Experimenting

Last summer, I bought 11 pictures.  These were prints made from engravings--the correct term may be etchings,but I don't know for sure.  The book was originally published in 1815, but was in very poor shape, and beyond saving.  I would never condone taking apart old books just to sell the pictures.  But the age of the publication puts the pictures in Public Domain, so I wanted to see if there was someway I could work them into my art.  The pictures are very fragile, and badly foxed.  They have tears and even small holes.  Whatever I do, I don't want to do anything that might harm them and ruin them.  So I've spent several months just thinking about how they could be used.

So today, I decided that the least harmful thing I could do, would be to copy the picture onto muslin, and then use the muslin in a collage.  They copy beautifully.  Even on fairly coarse muslin, the print is clear and the details fine.  Since, at this point, I don't plan to get the muslin wet, I haven't worried too much about the type of ink I used, but I did heat set it thoroughly.

I'm very pleased that this went so well.  This opens up a number of possibilities, and I think I finally understand why the ladies on the internet are so excited about the process.

About 7 of the pictures involve portal type of images, and I already have an idea for a hanging based on the portal/pathway concept