. This provided me with a white flat surface on the topside of the screen to work on.

I'm not sure how well the latex will hold to the emulsion on the screen, but since the latex is going to be covered I am thinking that it won't be subjected to significant abuse. This process provided me with a batch of 10-15 frames with a flat white surface that is essentially primed with a gesso like coating. I wasn't super pristine in my work so there are some bumps from left over tape and ink, but I am trying to keep the labor down and be able to do this job without thinking too much. If I was outside looking for a piece of wood or flat surface to work on this would be ideal, so although it may not be up to the standards of a professional art canvas it's better than a scrap of wood or rough cement surface.

I have been applying a batch of techniques to these frames from direct printing onto the surface with a variety of screen printing inks and epoxies. I have also used them to apply vinyl adhesive backed prints to, large stickers basically. Each of these techniques showed promise, but the idea of working on the frames and the prints separately has merit. I also created s a rusted surface directly on the frames and I have a few of those sitting around that I can now try to print directly on. The benefit of working on the large vinyl stickers is that I don't have to be committed to the work while I work on it, because I don't have to think that I am wasting a frame if I don't like it. Cleaning the frames is more work than what I do to make a design, so I have an added mental investment in a piece being done directly on a frame that may keep me from testing techniques. Also the difficulties in printing on the surface of the frame itself are a little bit of a problem. I have been using spray paint stencils for a final coating on the image part of designs and that eliminates the problems with printing.

Some of the techniques I've been using are things that I hate, like splattering around a design. God I hate that, but because I am so sloppy with the epoxy it has dripped from time to time onto the background and there is no way I can even begin to think about getting it off, so I have had to just add a few drips around it. Once again, I hate this look, but aesthetically it does look more finished than some of the pieces that just have an image floating on the background surface. It is like I hate using artistic techniques that will appear arty even if they work. I am trying to make something that is as if it came out of a machine, with no feeling besides the texture and the graphic, but these cheesy methods like splatter seem to make the image come together, which makes me hate it even more because I can't escape it. Spilling paint is something I can do, but I don't like to think of it as a skill or something that I meant to do or it destroys my whole process of industrial design. I am interested in how people perceive it and if pieces are more attractive to the viewer because of these painterly accents.

Powder Coating and Powder Metallurgy and Powder Painting

Powder Coating and Powder Metallurgy are base industrial processes for coating metal and making materials with powder metals instead of the standard painting methods. I've been playing with metal pigments in different materials and making a faux photographic process using steel, which rust, for the lighter tones of an image. Ideally the pigments provide a more resistant surface for weathering than do epoxy, acrylics or resins by themselves, but that would only be true if the rusting process stops. I haven't bothered to apply a top coat or sealant to the oxidized surface because I don't want to change the look and feel of the light rust. Is there a state of oxidation for metal when it is stable as rust, which would mean that I am just making yellow metal?

I have iron oxide yellow available as a color, but it does not have the depth and shades that putting a layer of steel and watching it rust has. The mystery just isn't there if I start with the final color. This is the way in which this process is sort of like photography. With photographs it is always a mystery when you put the paper in the developer and watch the image appear while the chemicals react with the exposed paper. The same is true when I coat a layer of steel with wet salt and wash it off. The lighter steel coated areas slowly appear more and more yellow as they dry and create a contrast with the black areas.

I have started making whole sheets of vinyl sticker paper coated with steel and oxidized as a substrate for printing or spray painting on. I am not sure if the process is worth it, but it does have potential for making a bunch of sheets in this way that I can use later and not have to keep going through the task of making the rusted metal sheets every time I want to use this process.

My first idea was to use wood for the substrate, then I switched to canvas before I moved to vinyl sticker paper. Vinyl sticker paper is not exotic or fancy in any way, but when I think about the potential applications I consider it a very versatile substrate. The designs and printing methods I use only make a thin layer or veneer that is the image in a graphic. Substrates like canvas, wood, cement and plaster are holders for these materials to give them body and strength. I like some of these materials, but each one of them then has to be put into something or finished in a way that would make them useful and that takes additional time that often feels like more work than making the pieces themselves.

I like making images, but don't like making finished things. This has always been a problem of mine. In college I used butcher paper for screen printing and my teacher ignored my work. In photography lab I didn't matte my prints in the standard way and I was blocked from the group exhibit with the rest of the class. This is of course why I liked the punk rock aesthetic when it rolled around and the idea of zines and such. T-shirts only work for me because they are somewhat finished and I am just adding a design on top. The problems associated with framing and mounting are by and large too much for me to keep working on designs and sticker paper will allow me to print and cut or file the work and not worry too much about the final touches. As stickers these types of prints can also be used by others in a quick way, although I am not sure how this would help the value of the work.

The main difference and problem with vinyl versus paper or another medium is that the layers cannot penetrate the top surface and bond with the substrate in the way that materials and pigments embed themselves into canvas, plaster and paper. The entire bond with the vinyl is contained in the chemical hardening on top of the vinyl and then the pigments being layered into and on top of the vinyl paper. I have been able to remove a thin layer of epoxy and other materials from the vinyl like a flexible layer of latex, so these pieces are literally only skin deep. But versatility over substrate is my call to action today. I can always make these pieces on thicker mediums and more permanent objects later. For now I am working on vinyl as if it was a fine quality archival substrate like the finest rice papers from Japan.

I spent my day watching steel rust and loved it.

I did a print on wood with epoxy to make this steel rust for the background of a spray paint stencil design. The idea is to have the flesh and light tones made by the rusting steel pigments in the mixture. I increased the highlights too much with photoshop and this image appears yellow, but it basically shows what I have in terms of this process. I'm happy with the effect and I proceeded to make three more of these on canvas in a relatively short period of time. I am literally making these backgrounds and adding a saline solution and putting them out to dry, which means I am standing around watching them rust.

Mounting the frame and finishing the piece is still the hard part. I prefer not to have to spend my time worrying about how the final piece is going to look, but I am forced to work in a retail world and this requires me to have to make things presentable. The framing is more important than any signature, but I don't worry so much about that any more. Proliferation is more important than identity in my world, but uniqueness is a signature in and of itself.

I need to go back and work on some new stencils or I may even be able to screen print on these canvas's. These are not reliefs as I have regressed back to a 2-d concept. The benefits of a relief is a limiting factor for practical applications since reliefs cannot be applied to a wide range of products. Reliefs are basically emblems and if an image has depth within the graphic itself, then it can serve the same purpose as a sculpture without having the thickness and weight that comes along with a relief. I learned this early in my career with craft-like products when I tried to add embroidery to my screen printing business. People / Customers preferred screen printing over embroidery because of the graphic effect versus the more labor intensive embroidery process. It's like cartoons are better than photographs in some ways. Your imagination can flow into and out of a cartoon, but a photo brings you back into reality and it's not that fun; it's literally too real.

It's not easy being Glow in the Dark

It always seems kitschy when you see glow in the dark items, but it isn't easy being Glow in the Dark, just try it. Glow in the dark also isn't cheap. Currently I pay about $80-90 for a quart of glow in the dark plastisol screen printing ink. The powder to mix a good glow in the dark is also not cheap if you want it to glow enough to make it have an impact. I've been printing with my glow in the dark inks to try and make stickers that pop at night. This is a good item for cell phones and they can even serve the purpose of helping to find a phone or remote control in a dark space. I can't get a good bond with the plastisol, so I am going to have to mix glow-in-the-dark powder into clear epoxy and see how that works.

My other half-baked ideas are a new printed stencil made with epoxy. I am patiently waiting for it to dry enough to peel it away from it's form so that I can try it tomorrow and see how it works. This new spray paint stencil technique should remove the small grid lines that I have when I make wire mesh stencils.

I have made a variety of test with different abrasive techniques on the epoxy and steel sheets I have made. My favorite item to use is a sponge sandpaper square, but I also tried two types of abrasive pads and some very fine sandpaper. After sanding I coated the veneers with salt water and I am hoping that a rusted surface will appear in a day or two and then these steel veneers can be used as a background for printing lighter colors onto.

I printed adhesive and epoxy today and applied powders to see how finished the surfaces look, not bad, but they top layer is going to be vulnerable to wear quicker than with a sealed epoxy finish. I also applied some adhesive backing to some epoxy experiments that didn't work out so that I could use the flawed pieces as stickers. I printed some adhesive to some line art and am attempting to transfer the line art print to glass surfaces just from the pressure against the glass. This may work well with an epoxy background that can adhere to the glass while it dries. It was wishful thinking to think the glue would be strong enough to just work the image off my transfer paper, but more time and wetter epoxy may help the process.

Success leads to a new set of problems and a new set of solutions - Printing with adhesives

I have now found a way to print on the clear epoxy veneers with an ink jet printer and then adhere these prints to other things like sticker paper. The problems that arise from this are similar to the problems that arise with every printed material when it comes to finishing the prints and cutting them out. Without a die made specifically for an item these prints have to be cut from their background and that leaves a white or black frame around the item, unless I spend long amounts of time meticulously cutting the edges. The other option is to print these ink jet prints on clear epoxy and then print a white background just where the image is. The clear epoxy can then bleed off the edges and blend into the substrate that the sticker would be put on.

My here was to add pigment to the adhesive and print an adhesive in the white or background color. The reason this won't work is that the clear area would need adhesive too. Therefore I need I can print a white background color in a regular ink that can bond to the printed area and the epoxy around it, then apply a clear adhesive to the back. Frankly it may be simpler to just use a vinyl ink and print correctly on sticker paper with the proper ink and then let the stuff dry, then go to another color. All of this work to make an epoxy sticker will help it survive in ways that vinyl may not survive, but I am having trouble with keeping a focus on the final purpose if it is just going to be a sticker in the end. I just washed a glass with a color ink jet image printed and it didn't wash out, nor did it come off, so there is something to be said for that. However I could also do the same to a vinyl sticker it might work for the purpose of the normal life cycle for these types of things. I do like the idea of epoxy veneers that could be fused together and that is something that you can't do with vinyl stickers, but I am not in a position to make something to use that type of procedure, so that may be a waste of time also.

Thinking this through I see a solution to a non-relevant problem. Assuming I use the epoxy as the printed veneer and apply a clear adhesive to the back, then I layer these pieces, like shingles, onto another substrate. The advantage of these veneers is that they could then receive a top coat of epoxy that would connect and seal them together in a way that would be superior to an epoxy coating in that the bonds between the layers is permanent going epoxy to epoxy. Epoxy sheeting, Cold molding, Epoxy laminating? I'm not sure what to call this technique but most other films are not made out of epoxy and therefore are not able to be bonded together. I suppose Sticker Molding would be a good word for this. Vinyl tiles or floor tiles may be the equivalent process, like wall paper, but wall paper that you could blast with a power washer.

Actually I have heard of some fancy wall paper being used and sold for huge amounts of money, like $70 a roll. Whaaaaaat? This could be a practical application of the concept of epoxy veneers with prints, but I would need to research this market a bit more. A flat wall is the perfect substrate for applying stickers onto in a big way.

I did a quick review and found some wall papers that sold for around $2.50 per square feet. These were digitally printed designs on 27" paper that overlapped at 24" intervals. The total length was 27 feet for about $150. I was impressed with the color, but can't really think of working that big or competing with that type of product. Even if an epoxy version of that would be a better product, I don't think it is worth the time to work on something like that except for my own project. This does have me thinking of the types of designs on the side of airplanes and I wonder what type of sticker imaging technique they use for that. This type of picture of a whale or logo on the side of a plane would have to survive all types of abuse at 300 miles an hour or more.

Quick research review indicates that the exterior of planes are painted, not covered with large stickers. Comprende'.

The combination of practical to make and practical to use rules the day.

I have been having some success in making thin epoxy veneers, but in trying to find a final practical use for these pieces I am forced to acknowledge the products that already are on the market that are similar in some way and superior in others. For example epoxy stickers are readily available online, but they are not quite what I am trying to make in that the typical epoxy sticker on the market is a color image that is covered by a clear epoxy dome or clear sticker. In many cases these would be much easier to buy than my epoxy veneer stickers and my epoxy stickers would never be as easy to use or as cheap as what is currently on the market for epoxy stickers. The other item to compare my epoxy stickers to is cut vinyl lettering and emblems that are used on cars and boats and again, these items are readily available and in common use as stickers, but quite possibly would not last as long as an epoxy emblem or sticker. The problem here is deciding on what to finish making for markets that are already flush with items that would create problems with finding a niche for my photo fresco epoxy stickers.

Stickers still seem like the way to go since they can be used on a wide range of products without heat or additional glues. My big question here is whether or not to bond the epoxy veneers to vinyl sticker paper that has superior adhesives or to just put glue on the back of the emblems themselves. I have an old roll of double sided sticker paper and I think I will just apply a fresh layer of epoxy and then press the emblems onto the sticker. Off to try it now.

Printing with Epoxy and the Screen Printing inks on the market

I have printed with epoxy and polyester resins and much to my surprise the epoxy resins that I mixed have performed and cleaned up better than the epoxy I purchased through my screen printing suppliers. The secret is to use a wide mesh screen and mix the epoxy thick enough so that is does not keep spreading once it is printed. Depending on the mixture the screen may or may not be recoverable, but only use a screen that you are willing to destroy in the process of printing with epoxy. My next challenge is going to be detail and I am currently happy with a 20 line half tone screen for printing. My opinion is that a high contrast image without a halftone may have a better effect visually as it will look more graphic and pop against the rusted backgrounds I am trying to work on.

My next job in this process is to make a bunch of epoxy backgrounds and make them rust properly, while I work on the artwork that will eventually be printed on top of these backgrounds. Also I think the best substrate would be canvas since it is flexible and can be rolled.

This brings up the reason for epoxy versus other materials. I have found that to get a good final piece that can survive outside, it needs to be thick. Acrylics and other inks will crack as they get thicker, especially polyester resins. The ability of epoxy to bend and stay adhered to the substrate makes it a superior medium to work with.

Urethane is the other material that can weather well, but it is hard to bond other materials to it, so I have had to move away from urethane resins as a printing and cold casting medium. Similarly other inks don't necessarily bond to epoxy, but epoxy on epoxy does work and that insures a good surface for exterior use that will weather well over time. Ultra Violet light, UV, does distort or discolor epoxy, but if I am using solid pigments in the material then those pigments should block the negative effects of yellowing and discoloration from the UV in sunshine.

Nothing new here, please move along.

The old becomes the new as the new is the "New Old". Circular rhetoric won't make this concept any better, but it does make light of the idea that making new things look old is sort of my goal. I like this rusty background and although I think the rust also works well as the lighter tones in a piece, it is dark enough in this case to work as a background. This photo fresco of Lindsay Lohan was made 3-4 years ago, at least and I have left it sitting around in my yard weathering. Every time I go to destroy it or throw it away I look at the details and wonder why my other pieces haven't weathered as well as this on has?



This is the newer epoxy sticker concept, without the weathering with a Mayan Calendar design. I think I can repeat this process and end up with a background that weathers like the Lindsay piece, but it works as just a sticker, emblem or patch as I discussed earlier. The detail is sufficient for a photographic effect and because I can make the veneer smooth enough to print on then I should be able to print with epoxy or some other durable ink and keep the rough look of the metal by sanding it first. The big accomplishment that has gotten me back to this point is that I am now able to make the thin epoxy veneers by cold casting and can finish them with a canvas backing (or wood, foam or any other surface) and then apply the imaging afterwards. In the past I have been making these as one piece and as reliefs, which required sanding and finishing afterwards. Now I am going to apply the idea of steel veneers of epoxy as a gesso or background for other works to be applied on top of. Also these will be flexible and thin enough to cut and trip if required and epoxy or other paints should adhere successfully to the surfaces. These can still be made together if I want to print them in layers, but I am now thinking that I would make a bunch of backgrounds and then have them for images when I need them.

The bigger picture

Just how big is the bigger picture. I keep making things smaller and analyzing them on a microscopic level to determine what is really in the bigger picture, assuming it is just multiples of the smaller picture. The smaller the objects are that I make the more the objects themselves need to be put into something else to make them bigger. Even little pendant like objects need to be hooked on chains and smaller flat images need to be made into stickers. The bigger picture and idea of materials that could survive weathering deserves a bigger item or piece.

The last item I made was a flexible epoxy patch and it keeps making me think of scales on a fish or reptile. The only salable item I have for this is the patches or stickers that I mentioned previously and as I fondle this item I ponder the variety of ways that I could apply it to make something else. The backing is made of canvas and the top or front is made with epoxy. If I overlap these items the epoxy layers could be bonded together and create an impermeable layer or skin. My latest fancy is to apply these in a scale like pattern over a boat or boat mold to create a hull or waterproof barrier with the shingle-like effect.

I am now thinking of the shape or pattern and trying to devise a purpose or benefit to this type of layering and coating. If epoxy is on the topside and exposed to weathering then it could also be painted and protected further, or another layer of epoxy could be applied on top to bond all of the scales together. However, if they were applied properly, then the scales should provide a strong external layer themselves without an extra coating. Still I need to come up with a pattern for layering and a shape to create for the scales in order to move forward to the next step of design.

Etsy - No Big Deal

Not much excitement over on Etsy, but also there isn't much excitement in my retail store in Los Angeles either. I have gone back to the drawing board about how and what I should spend my time making. I realize that the raised effect of the reliefs is no more entertaining or relevant that coloring or shading in an image. This renders much of my work to create 3-dimensional objects pointless from a finished product standpoint. I still like some of the finishes that can be achieved with using metals in epoxy and then sanding the top surface and allowing it to oxidize or rust, but I think I can achieve this in by making thinner, more flexible layers than with the reliefs. As a thinner layer I can then print designs using epoxy and possibly get a higher resolution than with reliefs. This would be more of a photographic effect versus a molded effect and the thinner layers will allow me to use these types of veneers as stickers or patches.

I had some discussions at a photo store in Los Angeles regarding the emulsions and coatings on photographic paper versus ink jet paper. My question about photographic paper is that if the resin coated paper is completely sealed then how does the unexposed silver get released from the sealed emulsion? The associate at the store implied that the silver is sort of embedded on the top surface of the emulsion in the paper. This concept got me to thinking that a thin layer of color or shaded material is just as deep as a relief if the viewer can see the details. Thus black and white photography incorporates detail and sharpness as well as shading to get effects, albeit literal duplications of the visual world, that are interesting as prints.

As a screen printer I have been able to print with mixed epoxies with a reasonable degree of detail, nothing like a true photographic print, but with more of a high contrast graphic type of photographic effect. In screen printing this is completely acceptable if not desired over more accurate higher detail effects I could get with a direct print, digital print or photographic print. My dilemma is that I am not convinced on the type of print to create using thinner veneers of epoxy.

I could print and adhere thin layers of epoxy with steel onto canvas and make the top surface rusty, then print a layer of a different color on top of that. The background or epoxy base is like a gesso, but would be flexible and could be adhered to canvas, thus making a epoxy photo fresco patch. The canvas can then be cut out or coated on the back with other materials like heat sensitive glue, making it a clothing patch, or pressure sensitive adhesive, making it a sticker.

My other technique would be to coat and print a photographic image on the backside of the layer of epoxy and then apply the canvas backing which can have a background color of white to make the image stand out. I don't see any benefit to this as I could just as easy make any print and then cover it with a clear coat of epoxy and the end result may be the same, except for the patch aspect. I suppose if I want to make photographic patches then the embedded photo in epoxy makes some sense as a process.

With that in mind I did do some color artwork of flowers that I will post here and I am thinking on how to apply it most effectively. I did a daisy and a sunflower, both of which look the same after I overworked them.

It's production time and etsy time

I posted a bunch of photo fresco keychains on etsy, yque.etsy.com. I want to test their marketplace and see if there is any place to sell stuff online that isn't as big a rip off as eBay and Amazon. Still I am not sure that I have a salable product, sticker/keychain, but I think these items are interesting and I can make more if I need to.

Update with scans of the photo fresco rust versus the aluminum with a 2nd color painted in.

A previous post where I discussed this process in detail was moved further down the blog because I updated a bunch of failed post from my phone. Here is a link to that explanation: http://photofresco.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-road-to-ruin-i-found-what-i-was.html

This hi contrast photographic image is a good example of the rust technique versus the painting a second color of epoxy. Although the epoxy finished image of Johnny Cash is cleaner looking, it also is too generic in some ways. The mystery surrounding the rust process is far more interesting to me and although it makes the piece look like a piece of old metal, hey, that's the accomplishment because it is really a new piece of plastic and not metal. It feels like plastic and molds like plastic, but it looks like rusty old steel.

Test post images

Emblem

2 color

Carbon fiber backed epoxy molds

Punk rock lettering

Epoxy emblems

Setting up a batch of adhesive backed emblems with epoxy. Free emblem with each t shirt at y-que in los Angeles.

Is that all there is?

After all the trials and tribulations, this is what I got, magnet frames, woo hoo!

Titanium white

And ethyl cellulose, chunky.

Punk rock magnet letters for cars

Volvo swag

On the road to ruin, I found what I was looking for.

I progressed down my road to ruin, blaming the economy, growing old and of course, Obama. As the prices for everything I need continues to rise, along with my debt, I find fewer and fewer reasons to work on an enterprise that requires large overhead and expenses. Through these trying times I spend much of my time working on my experiments, or side projects and they have provided some inspiration, but not any sort of economic benefit. There were glimpses of effects and styles that I liked, but they have always been just a few feet out of reach. Then today I walked out and picked up a piece that I had left out to dry and it had the effect I had been looking for.

I have been making reliefs and one effect that I liked was the topside of the relief was a rusty light brown, like an iron oxide yellow, and the inside of the relief is black. The net effect is a naturally occurring two-color effect that I parallel to a photographic effect. The parallel is reached by understanding that in photography the black is created on a piece of white paper by exposing silver particles in a suspended emulsion to light and then rinsing the paper in a series of acids and water. The particles that are exposed turn black and the remaining unexposed particles are washed away in the process, thus leaving a microscopic black particle pattern on a white background of paper. The weak links here are that the image is on a thin layer of emulsion and that is on a piece of paper, which has a limited life under even the best of situations.

The idea of working with photo fresco techniques has been to create a more permanent photographic effect and although I can transfer a photographic image into plaster, much like original fresco paintings, the process is still only skin deep, albeit in a form of rock. The literal translation of a photograph into plaster could also be accomplished by pasting a piece of paper on a wall, so I lost interest in the final results of the direct photo process into gypsum based plasters and started experimenting with reliefs and epoxies.

I have been using a combination of screen printing methods and mold making skills to translate hi-contrast photographic designs into molds without using lasers or routers. In the end my molds are almost as good as silicon based molds, which I could also make from my original molds, which are sort of the negative in photography, or the master mold in a professional sense. I use them as working molds to keep my cost down since I can't afford to work with silicon or even urethane rubber these days. Plus the time it takes to wait for those rubbers to set always seems longer than it is. I can have a working mold in one to two hours using my techniques and at a fraction of the cost. This process also makes me feel like I am still using a photographic type of technique that provides more instantaneous results. I could move forward with this process in the future and make silicon duplicates or urethane rubber molds from the originals and do more of a production environment with the process and not have to worry about damaging the original mold, but I haven't worried about that for now, it's just there.

Once I have my mold making down, I started working and compatible with my casting materials I have been making small objects to see what type of relief I could make using hi-contrast images, like cartoon drawings, clip art, and some photos. I did a letter set for putting emblems on cars, but the weight of the material and instability of the materials caused them to lift off of the vehicles, eventually, so printing worked better for that project. I came back to small emblems of images that could be used as stickers, magnets or key chains, nothing fancy.

The big deal with making the relief effect was solved, but to make the rust effect I had to sand down the top surface and wait for the top surface to oxidize and turn yellow. My last big investment was a belt sander for sanding down wine bottles and making planters (another project), because the work of hand sanding is where I sort of stopped trying to get the oxidized effect. I finally used this sander to take off the top layer of some pieces I had made and then through them in some salt water to clean them off and speed up the oxidation process. I put them out to dry overnight, not expecting them to turn yellow, but it was worth the time of the wash and the cost of the salt. When I went out and gathered my emblems, they were yellowed perfectly in a way that created the photographic effect that I have been working on, but without a bunch of tiresome work from hand sanding.

I have also gotten a photographic effect by filling in the relief with a second color of epoxy, but that is the same as painting and a bit too much work for simple pieces. The idea that I can cast these other items in a cheap metal, buff them up with some sanding and wash them like a print in the darkroom is more entertaining and satisfying technically. This rust version of photo fresco casting adds the layer of feeling like the chemicals are doing the work and the microscopic particles are making the design effect from something that is beyond my stubby fingers ability to do.

3-d food printer

Can it do this? If so, I'll go to mars.

Still I found the time to clean out some screens and make a few new candles and glasses

This is an image of a candle made with some ink and a sticker. The idea with the paint behind the seven day candle is that it will allow me to use any color combination of sticker design on top and the edges of the sticker blend in better with the paint than with the glass. I also applied some stickers to some wine bottles that I cut into glasses that can be used from drinking and/or for candles. I haven't had the time to pour any wax into the glasses, but my son seems to enjoy using one of the glasses to drink from around the house. I'll see how the sticker survives in the sink before I go further with that concept. I gave up on printing directly on the glass for now because it doesn't seem worth the effort for the mess it makes.

Urethane resins are inconsistent - epoxy resin is more reliable, but requires patience

I was in a rush to see my new mold the other day, so I purchased some urethane resin, smooth-on 326, with a medium strength and 5-10 minute pot life. I had surprisingly good results and started retooling my setup to run with the 326. I used up my 2 pint kit and on a Saturday afternoon I visited my local supplier of all things molded, Douglas and Sturgess, but they were out of the affordable pint kits. I was in the framework that urethane was now working for me and went ahead and tried the Task 9 Urethane resin by Smooth-On as a replacement. The results were not the same and I was left feeling like I wasted an entire day. It may be the moisture, which the sales agent at Douglas and Sturgess warned me about, or it may be incompatible with the pigments I am using, like aluminum bronzing pigments and steel powder. The results were more bubbles than ever, with pits and holes, and when I submerged the pieces in water to clean off the mold release, they curled and buckled to the point that they were not useful.

The good news was that I got a workable batch out with the Smooth on 326 and would use that again in a hurry, but I switched back to epoxy for a final run. Patience is all that it ask for and now that I used my mold once and no what to expect, I realized I don't need to be in such a hurry. Going back to the epoxy did have some risk in that a mold with the urethane could react differently and stick to the epoxy or break down the mold, but it didn't and a new batch of emblems made with epoxy emerged the next day. The firmness and the rigidity of the epoxy is superior to the urethane and the consistency of the epoxy makes it worth the wait.

The information that I gained from this weekend is that urethane can be used, like epoxy, but the Smooth On 326 is better than the other urethane resins for imitating epoxy resin with powder pigments. Also, I can go back and forth with my molds using urethane plastic when I am in a hurry, but the slower setting epoxy is a more detailed and better final product.

Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere, but nor a stick to pop.

I poured an 8 ounce batch of urethane mixed with steel pigment and it went into approximately 30 pieces in a variety of molds. The bubbles formed the longer the urethane was in the mixing container, so as I went deeper into the pour the more bubbles appeared in my work. I popped a few of the easy to get to bubbles, but gave up on the pieces that had batches of small bubbles. I'm just going to let them set and see what happens when I sand them down. The only use I have for these pieces is raised sticker emblems, key chains or magnets and I'm not that worried about the back side currently. These may end up being give-a-ways for the Y-Que store in Los Angeles.

Selling things is harder than it seems, so I don't really think I can sell this stuff until it's been tested. Secondly, most everything on earth has already been made by companies much more professionally than I have done. The world of etsy and printerest may be a market for craft items, but I haven't really spent enough time developing a profile on these websites to think that I can actually sell stuff there. My own website gets a lot of traffic, but t-shirts are the products there and these emblems may be able to blend in with my printed shirts since most of the designs are the same. I like the idea of proliferating the emblems by giving them away and then at least they may end up spread around Los Angeles versus randomly distributed through the web.

To isolate what makes these pieces different is a bit of a mental exercise. Over time I have worked with a wide range of materials and developed some exclusive techniques at mold making and casting that allow me to make these items, but to identify what makes them different isn't obvious from the outside looking in.

The first technical development is my methods for taking a high contrast image and creating a relief and mold without having to use a laser or hi-tech equipment. The cost for the mold is relatively cheap, unless I make a silicon version, then I have to add the cost of the silicon. The silicon mold will be more useful for a wide range of materials. The second character of my work is the mixing of the metallic particles, cold casting, to create a metallic finish that is also resistant to weathering. The third character is the thinness of the pieces which allows me to place the pieces on other materials like magnet sheets and sticker paper, thus making a emblem type of item that can be used as a sticker. Now with the urethane I can speed up my production time and take my work with me to make things on the go. I have also been adding a second color to the background and creating a layered effect that is more colorful than just the monotone reliefs. Together I have finished photographically produced emblems that can be made cheaply out of plastic and yet look like metal.

Urethane plastics and discharge inks are unrelated materials, except where I work

I've fallen into my trap of experimentation instead of working and now that I have gone down the rabbit hole I see a new world of possibilities. My previous post indicated how I have regressed to working smaller due to the expense of materials and how epoxy is a great casting material, but it takes forever to set up. I wanted to test a new mold making process, but decided to try some Smooth-On Urethane plastic because it sets way quicker than epoxy, like 30 minutes to an hour. Previously I had not been successful with Urethane finishes because it did not seem to finish as smooth as epoxy did, but I was wrong about this. It appears I was spending too much time mixing my pigments into the urethane and when I sped this process up, the urethan poured smooth and with less bubbles than I previously had gotten.

My second test with the urethane was to use aluminum pigment and sand it down to get a metallic finish. With a bit of quick sanding, 100 grit sandpaper, it worked too and finished with a metallic top surface just like epoxy and polyester resin. Next I am going to try it with some steel / iron pigments to try and get a rusty metal finish and in all probability this should work. The cost of urethane is significantly less than epoxy and the quicker set times are a lifesaver because it frees me up to make more designs when I can see the results of each mold quicker.

In the middle of playing with the urethane, I pulled out some Wilflex Plascharge base and mixed some discharge plastisol. I had been meaning to try this for months and finally got around to it with the idea of making discharge transfers. The discharge transfers did not work, but I mixed both glow in the dark ink and fluorescent red inks with the plascharge base and got great results. The finish was light and the glow effect was pretty good. Even the fluorescent red popped on a black t-shirt without a white under print. I don't like the smell, but the results are fantastic for printing on darks. Finally our Pluto Never Forget t-shirt can be done without 2 screens. I haven't done the wash test, but I don't see why this should fail.

Photos of magnets

Emblems

Materials make the mold - supply list

There are so many things I think I need to complete my projects, but with a limited budget I just can't afford to invest in making the types of pieces that I am drawn to. I like making the larger brick panels that are made inside of recycled screen printing frames, but they require in excess of 20-30 ounces of Epoxy, plus some pigments and some plaster / mortar to make them solid enough to be used as a table top or panel on a wall. I put the cost of each panel at $10-15/ea, not to mention my time or the frame cost. This starts the cycle of reconsideration for my projects, because I then think of how I can make things that are smaller using the same techniques. One panel uses the same amount of materials that I could use to make 20 smaller pieces, and so it goes. I am now rethinking my project, before I run out of materials from last year, and re-inventing my magnets, which are significantly smaller and easier to display.

Here are some photos of my most recent batch of photo fresco refrigerator magnets.

Deciding my future is like reading a scattering of bones

Every year I start out in a similar way by incidentally cleaning up my backyard and finding my work from the previous year. I usually have no interest in continuing my work on frescoes and/or pieces of artistic fabrication, but as I pick up the broken pieces the ideas of what I had done previously perk my curiosity. I sort through my yard, which resembles more of a war zone to prepare for a dump run and analyze as I go what survived the water, mud and wind. What survived and what didn't? What is useful and what isn't? What is aesthetically pleasing and what isn't? These are my three major deciding factors and not surprisingly there aren't many things that are worth continuing into any future production.

The year I realized that the things that were made extremely thin, buckled and broke. Things that were made without anchors came apart or separated from their frames. Things that were covered by thick layers of protective coatings had no texture and were not appealing, even though they survived and were easy to clean. I still like things that are useful, because things like tables and windows are around because they are in use. Some things are good half baked ideas, but due to the expense or lack of defining motivation, I haven't any reason to pursue them. So where did the bones land and what is worth pursuing into the future?

A few pieces with epoxy coatings as the top surface are the most interesting survivors because they did not bend or break and could easily be picked out of the rubble. Some cement pieces were also survivor's but their overall weight was not appealing. Some pieces that had plywood holding them together were indeed the strongest when it came to structures, but that is for more of a backing and building concept, not an aesthetic factor. As the day lingered on and I found some of my left over materials I started the cycle again by pouring a thin gel-coat layer of epoxy in a brick mold using marble and red pigment for a brick like finish.

In the end an exterior tile is sort of what I am after, but without a kiln. I found a piece of backing that is supposed to be used as a backing when attaching tile to a bathroom wall and I am thinking about sandwiching that as a panel in between the epoxy and a grout filling on the other side. The epoxy is a very-weather resistant material, but because it absorbs heat it's most likely not a good exterior finish. The layering of a flat surface that can work as a backing for other materials like grout is a way to keep the epoxy stable, as well as, provide an interface for finishing the other side. Even if the other side is sealed with plywood instead of cements or tile like materials the idea that the epoxy is bonded to something that can work like strong back surface is good for keeping the epoxy in the frame. I have considered using inserts for the back side, but the back side finish is only important once a purpose or final use for these frames is determined and I haven't figured out where these pieces can find a final use. I am building them with the idea that they may be a component of a larger piece, used on their own as a table or even used as decoration without a specific functional used. Ideally this layering of materials should create a stable weather-resistant pieces that are dimensionally stable for years and years.

Other projects worth mention are the epoxy emblem base and the carbon fiber backed canvas. Both of these items are potentially useful in making emblems or stickers and possibly they can even be used together. As for t-shirt creations that are only mentioned here because I don't have time to post these concepts elsewhere is the split peel transfer as a way to make a soft feeling screen printed design that can be processed like a heat set transfer. The fact is that t-shirts are still my cash crop, so I am better served to print and develop t-shirt ideas for my day job and to keep this photo fresco stuff as a extra-curricular activity. I am working on a way to compete with DiscountMugs.com, a discount t-shirt printing company, in order to increase my sales of custom screen printing jobs and by doing this I should be able to keep moving forward, without having to sell anything, with my research into the photo-fresco concept.

How magnets are

Born.

Exterior Use is the main concern - dimensional stability the problem

I can easily read labels for materials and think that if I put one thing on top of the other then it will be good for external use, but time and time again I have been proven wrong. I have been working with making graphic designs that can go on magnets, both raised and flat designs and there are several issues that keep causing me to question the durability of the final product. At the store where I have been getting the magnets I am being told that people put stickers on the magnets and that's about it. The coating is PVC, or at least that's what we think it is.

Some inks, urethanes or epoxies bead up when I paint them across the surface. Others seem to bond well, but if I work on peeling them off I usually can. If I attach an object that is too thick to the magnet, then it is strong enough to bend the magnet away from the surface if it has a tendency to bend while being exposed to different temperatures and weather conditions. The conclusion here is that the item going on the magnet has to be either light and flexible to move with the magnet, or it has to be dimensionally stable itself in order to keep from changing the magnet and causing the entire piece to warp.

The testing is now back to basics, which is trying to make sure that I have a good surface on the magnet to print on and/or to attach an object to and to make sure the object is dimensionally stable. My most recent test were with vinyl sticker ink and a water based type of vinyl sticker ink by Nazdar. These are both compatible with screen printing, which is why I have gone with those first. I don't think these inks have any UV resistance in them, so I am thinking of them mostly as a bonding layer between the magnet and the next layer, which could be a print layer or an object. Epoxy and Urethane have been my materials of choice for making objects with and the potential of this one-part urethane I have been working with keeps me thinking that there is a place for that stuff in the process. Once the test pieces dry, then I need to put a layer of the urethane and the epoxy on to see if I can attach objects to the coated magnet sheet. If the objects will stay, then printing would not be an issue, so I have to test the bonding with an object that can be ripped off first.

My other test, the more interesting one, is to coat the back side of the magnet in the hope that I could coat the magnet with a clear layer that is easy to print on and then use epoxy or urethane as a print medium and use the magnet background darkish grey / black color of the magnet as the background color and print with light inks like silver or white.

The objects that I am going to attach will need to be more stable that some of the epoxy pieces I have been using. It seems that the urethane and the epoxy curl when exposed to wet conditions and heat tends to weaken the epoxy that would allow any substrate in the epoxy to bend internally. My solution is to use layers of carbon fiber, criss-crossed, to stiffen the back of the pieces that I am using. The expense is significant, but I don't think that if I just attach the piece to a sticker and stick it to the magnet that I will be able to sleep at night. Epoxy seems to be the best material for coating the carbon fiber with, but I can't help but think that if the epoxy gets warm then any tendency of the epoxy to bend will also allow the carbon fiber to bend. If I add too many layers then it will get more expensive and too difficult to cut out once the pieces are made.

My other project is to use a clear molded piece and then put the colored image behind the clear. I'll explain the reason later, but the big issue with clear is yellowing, especially with epoxy. This is where I think the use of the urethane will come in handy, but my first test with the urethane on the back of the epoxy was a fail. I have not put some epoxy behind the urethane and that looks promising, but without some good weathering I can't be sure that will work. The Urethane could be painted into the mold with thin layers, but this is much more time than simply pouring a little epoxy in the mold. I have heard of a clear epoxy that also has a UV resistance built in and I am going to have to get my hands on that if this urethane keeps acting up on me.

Snakeskin Urethane - mixed results

The one part snakeskin urethane I have been testing provided mixed results today when I protruded my samples from the hot box. In one instance the thickly poured snakeskin appeared to have bonded with the light gel coat of epoxy I had previously coated in the mold. the back side shrunk in a little and bubbles were evident, making for a non smooth back side finish.

My other test was coating a piece of vinyl sticker paper with the urethane and it appeared to hold on the sticker paper, but did not hold onto the epoxy coated canvas that I pressed on top of the urethane, so as a bonding agent for coarse materials it is questionable. It is possible that if I had added some thickeners then it may have been able to bond better.

I did a test with uncoated canvas to wood with the urethane and it appears to have held. I don't know if it is strong, but it did hold for now. The material is rubbery and light, so I am thinking it will be a good match for the base of my coasters as the base. I should be able to make a light coating and then put epoxy behind it.

Rapid mold making and fast cure resins

Today I felt awkward and wasn't sure which project would take hold while I waited for some urethane projects to dry. My impatience got the better of me and I delved into making a quick mold with my exclusive Rapid Mold Making techniques to see if I could get a new setup going. I didn't have any polyester resin, so I visited the local boat store, West Marine, and got a small container of resin and hardener. Surprisingly, everything went well and 2 hours I had a finished object out of the mold.

The biggest issue now is the brittle nature of polyester resin, even though I added some flexible polyester resin into the mix, the pieces are brittle and more difficult to cut than pieces made with polyester. Breakage may also be an issue, but these pieces seem more durable than the ones I used to make. I used a circle design and they look like coasters. I am thinking about making a bunch of molds with the regular batch of designs for a run of coasters, just to get something more finished into production.

The big question will remain as to whether or not reliefs are any better than just plain stickers or foam coasters with a print on them.