29th April 2008
I finished cutting out my stencils a couple of days ago. Karena was right — the oiled kraft paper is brilliant, kinda greasy but totally enjoyable to cut into. I can see how people get into paper cutting now.
Unfortunately our littlest family member is miserable and sick again. This time with the HORRIFIC sounding Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Ah dear. Luckily it’s not as bad as it sounds and apart from a rash she is quite cheerful enough to run around and around the doctor’s waiting room screaming “YA YA YA YA!” really loudly. But sick again she is. A friend of mine exclaimed recently (I think it was during the great croup fiasco) “you have all come down with a bad case of the Creche!”. So true. Two days of childcare a week gives me time to work and time for sanity, and Lily enjoys it… but the sicknesses which seem to go around are definitely a major drawback. It’s like a little bubbling petri dish in there. On the one hand it could be said that she is building up her natural immunity, on the other she’s been pretty much under the weather since the beginning of February which is a long time now, and that’s no fun. So we are in quarantine for a few days and I will be lurking around The Crafty Crow for some ideas for fun things to do. My stenciling will have to wait.
23rd April 2008
On my desk on a Wednesday happens so fast! Here’s what I have managed to squeeze in amongst all the detritus today… this is the next stencil I am going to cut. Thank you to everyone who helped out with stencil material suggestions and resources yesterday and today. Every time a comment came in I would say “Wow! Another good idea!”. For others who are contemplating doing some stenciling, the use of spray adhesive when placing the stencil is especially good advice. It’s a tip that a very kind and helpful woman in the art supply shop gave me on weekend and without it I would have been lost and yesterday’s use of tracing paper would have been frustrating if not impossible. For the next stencil I have decided to try Karena’s method which is to treat manilla envelope paper (although I used Kraft envelope paper which I hope is the same thing) with linseed oil (check her comment from 23rd April at 12.44pm for more details — and see a sample here). You can see there’s quite a lot of detail in my design so her words “cut as smooth as butter” was hard to resist. I had both envelopes and refined linseed oil on hand so I am waiting for a coat of oil to dry over night. Thank you Karena!
22nd April 2008
It’s been awfully quiet around here. But this week’s looking up and I have been inspired to do some stencil art using some old spray paint we used to fix up an IKEA cabinet. We only had antique white and fire engine red in the shed so my first (very simple) attempt is a little limited but I am off to buy some more colours and, now that I know my technique works, to cut out some more elaborate stencils.
After battling with a nasty piece of acetate I ended up using tracing paper to make the stencil which did the trick but it is a little flimsy. Does anyone know something that I might have more success with? It needs to be thin enough to make delicate cutting not too stressful but then heavy / resistant enough to handle enamel spray paint and repeat use. I am not sure how many street artists read loobylu (at my guess… none) but any ideas would be useful!
Seriously inspired by Banksy (via Boobooksausagedogs)
