Inkjet Image Transfer Concertina

I’m back in the studio today, but yesterday definitely filled the well, and there are lots of ideas, and I’m making notes of them, because I’m incredibly talented at generating ideas and forgetting them within a day.

I’m still playing with image transfer ideas and techniques, specifically inkjet print image transfers. The portrait prints I have earmarked for transparencies remain dangling in pretty limbo, and today I’m playing with gel medium transfers.

I started by making a concertina sketchbook using a sheet of A1 300gsm Snowdon cartridge paper. It’s great paper that takes a beating, and is inexpensive.

Once that was constructed, I started working in it. I decided to make a composite image of two of my photos from yesterday. There’s no plan for this to be anything other than a practise image, so I just wanted something that made me smile. I clipped Elphin the badger from her classroom background and popped her in front of one of the Silverburn Giant Redwood trees.

The first transfer I tried with heavy gloss gel, and the second transfer I tried with a gloss medium that is slightly more fluid than a gel but not a fluid medium. Mediums are all so diverse between brands, it’s best to test them.

I found the heavy gel was, predictably, too heavy, and the transfer didn’t quite succeed. For the second transfer I made the gel layer thinner but not too thin, and tried to be faster getting the print from printer to gel. The newer the printer the more challenging this process is, because they are always improving the way the inks bond to the paper. I’ve done this process before, with an older printer, and I had better results.

The second image wasn’t terrible, thought, and it spruced up enough with a bit of gloss medium to bring it out a bit. I think this process would be good for more defined images than my little fake woodland scene. Again, this is just a sketchbook experiment, not an attempt at finished art.

Once it’s all dry I will be transferring my notes to the back of the pages, so this will end up being a nice reference book. There are a bunch more inkjet transfer techniques I have in mind for the rest of the book, so I’m looking forward to that.

Til the morn,

Suzanne

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