2017 Texture Calendar - August

August in Indiana is hot...really hot - usually we get into the 90's and even 100's with 80-100% humidity. I live in an area where there are many lakes, creeks and ponds and you can usually find people enjoying the water on these hot summer days.  The texture technique I have for you today fits in with that theme VERY well! 

Parched Pigments is a fun technique using some very simple ingredients...glue and a pigment powder of your choosing.  Depending on the colors you can make this look like water (as I did today), lava, molten chocolate, etc.  Have fun, experiment and enjoy!

Start off by spreading glue over the page.

Sprinkle one or more powder pigments over the glue.

I used a Turquoise, Iridescent Blue and Silver.

Pounce the glue/powder about to spread the powders around.

Now heat!

This will take a while and it does stink but the results are worth it.  Can you see the giant bubble I'm getting?  That's what you want...basically you're cooking all of the water out of the glue really fast so you're going to have lots of giant bubbles which form a sort of glue skin.  I normally work from one side to the other but whatever works for you.

When all of the white glue is gone - the skin will look translucent.

Let it cool a minute or so and then you can push the skin around or leave it as is.

I pushed mine around a bit to make it look like waves in the water.

And then you need to let it dry/cure.  I leave mine set overnight just to make sure it is set good.

Add the calendar and you're set!

I was actually testing some glues and I had to show you this example I made. It was created on a "messy tag" (tag made when I pick up excess medium from my craft mat) using a purple and blue iridescent powders.  LOVE how it turned out with the pink (from the tag) showing through.

Have fun!