04.23.10 Cross-eyed Craziness

Scritch, scritch, scritch... my world narrows down to about a square centimeter for hours at a time. I get a little cross-eyed.

It's worth it.  Half horse, half donkey -- mules can have the craziest of colors and patterns.

A detail shot of the mule's chest.  It's fun to depict those distinctive hair whorls.  That was nearly the last area I worked on.  Would you like to see where it all started?






The yellow areas are Windsor Newton masking liquid.  I don't have a strong brand preference for liquid masking material. I do prefer liquid frisket over the sheet type, or masking tape.  The liquid frisket sinks down to hug the gritty contours of bisque ware; sheet frisket simply adheres to the high points, allowing seepage underneath.  After the fisket dries, it's time to apply color with the airbrush.  All airbrushing is done in the spray booth. You *do not* want to be inhaling underglaze particles.  Repeat, *do not* inhale.

Here you see a brown mule, with odd yellow socks. This is what six thin layers of underglaze color airbrushed over the frisket looks like.  In some areas it's hard to tell where the masked areas are.  In others it's easy, the lumpy texture gives it away.

Looks weird, don't you think?  I use an old airbrush needle to catch the frisket and then peel it off.  Delicate work!  The rubbery masking material can snap back onto the piece and mar the underglaze.  If the frisket is applied too thin it's darned near impossible to pick off.

At left, the frisket has been removed, leaving a very crisp pattern.  Because the airbrushed surface is delicate, like that of a pastel, the white areas on the legs, lower tail, upper neck and nose are the only places where I can grasp this piece. 

Finally, a-scritchin' we can go!

And go, and go, and go.

I've been scritching off and on for six days now.  You can imagine that such repetitive work can be hard on hands. It is. After a couple of hours I must take a break.  Breaks should really be more frequent, but I loose track of time. You'd think this would be boring, but I find it fascinating to watch a pattern unfold as I work.

So, did I really go though 40 X-acto blades as I predicted in a previous post?

No.

Here's why --

The tool on the right is a Diamond Point Scribe normally used by print makers to etch designs into a metal plate.  Artist Susan Moore of Flying Monkey Studio in Boise turned me on to this handy little tool.  When this project started I had honestly forgotten about the scribe which had been purchased for another project altogether.  Then I ran across it in a drawer and thought, what the heck, give it a try.

You can see how the tip on the scribe is conical in shape, that means it can be used in different directions and still render a consistent line quality.  That has real advantages. Since it is a diamond tip it's pretty darn durable. One disadvantage is that the blunt tip holder obscures the view of exactly where the tip is, but I think with practice one can learn to make accurate estimates of where the tip makes contact with the work. All in all, this is a keeper in my tool box!

If you have any experience with scritching, we'd love to hear about it!  Just click on "Comments" below to add your two cents.

By the way, the dulled X-acto blade count is holding steady at 31.

~ Lynn