Mary, What is the transfer process if it isn’t a secret? I love playing with Yupo too.
So sorry for not replying sooner. I just saw this!
The transfer process I did was to print out the image using a laser printer (inkjet won’t work), coat with acrylic medium and let dry, soak backside of image with water and rub away paper. You’re left with a clear acrylic layer with image that you can apply to a painting or wherever. I did it with some old scientific line illustrations then embellished with ink and have done with typography, etc. Good luck and I hope it’s not too late!
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Mary, can I ask how you then transfer the image to the surface? How is it attached? Thanks so much.
More acrylic medium beneath the ‘film’ you have made. Keep in mind the image will be reversed. Then you can add paint, acrylic varnish as you wish!
Great topic! This has been a “problem” all my life! I want to do anything that means working with my hands, the process means more than the result. In recent years I’ve had to force myself to focus on getting good at one thing, not be so scattered. First it was watercolors but now it’s oil. Can’t wait until I retire and can also get back to making mosaics, a second love for me. But since I was a child I’ve done: wood burning, copper embossing, leather tooling, needlepoint, sewing, oil painting, watercolor, stained glass, beading, hand built clay, wood carving,…oh my gosh the list is endless, art stores are like crack to me. Enjoy your obsessions!
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Thanks Mary, I have done this before too, it is a fun technique! Thanks for getting back to me, I haven’t been here lately either, it has been a hectic month without much art work being done.
So I am really weighing in after the fact. I was putting a studio in wasted space in my basement. I didn’t want to pay to have my floor leveled so I googled basement floors. Some guy had glued leather belts to cement to make it look almost like hardwood flooring. I didn’t want to create something so permanent so I did a rug which I can take with me if I move. (I refinished the entire floor first with some materials I got at Home Depot. It was a 3 color process. I had seen something similar at the SF Design Center and was trying to imitate that.) Here are a couple of photos of the rug and basement- 1/2 studio and 1/2 other (storing things aestetically that I wasn’t ready to get rid of) I also did the faux painted half wall. It was a lot of fun. Love DIY projects involving art.
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The basement was a workshop for the previous owner, The workbench is such a large, wonderful workspace. The room is a bit funky, but I like funky in a studio.
Oh, a couple of other fun projects. 1) a mosaic table patterned after an acrylic painting I did. I had always wanted to do a rooster mosaic plaque for the front porch, but then spotted this table I had in the garage and thought it would be a perfect substrate. for the project. Mosaic is a lot of fun and probably good for the brain as it is kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle.
Lastly, I was a quilter before I started painting. A friend was working on a t-shirt quilt and showed it to me. I loved the idea, but I hadn’t saved many of my kids old t-shirts. I did have a few, but I went to Thrift Shops and collected t-shirts to fill out their stories - kind a fabric scrapbook all on one page if you will. I made quilts for each of my kids before moving to painting in acrylic.
As you can see, I am mostly about color. The youngest son got a jean quilt which is more monochromatic because a friend of my mom’s had made jean quilts for her 7 boys before they went to college. I loved the idea and saved jeans since the kids were little. (Not sure every page is from a pair of my youngest son’s jeans. He may have a little of his brothers in there.) At my friends suggestion, I paid to have the tops machine quilted to help preserve them.
Layout of my daughter’s quilt squares
Oldest son’s quilt before adding backing
My youngest son’s jean quilt
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Kind of embarrassed my photos are so large. New to this, and didn’t see a place to edit them.
Jacqueline I absolutely love your posts and all your photos. The jeans quilt is so cool and so contemporary. What a lovely idea.
The thing I love most about your studio is the wine rack that still has lots of wine stored in it among your art materials.
It’s a great studio.
The one thing I always feel my studio is missing is a tea/coffee station but that’s just me being lazy and wishful thinking since I’m in the basement and the kitchen is only one flight up.
Interesting how so many of us work in our basements.
When I tell people they are often horrified. People imagine artist have to have a great glass studio with North facing light.
But I actually love my basement space. Your can make them so cozy and your own. Mines a bit quirky as well.
Hi Jacqueline, I loved my basement studio too! My husband had that wine rack custom built before we met. Sadly it had to be put in the basement because there was not enough room to make the turn into the front door once they got it up the front steps. Worked out well for me though for a little while anyway.
We moved 2 yrs after I had created my space in SF. I finally got a studio built here in Nov. inside the garage, because we were maxed out on “coverage requirements” Lake Tahoe has. (Been here full-time 2 yrs. & figured if it wasn’t built during SIP when we couldn’t travel due to COVID, it would never get done.)
I love, love, love all the light that I have now. 5000 Calvins of light were recommended by a workshop instructor who serendipitously talked about his studio one day. Also love that I most materials were recycled (wood was leftover from framing windows and someone was sending that big window to the dump). Also love that I can be messy in my space.
If you have photos of your studio, I would love to see them.
wrt glass studios: with COVID, so many people were putting in studio spaces to get a little separation from family while they were trying to work. One couple bought a lot of used windows from places and created kind of a green house. Totally cool. Actually I saw lots of cool photos, including customized Tuff Sheds.
Look forward to seeing your photos! (figured out how to make mine smaller!)
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Hi Jacqueline.
Here are some pics of my studio
I store most of my stuff in IKEA wire drawers - I think are meant for clothing but they are cheap and work great. Some of these I’ve had for at least 15 years.
A couple are recent purchases. You can buy wheels for them to convert them into carts.
I have one for oils and one for watercolors and I wheel out the cart I want to use.
The desk tops are IKEA too on trestles. I love these because you can move them around or put them away easily. Sometimes I push them together when I teach the occasional little class (or at least I did pre-covid).
I have my own little bathroom off to the side. The dog bed features as well as you can see. My dog does join me sometimes but he doesn’t really like the basement as he spends most of his day watching people go by out of the window.
I feel very lucky to have this space.
That’s beautiful studio! Great space! I love seeing other people’s places for creating. Here is mine, much messier. Just a converted bedroom.
And a studio tour video from last year; A little tour of my studio. - Annemiek Haralson Art
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Your studio is so awesome and tidy too! Very, Very Nice! I wouldn’t even know it was a basement if you hadn’t told me. I could be very happy working there. You have great storage too. Love those trestle tables as well! The tops are beautiful and they are functional with a space to put things below, (like purses and backpacks if you are teaching a course). Given my space issue, I have a drop-leaf table that you can just barely see in the photo (I painted the top grey to give it a little more of a contemporary look. I got it at one of our amazing thrift stores in the Village. It was so serendipitous that they had one. I thought I would have to go to an antique store to find one.) I use it when I gesso, or put protective coats on paintings, and for wiring my work to hang. I am a little “jelly”. about all your space because I had hoped to have room for friends to come paint with me, but at the same time I am grateful to have a place to paint now with good lighting and a window to see the out-of-doors. It is so beautiful up here and so different from living in the city.
Hi Annemiek, You have a great spacious space as well. I see you live in snow country too. How do you like your space heater? Is it one of those oil types? I may need to get a second one as mine is not doing quite what I thought it would.
It is an oil type heater, yes. It warms the space nicely. There is baseboard heating down there as well, but always still a bit nippy, so that space heater is very welcome. Upstate NY here, so plenty cold!
Thanks Jacqueline.
Full disclosure I spent a good amount of time tidying and purging recently so I doesn’t always look this tidy.
I am trying to keep on top of it now though.
I bought the second trestle worktop recently. I loved the first one so much. It’s so useful to have 2 table tops especially when packing things up for shipping.