Band Rising

This, you will find, is not always easy to do as you will soon realise. They tend to smudge with the best will in the world as they pick up specks of dirt and are quite delicate in themselves

Therefore it is quite hard to protect your work. Pastels can be harmful in fact, as the pigment in them is quite loose. You need to be careful not to inhale from the specks of these dust pigments.

I personally never use newspaper to store them as the print and the acids in these could really ruin your work. It is probably best to cover your work with tracing paper, which you can buy at good suppliers, that is acid free.

So, for instance, you want to store your work for sometime to come. In this case I would buy an acid free board. Personally, I would cover it with greaseproof paper and tape it down firmly with masking tape.

When you reach the framing stage, decisions have to be made. At this point you may decide you would like to change it somewhat. Maybe you think it is improved with less sides for instance or even all the way round.

So how do you decide? In my home I have made myself a frame out of stiffish card. I place this over my work and move it over and around my work. This way then sometimes I remove some of it to enhance my work. It does not necessarily always amount to much to make an actual difference.

Pastel does not work next to glass. If you do this you will have both condensation and find dark spots or patches on your work. To remedy this for framing, your painting would need a mat of cardboard on top to separate it from the glass.

If you frame it with the mat no problems should occur in the years to come, even without fixing it. This does not mean that you cannot fix it! Spray it with an aerosol by all means, but be careful not to inhale some of the strong fumes.

Do try and spray outside if at all possible, or if that is not possible, make sure the room is very well ventilated. You have to remember these fumes can be very damaging to your health.

Remember when you work around pastels, you could be allergic to the dust they create. In view of this, and the paint fumes, I would say go out and buy yourself a plastic mask which will cover your mouth and nose.

After all, you are likely to get a stuffy, blocked up nose, if you room has very little air. This is just a little bit of advice, but an important one. Be aware of your hands, pastels are messy, so give them a good wash when you take your breaks.

Spattering is a way of achieving a brushstroke free painting at random, and an on the spur of the moment kind of look. This can be done leaving no brush marks by spattering or actually flicking your paint on to your support. This will leave marks that are dappled, speckled or even mottled.

So where could you use it? Well, as an example, if you wanted to create a rough surface on your painting or even produce effects of the elements. As you will begin to see, these can be used in various ways to create a textured look.

Supposing you are doing a beach scene, you could use this method to create your pebbled beach or bushes in the foreground. In a country scene you could do old, broken down stone walls, or an old street with cobble stones.

Quite intricate patterning can be achieved. However, your patterning at random can be made by using just a fine delicate mist of colour or using quite a few colours. This will certainly enhance your work and will give any flat areas of colour a lift.

Assorted liquids can be used to create these effects which can be quite stunning. As an example, you could use watercolours, gouache, or oil paint if it was thinned down first.

You need to make certain that you work on a flat surface, as you do not want the paint to drip and ruin your required effect.

So, what tools can I use for this? The answer being, quite a few. A toothbrush, a nailbrush or even a mouth spray. Any sort of spray with a pump, a bristled brush or various styles of artists brushes, like a stencil brush or soft brush are possible.

What you could do now, is what I would call splash and spray, whereby you fill your brush with thinned paint and then quite strongly flick your wrist. This would give you in reality, large, varying splashes.

You can really build up dense layers by loading your brush, you then hold it above your surface and then hit the handle hard with another brush or something similar. On the other hand, you could spray by taking some sort of garden or household spray container.

Of course there are other options to be tried. The toothbrush I mentioned for instance. You will need to mix up water and paint in your dish for this. Then dip your brush in the mix, shake off any extra paint before you bring your brush over your surface. Now use something like a metal ruler or a palette knife, to run through all the bristles. Be careful it is not spattering you!

The speckled look will actually be achieved according to how near or how far away you are from your work when you apply this method.

A Gum Arabic mix can be used on your support too, bearing in mind that it has to be left to dry. Then you can spatter away with water repeatedly to create your picture.

You could use the rough water colour paper, spattering different colours intermittently, but ensuring each colour dries first. Similarly, you could use water paper, if it is damp, spatter and just leave it to bleed.

Mosaics today are used in so many different ways, both in the home and in garden designs and outdoor projects. In other words, they are back in fashion even though they date back to Roman times.

Do I need many tools for this? Well, you will need your subject to decorate, PVA or a water soluble glue, grout, mosaic tiles, brown paper, sponge, squeegee, pencil, chalk, goggles, face mask, nippers or a hammer and hardie.

There are so many choices of items available to you to use for this. You could use broken crockery, beach pebbles, glass beads, marbles, shells, glass nuggets or mosaic ties. You can buy mirrored tiles or even end up painting blank ones with a paint for porcelain.

With tiles, when you buy them, they have a backing of brown paper. This being the case, you need to release the paper by letting them soak in warm water first. Rinse your tiles and leave them to dry. If you use the tiles straight from the paper you can use what is called an indirect method.

So, to do it this way, you glue your tiles upside down onto a sheet of brown paper with your water soluble adhesive creating an even, smooth, surface.

You then need to take a rapid drying tile cement and prepare your item with it and then put your tiles on to the wet cement. Do not worry about the brown paper now. Later, when it is dry, wipe the paper over with a wet sponge to get it off.

Basically more or less the same applies to grouting your kitchen or bathroom. Ensure that all the little cracks are well filled in, using your squeegee. You can clean up the grouting the same way with a wet sponge. Let it dry before you attempt to polish up and finish the surface.

And designs, what about those? It is better to start with something relatively simple, like geometrics, and move on to curves and circles, for example, when you are more proficient. Then, to cut your tiles to fit your pattern, you have two choices. Try the direct method.

The first method is not so easy and needs some practice with a few spare tiles. This is the old hammer and hardie method, whereby the hardie is held over your tile. Then you tap the hammer so that it cuts into your tile, therefore it moves the tile to get the required shape.

Nippers, the second method, certainly are easier to handle. Handy as these will allow you to cut the tiles into halves and quarters, they sort of break bits off to leave you with curves or whatever is needed. Any remaining odd shapes you are sure to be able to use somewhere in the mosaic. I recommend having a trial run before you go to work on your item.

From the safety angle I would recommend that you wear the face mask and goggles. Use a hoover or dustpan and a brush to clear up any fragments of glass, crockery etc. It is quite a good idea to prepare your tiles in a clear polythene bag as this will keep any fragments and dust contained.

Candle making is pretty easy to do on the whole. I am only surprised that more folks don’t experiment with this bearing in mind that candles are such a accepted item. Not simply do they generate a feeling of warmth and release perhaps healing powers as we find them restful, but they also give us soft and informal atmospheres to slow down by.

What is more, you need very few items to make them with. At the outset you will need several moulds, these are mostly to be found in rubber or else plastic, but they need to be flexible. Plus 3 or 4 assorted wicks in varying sizes and some colour. There is by and large quite a collection of colours, as a result you can, indeed, blend them.

Subsequently there is the wax/stearin itself, and you would certainly love some nice scents to harmonize with the candles. Accordingly, first grab your moulds and take care that they are perfectly clean inside and not harbouring dust.

A number of moulds contain a wick gap, thus you will need to do a scratch to thread the wick through. The thinner wicks to be used for the smaller moulds and vice versa. On average you want to cut the wick in any case 2 inches longer than your mould. Place the wick all through the mould, tying a knot inside the wick on the actual outside of your mould.

Then pull this out about half an inch, this piece is wished-for to light it by. Compress some blue tack about the hole on the mould outside, otherwise your wax is likely to run out. Now, at the foot of the mould, fasten the other ending of the wick to a cocktail stick plus set this across your mould base.

Clearly the wick has to remain central and secure, but do not attempt to stretch it. How much wax do I think you will need? If you fill your mould with water before you start this will act as a guide, however take into account this is the melted wax I am talking in relation to.

At this point you will want a couple of interlocking saucepans, so that one will incorporate the other. Use a trivet and situate a quantity of warm water beneath the larger pan. The wax goes within your little pan. Set the little saucepan inside the larger one and now put it on a low heat (temperature). If you are not sure how much wax to utilize experiment with around 500g.

Monitor the wax as well as the water level conscientiously. Don’t let it get too hot! When this has melted put in the stearin. Put in one tenth stearin to ten parts wax. Put your colour in little by little from the colour strips, you will not need much. Then add some scent, pot pourri, or essential oils.

The mould needs to be vaguely lukewarm. Transfer the wax into a measuring jug, because this makes it easier to in that case fill your mould. Try and hang on to the mould on a skew at the same time as you execute this. Additionally, endeavor to pour the wax in so that it practically touches the cocktail stick. You will probably have to fill in all-around the bottom as soon as it has cooled down.

After it has set hard, take off the mould sealant. Cut the knot off the wick as near to the knot as possible, then remove the toothpick from the foot. Straight away extract your candle. If this is awkward, run the warm water tap over it for a few moments.

Now chop the wick to however long you actually want it. Make sure the base of the candle is level and leave it at least a day. It should then be ready for use. If you have managed this successfully you will probably receive as much enjoyment from it in the same way as if you were creating, say abstract paintings, or even realism artwork.

A colour wheel consists of two halves. One side has the warm colours, which seem to come forward, namely red, orange and yellow. In the other half of this wheel you have the colours which create a coolness about them, blue, violet and green, and these seem to retract.

This is very useful, say, if you are doing trees in a landscape picture. If you use blue and green for the distant trees it would make them look as if they are receding. Now, colours which are into opposition to each, otherwise known as complementary colours.

So, if you place them side by side, one works against another to dominate the space you have. This is very effective when you want to produce contrast and vibrant colours to your work.

Something to remember is the light reflects everything we see in colour around us. To the average person they probably see, say, brown as brown, red as red, but it does not have to be like this.

No two skies are the same and just look how many shades of colour they may contain. The same applies to the seas with the different greens, blues and sometimes they even look black, depending on the light.

If the sun passes through raindrops the spectrum appears. Looking at these colours, if you make a ring with these, you have a colour wheel. Which brings us to colour mixing!

Red, yellow and blue cannot be produced fom any other colour in the wheel for these, the primary colours, are pure. Secondary colours are made by a level mixture of the two primary colour neighbours from the circle, these being the orange, green and violet.

This can now be extended by joining any of the main primary colours, with whichever you may choose, from the secondary colours. Try mixing blue and green and you come up with turquoise. Interestingly enough, the majority of paints you buy are named after flowers and gems.

As you may have come to the realisation, the wheel does not include black and white. In essence, when the light shines on to something it soaks up part of its wavelengths, this results in some coming back to make up the colour we are seeing.

Therefore white is a mix of all the colours with black being a missing colour as it draws all the colours up.

I would suggest that you try and create different browns. Simply try various mixes of the primary colours.

Colour quite obviously plays a very important part for artists. It is amazing, you can create atmosphere, emotions, excite, present illusions of realism and even control space. They can also be transparent, opaque, translucent, textured, flat, matt, gloss, dull or vibrant.