Playing: roses and rose windows

More of the altered book.

A Latin quote caught my eye…

…and sent me off creating a scrap of rose text with Stewart Gill Byzantium paints on tea stained paper.

Without border:

With border:

I cut all the window spaces out of this image of a York Minster Rose Window and stuck it over a page which I’d collaged with some rainbow coloured scraps of hand made paper and then used water soluble oil pastels to continue the colours over the bits of page left.

In place on the spread:

And joined by a layered transfer of a lamb boss.

I had two images of this boss, one closer than the other. I used the gel transfer medium to transfer them to the page, rotating the second so the ribs of the vaulting (accidentally) almost line up. I like the different layers of translucency.

Another Rose Window to come.

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The first results of ‘ring-fenced creative time’

That hour or so between coming home from work on a Friday evening and having to start on making an evening meal has proved to be the perfect place for some creative time. To be honest, I never really did much useful then, apart from potter on the computer and do odd jobs, so it’s really time reclaimed. Anyway, here are the results of our second session.

I really enjoyed the gel medium transfer process with the Green Man but was a bit disappointed with the size of some of the holes I’d ended up with and wanted to improve my technique. I’d printed out a selection of pictures linked to York Minster and decided to go for another spread using an image of the York See seal.

The large areas of black around the crossed keys of St Peter worked really well but I need to make sure I’ve thoroughly covered the very edges of the image with the gel medium as this is where it started to fragment. I also still need to carefully remove a few scraps of paper from the border.

Then a transfer of an image of part of the roof and a tower over a wash of oil pastel.

This was much more successful – learning very quickly and loving it. Also, the style of the image means that any missing bits are less obvious.

Hmmm. I wonder if it would work on something other than paper?

I’d printed some images of geometric leading patterns from medieval grisalle windows and decided to try transferring them on some clear acetate.  It was a bit tricky rubbing off the paper without disturbing the transfer but the results, while not perfect, were a lot better than I’d expected.

I mounted the four best transfers over a paper copy of the same pattern, using sticky pad spacers on the corners to hold them slightly clear of the page and hopefully give the impression of a window.

 

And the completed spread.

I’ve placed it on a page which mentions the famous Five Sisters window, a wonder of medieval grisaille glass.  I wonder if it would work as well with colour prints…

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