Sunday, March 3, 2013

We got a dog; I made a wood print.

I've been gone too long, and for that I apologize. In the month I've been off, my wife and adopted a dog. He's Trusty, and he's a hound dog. Basset/Beagle Mix. Anyway, I'm not going to post a bunch of pictures of him -- just this one.


He's great. Really cute, and friendly, and all that stuff. Adopting a rescue is something I advocate for people who can make the committment, because his anxiety issues have been a struggle during this month of adjustment. Anyway, great dog, and a photo I like, so of course I had to make a cool print out of it. 



What I did: First I sanded the wood, which has  a cool edge on it that my friend Kevin made for me. He does a lot of woodworking as a hobby, and if he had a website I'd link it. Just know he's great -- sold us this house -- and has given me a bunch of free scraps of wood that he cut to various photo sizes. You can expect to see lots of his cuts. Anyway, after sanding, I tried to iron a reverse-printed desaturated version of the above photo. IT FAILED. So, seeing the wood now ruined, I covered it up with an inkjet printed photo of the same picture. Mod Podge on both sides sealed it to the wood, which I then stained. Stain separates into a glaze and color when you don't shake it -- so I used the glaze on top with very little color over the photo, and the full stain on the rest of the wood. I let the stain dry, mod podged it one last time for a shine and a seal, and that's that. The wood is thick enough that I drilled a nail hole halfway through it so it can be hung.

The goal - make a photo that has some character, and is already in a frame by letting the mounting be the frame itself. Staining the photo isn't easy, which is why I glazed it first, but wiping the stain excess was the key to keeping it from overpowering the image. Also, printing the photo a bit overexposed is helpful, since the stain will dull it and you can control how much if you leave yourself some wiggle room.

I have several sizes which I will do this with. Why didn't I do the same wood transfer method as last time? That requires a laser printed photo, which I have to go out of the house to do, and this was an evening-at-home project while I was watching Battlestar Galactica. It's good to have an array of stuff to do. Thanks for reading, subscribing, whatever. Also, if you could give me your input on whether I should move BACK to tumblr, new format but old site, let me know. Thanks.

Frank