As I write this blog the day outside is a glorious summer's day - much like the day this shot was taken. It amazes me how the hills in the distance have already lost their green bloom and dried off. This is the Derwent River, at a local suburb across the river from me called Sandy Bay. It is a popular swimming place for teenagers.
One of the beauties of living on an island is that no matter which direction you go, you'll eventually stumble upon one of our stunning pieces of coastline or waterways. From the wilds of our south coast to the towering cliffs of the Tasman Peninsula; from incredible white sand beaches on our East Coast or this special spot on the River Derwent in Sandy Bay, just a stones throw from Hobart's CBD.
Image: instagram.com/ringhole
#discovertasmania #seeaustralia
Image: instagram.com/ringhole
#discovertasmania #seeaustralia
The Derwent River is running water......
For my Project for Uni I chose to work with the theme 'Running Water' and I elected to make a set of child's wooden blocks and add images to the six faces of the blocks. Theoretically they make a type of jigsaw puzzle for the player when all jumbled.
Hubby made me up the blocks with what he call's "sh*t pine" and I painted nine of them with white gesso and then sanded them back to make them look a bit battered. Then I added my images to each face - one at a time.
This first one is stamped using a variety of stamps and coloured with Copic pens. It was then given a wash of clear Modge Podge for protection.
The one below was a collage. It was created on the desk first on some card, using die cuts and a kit, plus one stamp. It was then cut into 9 equal pieces (ruled up on the back) and each one was Modge Podged onto the face of a block, with another coat over the top to protect them. You will notice they are slightly smaller than the blocks - deliberately.
This next one is an image printed of my ink-jet printer, torn into nine pieces and layered onto the blocks again with the Podge. You can see the creases in some places and some colour was leached as well but it was a good quick layer.
This one is just stencils and ink - I used the end grain for this and it shows through - perhaps I should have used this side for one of the paper pieces.
This one is an attempt at being a bit arty! Images printed off my ink-jet printer, cut into strips, added to card with double sided tape and sprayed with a fixative. In laying them on, I chose to make it a slightly disorienting piece and to have differing lengths as well. I have a feeling that in this photo they are not necessarily in the right place either........
The one below is the one that gave me the most grief and took the longest. It was an attempt to transfer an ink-jet image directly to the wood using a gel medium. It is the ancient Japanese tsunami painting and once printed I had to use the Gel Medium on the front of the image and blocks and then quickly lay the piece of paper face down onto the wood. Leave it to dry, and then carefully using a damp cloth, wipe off the paper and try not to wipe off the image. It is sealed with a fixative spray.
Again, one block is not placed properly I think........it also seems to have lost a lot of colour.
If anyone knows how to avoid that, please let me know. Perhaps it was my choice of image....
Anyway - that is my toy blocks.
You can make whatever takes your fancy for this challenge and you have a month to enter.
