Gold leafing

Did a few tests today, applying adhesive size with a fine brush to small areas on the front of the pigment ink print, let it dry a few minutes, then applied the gold leaf. It worked, but I’m not sure I will cover large areas of the image: the process creates hard edges and my images are mostly soft and out of focus… I’ll play more. Once infused with wax, the metal leaf (imitation gold) should not oxidize.

A few images of the trials…

Top: gold leaf sheen visible in small areas where applied on surface of print
Centre: gold leaf sheen visible in small areas where applied on surface of print
Bottom: gold leaf applied to back of thin washi and infused with wax; no sheen, just a subtle warm toning

Visual haiku triptychs

For my Tokyo show, I am exploring what I call “visual haikus”, a series of triptychs I began a few years ago. I had worked with mixed media encaustics during the 2014 Encaustics workshop with Lean Macdonald in Victoria.
The haiku poetic form consists of 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables and focuses on details of the here and now, often dealing with nature. I have decided to adapt the format to photographs shown in a 3-panel format replicating a 5-7-5 proportion (11″x17″). At least one of the panels (most likely the widest one, will feature the subject (human or nature). I will keep it open, letting the viewers make up their own interpretation of the haiku sequence or narrative.
I have been moving towards a brown warm-toned monochromatic palette, retaining red for a dash of colour, trying to simplify, reduce. In the images below, I use a red leaf texture layer in Photoshop to blend in with the darker areas of the photos, giving it the organic quality I am looking for. Here is a sample of 2 of the 9 images:

I will try printing the images above on thicker washi paper, applying gold leaf on the surface of some areas of the print, then infusing with it wax. Brown-black-gold-red….

In order to take advantage of the translucency and red pigment already part of the print, I will need to limit my use of mixed media. I may use pencil and black ink, red ink washes, red wax, perhaps embed a real leaf here and there… we’ll see.

I like the idea of the triptychs, yet I also like the single image above, which allows for a fuller view of the subject.