Paper Technique Experiments Part Two

So continuing from yesterdays post, here are some more paper techniques you could use to make papers really interesting.

Cut Work
Literally the technique is in the title- you can cut the paper with a scalpel or a pair of scissors (remember when you use to make the paper snowflakes??) and create really intricate patterns. In industry, or on a larger scale you can use laser cutting to get a really precise cut.
An example of some really beautiful cut work would be Bovey Lee who uses Chinese rice paper on silk. Her website is lovely and I recommend a look!

 

I haven't really done much of this yet so haven't any examples of my own work to show you. Bovey Lee's is better though so not much of a loss there!!

Bleaching
Bored of cleaning? Fancy doing something fun? Take your bottle of bleach, an old paint brush, some colour paper and start doodling!! Obviously you need to take safety precautions and make sure to experiment in a well ventilated area and wash the bleach off immediately if it gets on your skin etc etc- you know all this already! Some papers will bleach better than others but that's just part of the experiment! Try inking up some paper and bleaching back into it, or enhancing a drawing with a few bleach lines.

 

 A few experiments with bleach on still wet ink and then holding the paper up to make it run.

 

 I have found that this blue wrapping paper works really well with bleach, no inking or other media needed. The left hand side image is just using stick and bleach, and the right hand side image is a bleach print, made from a cardboard cut out that I covered in bleach and pressed onto the paper. I quite like where the print is fuzzy and not completely blocked in as it highlights the existing lines in the paper.

Frottage
Frottage literally seems to mean taking a rubbing of something, so a brass rubbing of a cast image or a wax crayon rubbing of an interesting wall are both types of frottage.
Naturally at university we are supposed to create our own interesting textures to take rubbings of, and not to just go for the obvious, like tree bark. I have used acrylic paint to create a few textures as once dried, the acrylic goes rock hard so is easy to take a rubbing of.

 Deep grooves made by the end of a paintbrush

 Sponged on quite thickly (looks a bit like plastered ceilings)
 

Deep squiggles, again made by the end of a paintbrush
 

Overlapping circles made by a Pritt stick lid

Here are the results!! All done with a wax crayons, although an idea would be to try different forms of media- oil pastels, graphite sticks, charcoal, pencils etc which would give different weights, moods, tetures etc

And of course you can layer the different textures, use different medias in the one piece, rub sections out to create a negative...possibilities are endless!!