THE MISSING INGREDIENT!

I tried different things today. One worked. I did transfer a design using a toner based copy onto that stamp material that is easy to cut and made my first stamp. That was my success. The other ideas I tried were from various sources with descriptions of the process to follow. I had miserable results....kind of like the recipe from a friend where they left out a key ingredient! I read about a bleaching process in a new book. I was so excited about this idea because I have always loved the look of discharged black. It doesn't go white but shades of tan and brown and other colors depending on what the black was made from. I had the entire image in my mind's eye. It was going to be fabulous. I took india ink and covered a sheet of watercolor paper that was 100% cotton rag and let it dry. I brushed full strength bleach on it.....nothing! I did it again....nothing. I used a bleach pen, still nothing. Finally I rinsed the sheet off to get rid of the bleach. I could see that the bleach did something to the paper but it didn't lighten the ink one iota. I was depressed. I guess it would work on black paper but that isn't light fast. I will have to experiment with different black substances and maybe find something that will work. Next, I was looking at Shirley Travena's books and she had these wonderful mono print images with black drawn lines showing through white paint. I have this piece of black paper, so... I brayered white gesso onto a glass plate, put the ink coated paper face down and drew with a ballpoint pen on the back of the paper as described in Shirley's book. Disaster! The paper stuck to the plate at the bottom and tore when I tried to get it off. I guess we will be doing some cropping of this image. The lines didn't have the same character as Shirley's at all. More disappointment. Turns out gesso was a poor choice.

I am going to Denver for a wedding this weekend. I am taking the computer and will try to post.