Push through an ink or solid material like acrylic paints

I typically use a squeegee and old screen printing inks and push them through the back side of the screen to seal the back and create a relief.

Once you have a desired height of material or ink then dry the ink using heat or leaving it somewhere to dry. Acrylic takes a long time to dry when applied this thick. I have used epoxy and polyester resins as well as thin cements, but you have to get the mixture really thick so that it does not run or bleed into the other parts of the graphic. Too much liquid ink will cause drip spots on the design because you are working with the graphic upside down.

I find that I like the dark areas of a graphic recessed and the highlights flat, so typically I make the raised areas the black areas. There are many variations and effects that you can get depending on which way you reverse the image and how you want to make the final molds and pieces. After the mold is dried and cooled I throughly spray the mold and frame with a mold release.

The process - Get a high contrast image and make a film to expose a screen

This won't be a complete lesson, just a series of blips that will show the highlights of making the photo-fresco / cement molds using screen printing. The first issue is getting an image and increasing the contrast using photoshop of some of program or method to make a film. The film is used to make a screen. The higher the contrast the less need there is for a halftone. A halftone is a series of dots that emulate shading in photos and is a typical method of making prints for reproduction. Here is a film of a Bruce Lee photo I found online.

The film is applied to a photo-sensitized screen and exposed to light. After the exposure the screen is washed out and porous areas are shown as clear spaces on the screen. These areas allow ink or other materials to be pushed through and work like a stencil for printing multiple pieces with the same graphic.

The screen should dry completely and the sunshine works great to continue to harden the emulsion. At this point you can use the screen for making a mold of the design.

Mortar here, Motar there

I tried some motar mixes and cheap cement with aggregate. The next test should be with the Crack resistent cement that has fibers mixed in. I used this stuff before and although it sticks to my mixer it may be a good cement instead of the ones with rocks in them which inhibits details. The crack resistant stuff may also have aggregate based on how chunky the bag felt. I am trying to stay away from stucco and motar mixes appear to set so slowly that I have broke more bricks than I have finished by moving them around before they are dry and strong enough to be tossed.

Many ways to make a brick

There are many ways to make a brick, but one of the biggest decisions is which concrete or mortar to use. I have a bunch of plaster and hybrid gypsum products like Duracal and Tufstone. These materials set quick, but have a very low tolerance for water absorption and become chalky and fall apart. I like the detail I get from gypsum plaster products, but they will not last outside. For making the original castings I can use the gypsum plasters like Duracal and they look at lot like cement so they work well for samples.

The concrete stands alone - Superior Durability Beats All Else

I've been playing with the idea of outside stones, pavers, as they are known. The idea of a rock you can walk on is attractive to me as compared to the results I have had with printing on cement and then coating it with epoxy. The epoxy is too slippery and the acrylic paints are subject to discoloration due to weathering. The final conclusion is that a relief will proved a surface that will inhibit slipping while also providing a visual decoration.

To make these pavers interesting I have started to convert images using photoshop to large scale bitmap graphics that I can create a decent relief from. The question was how large of a bitmap halftone could I make and capture the detail with cement. The molds I started using are 13" by 16" which is not much larger than a 12" X 12" standard sized paver. To make the cement durable I have to cast it at approximately 1.5-2" thick. The cement I have been using proved that I could transfer some detail and these pavers may provide a photographic effect without have to coat the cement with a slippery or material that may not weather well.

Bear necessities - Canvas Print Shellac and Epoxy

What are the bare necessities of a piece of wall art? Typically a print picture or a painting on canvas or wood, placed in a frame for ornate and hanging purposes. I've been working with raw canvas the last few weeks making patches with prints on them and have framed a few of them. Instead of stretching the canvas I have been printing it flat and then coating the material with shellac and posting them on the wall. The shellac stiffens the canvas and gives it a vintage or aged look.

As usual, problems arise from the coatings of amber shellac as I have started to mount the canvas on wood and into plaster frames for hanging. The water based inks I have been using cause some curling of the canvas and make it difficult to bond with a flat exterior frame without pressing the canvas under a heavy object for some period of time after the shellac dries. I tested plastisol prints and coated it with
epoxy only to have the coating puddle and seep into the canvas causing a darkened print.

Tonight I took a variety of canvas prints and applied an interior clear shellac. My idea is that the clear shellac will not cause as much of a darkening and may provide enough of a coating on top of the canvas to keep the epoxy from seeping in as much and therefore result in a lighter print. The biggest issue now is if the shellac will respond like the epoxy and cause a puddle effect.

I took a sheet of patches that were printed with a plastisol ink, the same ink I use to print t-shirt designs for production. I expected the shellac to create rings on the plastisol like printing on a waxy surface, but it did not appear to do so on the first coat. Also the print appears to be lighter than if I used the amber colored shellac. I ran out of clear shellac before I could do a second coat, but will check the results tomorrow and see if the material remained flat, clear and had a consistent top surface before I apply a layer of epoxy.

The Cheese Stands Alone

If I could make cheese I would. I kinda look at the stuff I make as a consumable and like to have fresh work in the mix all the time. Here is an old post I did that shows how to make a steak, like I can cook anything else.  That creates a problem with old work as it piles up here and there. If I keep a piece long enough it may pass a certain amount of bonding time and then I think it is worth keeping forever, that is if it isn't too damaged. I keep moving this aluminum frame with epoxy and plaster around and have even kept the cracks and breaks intact and made a piece out of it that I like.

Photo Fresco Brick Wall with Spray Painted Robot Y-Que