Wednesday 10 May 2017

Black & Gold





This tree took months.
Not because of the design or the method, but laziness. I started this and made it 1/2 way through. Got lazy.
Three months later I decided one day to finish it. I had noticed in the meantime studying the two and a half boards I've made  that my materials weren't foolproof; the push-pins I had been using seemed to have weakened over time (resulting in the flats falling off), and rust was beginning to appear  on a couple of caps. I invested in a glue-glun, stronger push-pins and a lacquer. I realise now that you can't actually get away without using some type of varnish; ideally a resin, but I'm anti-frames, so I'm not so sure how resin and I could get along.
This one I'll admit was trickier because so little of it was laid straight. Limited in my supply, I used a similar-sized board as my last two, only this one was white. In hindisght, I probably should have used a plain wooden board to suit the colours I used a little better.



I thought I'd save myself a mountain of time by laying out the board. Pre-pinning. I did this before, on my first piece, and swore to never do it again. It doesn't work. The amount of wasted time. Failed hopes. Don't do it. Don't ever do it.




I restarted and resorted back to the good old time-consuming, back-breaking one-by-one method. One pencil mark. One pin. One bang. One scrape. One blob of glue. 2-4 minutes on and you'll get to do a whole other one - imagine! Sarcasm aside, I do enjoy the process, nomatter how arduous.



This was the easy part of the board. The branches are straight-edged on the left, but this wasn't my plan for the right-hand side. I wanted more stray branches, and I wanted it to appear as if the wind was attacking them.


Loose
Hammered




I map out the design on the board first, then either photograph and remove them or else just leave them there and push them out of the way as I go. Usually the latter. With this design I found it especially easy to lose my place and fucked up quite a few times. I had to be careful with placement - too much of the one colour too close together and I run the risk of being asked, "What is it?" (It has happened, and it's upsetting).





Just completed

After three coats of lacquer