Icky Blobs of Paint & A Gigantic Blob of Tenancity

A warning to my readers.  If you want to read the WHOLE story, start at the bottom.  Or you could always print a copy and use it for your bed time reading tonight.  Ha!  Either way, I hope you'll get a few chuckles out of this story.


 WEDNESDAY - 7:00 AM - The piece is DONE!!!  I won't even try to write about the fiasco and all the things that went wrong all day yesterday trying to finish this piece.  But just to give you a hint, Jim told me this morning "you are married to that piece".  And when it came time to name it I was using names like "Pelican Poo Poo", "This Pelican is a Turd", and even a few worse than that.

It was like this piece just did not want to be.  I did research this morning to come up with something nicer in a name than the above and found the perfect name "Pitney Pelican".  Pitney is an Old English name for "Island of the Stubborn".  Of course when I went to lay him on the table for Jim to take a picture I couldn't find him!  Jim & I both looked for 10 minutes before I found him hiding amongst some of my tools.

This will be a lucky charm for whoever gets this piece.  It will help them be strong, persistent & stubborn and endure anything that comes their way!

Even though the first etching was not a success standing alone because there was too much detail, it made a beautiful backplate for a butterfly I had sculpted in Fine Silver.  In Art, everything has value even if it didn't end as it was originally envisioned.










 

MONDAY - 4:00 PM - Yea!  Success!  And it makes me smile to know that I did my own drawing that is now etched in a piece of sterling silver.  Now to figure out how I want this to be a pendant.  Many times I have to swirl it around in my mind on what the final piece will look like which could take anywhere from minutes to days to weeks to months.  I'll next update this post with a picture when the piece is ready to go into my gallery for sale.

 

MONDAY - 10:55 AM - Round #2 using 26 gauge sterling rather than 22 gauge and the pelican will mostly be negative space.  Heat setting for 30-45 minutes then into the etching solution for 2 1/2 hours.  Stay tuned for the results!

SUNDAY 5:00 PM - Well, it worked and it didn't work.  The design is perfect but you can only really see it in just the right light even with a patina.  But I do have a use for the piece!  It will make a beautiful backplate for a butterfly I had sculpted from Fine Silver.

As I laid in bed trying to go to sleep last night, I pondered this Pelican project and tried to figure out what went wrong.  I really love this project idea and want to find a way to make it happen.  I realized that if I use a smaller thickness of sterling, leave the piece to etch for 2 1/2 hours instead of 1 1/2 and have more negative space, then maybe it will work.  The problem is I have too much detail so the pelican gets lost.  If I make him solid and the etching deeper, I think it will work.  So guess what I am working on tomorrow?  Yep, you got it!  (Obviously I hate the thought of giving up but that's the stubborn side of me that I got my dear old Dad)

 
SUNDAY 2:20PM - The piece is now sitting in the etching solution and the electrobes are hooked up.  The etching takes 30 minutes -2 hours depending on how deep I want the etching to be.  I'll check it in an hour and in the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and in my studio finishing a St Augustine piece and making some earrings.  Singing (Beach Boys tune) "And she had fun fun fun till stuff gets in the way"

SUNDAY - 12 Noon.  Well, third time wasn't exactly a charm.  The blob happened again - UGH! - but I AM stubborn and love this project so I went a fourth round.  Before I did I looked at the pen and realized there must be something wrong with it (and of course I'm too lazy to drive into Micheals and get another one).  I discovered the problem and managed to finish the drawing with only one blob at the bottom that won't make a difference. Hurray!!  Once again persistence pays off.  Now I will heat set the paint in my food dehydrator and then in an hour or so will set the piece in the etching solution.

Here's the pre-etching piece.  The paint pen acts as a resist so all the areas painted in black will be raised when the etching is done....hopefully.  Don't know the shelf life on the etching chemical which I haven't used in several months so we'll see but as usual, I have HOPE!  Stay tuned....will post an update.

SUNDAY - 10:00 AM  I was all excited to start work on a project I have wanted to do for several weeks and that is etching a Pelican on sterling silver sheet to make a pendant.  I use an acrylic paint pen to do the drawing on the sheet of sterling. I was one stroke away from being done when the paint pen dropped a big blob right in the middle of the pelican. A few curse words later & some acetone, I started over. Almost done a second time & another blob of paint falls on the piece but good news! It landed on the side and I could actually incorporate it into the piece. Sigh of relief. Then just as I'm pulling the pen away & think I'm done, it drops another big blob on the pelican. Screaming, stomping, cursing (and scaring Jim in the process) I walk out into the garage for a breath of air. Now it's soaking in acetone and I'm gonna give it one more try.