Monday, August 13, 2007

Purple stained vellum

In class on Friday Reggie brought small pieces of vellum that he had stained purple using the traditional brazil wood dye method. Each of us got a small piece to work on, and the choice of using either shell gold or Instacol and gold leaf. The first photo is Michelle's piece using shell gold:


This one (below) is the piece that I did using Instacoll and gold leaf. The dyeing process changes the surface of the vellum and makes it a bit unreceptive to paint. It takes a lot of manipulation to get whatever medium you are using to stay down on the vellum -- it just wants to repel the liquid. But, the final result is so beautiful! The dyed vellum looks like velvet!




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Roann, this is the last time I will try and contact you about this piece. I would like to find the historical example for this A/gate/arc shape, and if you do not know that - please could I have your permission to use it in an alphabet book I am making.
I find it quite breathtaking and imagine it as an excellent start to my project.
Regards Hillary
and thank you for your time.
Auckland
New Zealand

Anonymous said...

Very lovely.

Hillary, I don't know if this answers your question, but the symbols are Greek for Alpha and Omega and used as a Christian symbol representing the eternal nature of Jesus Christ. A search using Google turns up a lot more information of it's use pre-Christianity.

Barbara