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.