Chapter 2 Making Coloured Papers

Colours chosen: INDIGO & GOLD

Inking papers was fun. It was enjoyable to experiment with shades 'bleeding' into each other. I might have sponged too much ink onto the paper as it tended to 'puddle' in places. I allowed these puddles to run by hanging the papers up to dry. This gave an interesting effect, however, if I did it again, I think I would try using a little less ink and produce fewer sheets at a time enabling me to dry them flat.

0008 Gold inked papers

0009 Indigo inked papers

0010 Inked tissue paper

0011 Inked newspaper

I tried to keep the 'splodges' as distictly seperate colours, and not let them blend to much into each other so that they become 'muddy'. I was therefore initially disappointed with some papers that I feel blended too much. When dry, however, I was pleased that not all of the papers were the same - some were blended, and some were 'splodged'. I was particularly pleased with the papers inked with both indigo and gold.

0012 indigo & gold inked papers

0013 indigo & gold magazine pages

0014 Test sheet, rubber stamp ideas & ink recipes

0015 Rubber Stamp

I was surprised by how easy it was to carve the eraser.
I was pleased with the indigo stamped onto the gold paper, in particular, I liked the pattern where the stamped images formed squares.
The gold acrylic paint onto the indigo paper looked a bit translucent and gave a much more subtle contrast than the indigo onto gold.

0016 Stamped papers

Cross Shapes from Coloured Papers

When cutting out some of my cross shapes I realised that some are far too elaborate to develop through to the next chapter, and also far too complex to experiment with different cutting implements. I therefore introduced a few more simplified shapes.

I love the cotrast between the indigo and gold colours. Using opposing colours from the colour wheel appears to bring the shapes 'alive', and helps them to be seen as interesting design elements.