Saturday, May 11, 2019

Trying a new technique

Recently, I watched a couple of videos on Design Matters TV, on the use of Inktense Blocks.  I've become quite intrigued with this.  Actually I've owned a box of Inktense pencils for some time, used them a bit, and almost forgot about them, but their use appears to be somewhat different than the blocks.  So the blocks have been at the back of my mind, but purchase put off by what I knew was a high price.  On a pension, this is always a consideration.
But, yesterday, knowing there was a sale on at the art supply store across town, we headed there. I had prepared myself for a price-y purchase, and was very selective in my choices.  I looked around, a bit, and found some Lumiere Fabric paint that was on sale and picked up three bottles of that, as well.  The check out was very very slow.  She had to find a code number on each of my paint sticks--pressed into the block and very hard to find and read.  Then she had to match that to numbers in her computer.  While this was going on, I asked her if, by chance, the Inktense blocks were on sale, and was surprised that they were 40% off.  In fact, everything in the store was on sale!  So off I went to see if I could find a sketch book with light weight pages to use for rubbings.  Alas no, all of the books there were too good  a quality.  lol
The bonus with these blocks and pencils is that, once water has been added and the piece dried, the colour is fixed, quite unlike any other watercolour product.  This means that they can be worked over, without any fear of losing the colour, or of compromising the work, overall. They also work well on textiles.  The deal maker for me.
The plan is to familiarize myself  with using the Inktense blocks, and then, maybe, use them in my current piece.  I have LWI dyed a piece of fabric with a very high thread count, for the background,  I would very much like to use the Inktense in marking symbols on this background.  Then I plan to FMQ the background, incorporating those symbols, using silk thread, so as to to keep the value range on the background very low.  Spent some time with my thread color charts of Superior Kimono Silk trying to find the right colour thread so that I  could order it.  Found what I wanted and then found it in my stash of Kimono silk, in the right colour.  Wow!  Had no idea that I had bought it, many months ago.  Must really like that colour.




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