Fun With Splash Inks (Part 2)

Splash Inks are acrylic inks invented by Karen Elaine and made by Yasutomo. I’ve posted on Splash inks previously. Today, Arizona Art Supply had a class in learning how to use the inks. Kari Foteff

Senior Account Manager Kari Foteff (L) from Strathmore, and inventor Karen Elaine.

from Strathmore Papers (L) and Karen Elaine were there and they taught a wicked good class. Strathmore papers were the first papers I loved when I was a papermaker, and it was great meeting someone who gets to work with Strathmore papers much of the time.

It’s fun meeting an inventor, particularly one who is modest and never mentioned her time on the Carol Duvall show. ( A popular show on the DIY Network several years ago) or the process of invention, just what the inks can do.

There are four inks, and they follow the CMYK colors: Cyan (blue) Magenta, Yellow and Black. You can mix them into over a hundred different colors.

We mixed several colors, and Kay, next to me, did a whole sampler of colors.

We then masked off a card and, using a stencil, scraped Golden’s regular gel (gloss) over the stencil and allowed the gel to dry, creating a resist.  We then mixed colors and applied them over the card. Kay did an attractive multi-colored card:

And I tried for a batik effect:

I’ll be demonstrating the inks at Arizona Art Supply’s booth the Women’s Expo at the Phoenix Convention Center April 27 and 28, 2013.

Karen Elaine helped me learn how to do some paper marbling with the basic colors. I have some more work to do (mixing new colors), but I’m really pleased with the basic marbling which is super easy:

And works with more complicated combing patterns, too.

Even the second pick-up works well:

I made these on cardstock, but you can also make them on sized watercolor paper. You can use them as art journal backgrounds, or just write in the lighter areas. You can use Golden’s regular gel as a resist and then write on it with a sharpie. Lots of experimentation still to go, but I’m having a lot of fun with Splash Inks.

-–Quinn McDonald has inky fingers again.

Disclaimer: I purchased the inks myself. I am receiving no compensation to blog about them.

Splash Ink: New Product

This isn’t a review, because I haven’t had these inks long enough to do anything except make a few basic mixes. But with a weekend coming up, there is the possibility you may want to try them, too.

I went out to buy ink today, because most of my work is done with ink, watercolor paints and pencils. I had gotten a flyer from Arizona Art Supply mentioning that there would be a demo of the new Splash Inks, and it had piqued my interest.

Here’s the premise: Splash Inks come in only four colors–the same four colors that printers use to make hundreds of colors by mixing them in different amounts or different size dots. You may know the colors as CMYK–Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. The K is used to prevent confusion with B for blue, which is called cyan. (Did you take notes? No matter. Read on!)

The inks are acrylics, and only slightly thicker than ink. They mix incredibly well, and can be used in waterbrushes and in calligraphy pens. (I haven’t tried that yet).  I played around with the yellow and blue to make various shades of green, turquoise, and jades. The more water you add, the more transparent the colors become.

Splash ink was developed by Karen Elaine Thomas  for Niji and is distributed by Yasutomo.

The packaging comes with a mixing chart for landscapes, portraits and more. The colors are measured in drops (the bottle tops are designed for this) and water is added to lighten colors and make them transparent. It’s hard not to like the idea.

I’ve tried the most basic mixing with good results. While you are supposed to used these inks on watercolor paper, I think coated stock or Yupo will give a clearer color and less fast absorption, which made it a bit harder for me to mix. This is not a disappointment, it’s simply a new technique and needs some practice.  I have fallen in love with the colors you can make, though.

Karen Elaine was at the Mesa (AZ) stamp show, and demo’d an interesting technique using rubber stamps. There is something appealing about resists, and she used it in that way.

I’m eager to try working with these inks. They seem to be versatile and I want to explore them.

Disclosure: I paid for the inks and am not receiving any compensation from anyone to post this blog.

—Quinn McDonald uses ink to work on journal pages.

Fun With Parallel Pens

Pilot Parallel Pens are a wonderful addition to any art journal page. As do all parallel pens, it writes a broad smooth line, a tender fine hairline, and decorative strokes. The pens come in four widths: 1.5mm, 2.4mm, 3.8mm, or 6mm. The ink feeds across the writing edge and when I try it, it’s smooth and even. (Pen and Ink Arts has some exclusive sizes: 1mm 2mm, 3mm, and 4mm and 6mm slant)

Four Pilot parallel pens from http://blog.shopwritersbloc.com/writing_instruments/

If you have used parallel pens, you know how they write–you can use them for the traditional calligraphic strokes. But, I’m not calligrapher, so I misued mine immediately. Each pen comes with a red and black cartridge, and packages of cartridges are easy to buy– and come in 11 colors including red, black, blue, green, and a box of mixed colors. Each package also comes with a converter bladder device, so you can use Higgins, Dr. Ph. Martin or other inks.

To my great surprise, you can pull out the cartridge and use the barrel itself as an ink reservoir. This is wonderful for mixing your own inks or gouache. You can also use the barrel to create one kind of ink–Payne’s Gray, let’s say, and then dip the ink in another color, you get wonderful blends. (The Harmless Dilettante has some great examples.)  Of course, you can do this with traditional colors–blue to green, purple to black. But that’s not what I did.

Color sample of Dutch Blue, Interference Blue, Shimmering Black on black Artagain paper.

I found two incredible watercolor inks–an interference blue made my Dawler-Rowney, that looks watery white in the bottle. And a water-based acrylic ink called Shimmering Black, which I put in the pen, made sure it was writing well, then dipped the nib into interference blue and wrote with it.

The result was an incredible blend of shimmer and shine in each letter. Unfortunately, I dropped the wet sample I was working on face-down on my desk before I could photograph it. Interference and sparkle colors don’t photograph well, anyway. I hope the  sample on the left will do to describe the color.

The point (I’m just going to ignore that) of this is that the Pilot parallel pens are versatile, easy to use, and come with cleaners for people like me who use acrylics that aren’t meant for those pens in them anyway. If you are going to experiment, buy an acrylic ink cleaner right away. I’m glad I did.

You can also turn the pen up on its corner and write like a monoline pen. I did that with the ink mix and while it’s not as obvious (the line is thinner, after all), it makes a great new kind of calligraphy.

Disclosure: I purchased all my Pilot pens and inks myself. I was not compensated in any way to write this article.

Quinn McDonald is the author of Raw Art Journaling, Making Meaning, Making Art.   Quinn will experiment and possibly ruin pens and inks in pursuit of meaning-making,  and not mind a bit.

Product Review: Sugar, Chocolate, Coffee

Trader Joe’s has interesting spices. I’ve found a quart of Mexican vanilla (fragrant and great for general cooking), smoked salt and paprika (a little smoke goes a long way), and now, a blend of sugar, chocolate and coffee beans. In a grinder jar. I could not resist.

Might as well admit it, I have a love/hate relationship with sugar. I actually think in moderation it’s fine (I respect your view that it is the devil’s organic compound) but I keep moving the boundary of “moderation.”  Unfortunately, I like sugar a bit too much. (Please do not leave long, ranting comments on its addictive and carcinogenic properties. Please.)

I will not voluntarily ingest any artificial sweeteners (I have my own idea of Satanic compounds), so I no longer drink diet soda, eat sugar-free chocolates or any food that contains sugar alcohol. My lower intestinal tract does not like sugar alcohols. My yogurt is unsweetened and unflavored and I like it that way.

Stevia doesn’t warm my sweet little heart, either. Stevia, as the American Dietetic Association says, “should be used in moderation, and a general guideline is to consume no more than 2 milligrams per pound of body weight daily.” For 150-pound person, that means 300 milligrams of Stevia, or 0.010 ounces per day. (One teaspoon of sugar is about four grams or 4,000 milligrams. Six teaspoons of sugar is about one ounce, so 0.06 teaspoons is your limit of Stevia per day). Of course Stevia is “all natural” but so are poison ivy, black widow spiders, arsenic, and lead, and I’m not eating any of them either.

Back to sugar. I like the idea of grinding a light dusting of a mix of sugar, chocolate, and coffee onto my toast or steel-cut oats. I don’t like the idea that the bottle is not refillable. Finish your grinding and the bottle goes into the landfill. That’s enough to make me grind my teeth, but not in a jar.

I’ve waited a long time to get to the taste. And I’ve waited that long because it is the least interesting part of the bottle. It tastes sweet, sure enough, but it does not taste like chocolate or coffee. On toast (I like mine well-done) the toast taste overwhelms both the sugar and the coffee. To get a coffee and chocolate taste, you have to grind up way more than even I, in my most immoderate mood, would not use.

So I won’t buy it again. Much like Gertrude Stein, I believe there is no there there. It’s not chocolatey enough, it’s not coffee-y enough, and it just isn’t worth the price, which was around $2.00.

–Quinn McDonald loves sugar, but not enough to grind it on toast with not enough coffee or chocolate.

Pilot Parallel Pens–Not Only for Formal Calligraphy

Pilot Parallel Pens are a wonderful addition to any art journal page. As do all

Four Pilot parallel pens from http://blog.shopwritersbloc.com/writing_instruments/

parallel pens, it writes a broad smooth line, a tender fine hairline, and decorative strokes. The pens come in four widths: 1.5mm, 2.4mm, 3.8mm, or 6mm. The ink feeds across the writing edge and when I try it, it’s smooth and even.

If you have used parallel pens, you know how they write–you can use them for the traditional calligraphic strokes. But, I’m not calligrapher, so I misued mine immediately. Each pen comes with a red and black cartridge, and packages of cartridges are easy to buy– and come in 11 colors including red, black, blue, green, and a box of mixed colors. Each package also comes with a converter bladder device, so you can use Higgins, Dr. Ph. Martin or other inks.

To my great surprise, you can pull out the cartridge and use the barrel itself as an ink reservoir. This is wonderful for mixing your own inks or gouache. You can also use the barrel to create one kind of ink–Payne’s Gray, let’s say, and then dip the ink in another color, you get wonderful blends. (The Harmless Dilettante has some great examples.)  Of course, you can do this with traditional colors–blue to green, purple to black. But that’s not what I did.

Color sample of Dutch Blue, Interference Blue, Shimmering Black on black Artagain paper.

I found two incredible watercolor inks–an interference blue made my Dawler-Rowney, that looks watery white in the bottle. And a water-based acrylic ink called Shimmering Black. I put Shimmering Black in the pen, made sure it was writing well, then dipped the nib into interference blue and wrote with it.

The result was an incredible blend of shimmer and shine in each letter. Unfortunately, I dropped the wet sample I was working on face-down on my desk before I could photograph it. Interference and sparkle colors don’t photograph well, anyway. I hope the drop-size sample on the left will do to describe the color.

The point (I’m just going to ignore that) of this is that the Pilot parallel pens are versatile, easy to use, and come with cleaners for people like me who use acrylics that aren’t meant for those pens in them anyway. If you are going to experiment, buy an acrylic ink cleaner right away. I’m glad I did.

You can also turn the pen up on its corner and write like a monoline pen. I did that with the ink mix and while it’s not as obvious (the line is thinner, after all), it makes a great new kind of calligraphy.

Full disclosure: I purchased all my Pilot pens and inks myself. I was not compensated in any way to write this article.

Quinn McDonald is the author of Raw Art Journaling, Making Meaning, Making Art.   Quinn will experiment and possibly ruin pens and inks in pursuit of meaning. And not mind a bit.

Mingle Magazine Debuts (and giveaway)

Mingle Magazine Winners:  Congratulations to Jean Erier and Andria from    drawingnear!  Please get in touch with me and let me know where to mail your magazines. Thanks for everyone who left a comment.

Stampington–the company that brought you Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging, Art Journaler, Somerset Home, and many more magazines, is adding a new publication–Mingle. “Creative Ideas for Unique Gatherings” is the tag line, and it is exactly that–each article is an event, lovingly recorded in print and photography.

From p. 118 of Mingle, in an article about a party blogger and stylist.

Christen Olivarez, who is also editor of Somerset Studio, edits Mingle. In her first letter from the editor, she writes, “. . . I just love taking care of my friends and family. I love to be able to plan a party or dinner for them to simply show up at and enjoy. It’s my way of showing my love and appreciation for them.”

Paging through the magazine, I was surprised at the amount of people who plan and produce elaborate parties for love and joy in the result. In our time-crunched, super-scheduled, busy lives, it is refreshing to see people taking time to celebrate and time to plan, send invitations, shop and decorate for a party.

And celebrate they do in Mingle. There is a church-sponsored prom with

Place setting and invitation from an article on a church-sponsored prom on pg. 6 of Mingle.

a nautical theme, complete with a singing captain who welcomes everyone, smokestacks on the roof, portholes on the front door, and crystal table settings to mimic the 1920s-style cruise line dining rooms.

There are birthday celebrations, art gatherings, creative retreats (one held in the woods) and wedding vow renewals, gatherings of friends for every reason. All are photographed and detailed, some with menus and party planner credits. There are even event blogger articles.

The 144-page magazine ($14.99) is crammed with articles and photography, with a few pages of mostly house ads in the back. I’m used to the commercial 60/40 split, so this was a pleasant surprise. The magazine is printed in a gray/silver ink, and I had a bit of trouble reading it in the evening. And you’ll want to read the stories–the images will make you drool, but the stories are the real messages.

Giveaway Details: I’m giving away two copies of the magazine. Simply leave me a comment, and I’ll  pick two commenters who live in the U.S. at random. You must reply by midnight on Friday, October 7. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday (the blog is closed this Saturday) and will mail out the magazines on Monday, October 10.

Full disclosure: Stampington publishers asked me to participate in the give-away and I agreed. Stampington supplied both magazines at no cost to me, although I provided the postage. No other compensation was provided.  I write a column for Somerset Studio and Art Quilting Studio magazine, both publications of Stampington.

Product Review: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

My first bottle of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, which I purchased in 2008, was a huge disappointment. The 2-oz. spray bottle delivered a mist of coffee-colored paint mixed with a hint of shimmer. It did it twice. Then the spritz top got clogged. I like the product well enough, but I kept having to shake, decant into a tiny mister bottle, use, clean, pour back. I gave up pretty quickly. I tried again with Pearl, same result.

New formlation of Glimmer Mist

The salesperson warned me not to shake the bottle as that would “force the glitter” into the spray tube and up to the top. I was supposed to “rock the bottle back and forth.” The spray-clog ideas was unlikely (OK, so she wasn’t a fluid mechanics major) and the “rocking” part was just plain not going to happen in my studio.

Three weeks ago, when I saw the new delicious colors in a store, I wasn’t tempted. Not one bit. I’d used the coffee and pearl by pouring them in small, deep containers (like pill bottles) and painting them on with a brush. Not again.

I noticed the new bottles had a label on them that said “New formula: EZ Mix, EZ Mist.”  I decided to try. I bought a bottle. In the studio it sprayed consistently 3 times. I left the cap off and waited an hour. It sprayed perfectly. I left the cap off overnight. It still worked.

Glacier sprayed on black paper.

Even better, the glitter was softer, finer and more elegant looking. The next day I bought three more bottles for a project I had in mind. Within a week I had eight new bottles in total. Three shades of blue (Glacier, Waterslide, and Delphinium),  Lemon Zest, Olive Vine, a dark chocolate with red (Chocolate Covered Cherries), Black Magic (black with gold glimmer) and Oriental Poppy (an orange red).

Within another week, they were put to the test–I taught a class of 50 people in two sections, with a waiting time between sections. The spray is water-based and non-toxic. It works fine on paper and over watercolors, acrylics, watercolor pencil, and ink. It works on some fabrics better than others. (The shimmer is less on cottons and canvas). It doesn’t work on plastics (because it’s water-based) unless you coat it with watercolor ground.

In class, the bottles were left uncapped, shaken, sprayed, and shaken again. At the end of class, I capped them all and took them back to the studio, and, without rinsing out the spritzer, packed them away. A week later, I unpacked them again. Shook them up and down. Each one sprayed perfectly.

The only thing I’m not pleased with is the sample of sprays shown here. It’s impossible to catch the subtle glimmer with a camera. But it’s there. Along with a good spritz of color.

I use them as a top spray on handmade cards, as a color or top spray on spray-ink maps, as a background on journal pages (you can write over the glitter smoothly–no bumps), on appliques, particularly if I use black paper.

Cost: About $7.00 for a 2-oz. bottle.

FTC-required disclosure: I purchased all eight bottles myself, from a local craft store.