yay lights

What i did: I put together plexiglass cubes to get a feel for whether i liked that project solution. I put double layered color photographs in one with white light on the inside. for the other cube i put red light inside and held a black and white photo transfer up to it. I got feedback on both that was very helpful.






what i discovered: that i dont want to make photo cubes! i decided i'd prefer the viewer to be able to see all the images in a series at one time. i also discovered that the glare problem i was complaining about with the texture of the gel is invisible when the print is illuminated! which is awesome for my purposes.

what's next: stephanie and i discussed a lightbox i could make in order to test how different types/colors of light some through photos and transfers. i think this is important for my decision making process so that's what im working on.

here's that dock lamp with blue bulbs in it that i never posted before

WHAT I DID: I did more experimenting with mixing vellum and plexi. Here is the magazine transfer I did onto glass with acylic gel:

Here is the laser printed transfer i did onto plexiglass which has a piece if vellum behind it:


WHAT I DISCOVERED is that I like the distressed look but I don't like the texture that the gel makes against the glass which can be seen at certain angles:


I also found that my images looked more vibrant and less washed out if I doubled up the vellum prints:



I played with different ways to attach vellum prints to plexiglass. This one is spray adhesive:



This one is modge podge:



I definitely like the look of that texture more, but it's still not what I want. I'm thinking the only way to avoid that effect all together is to sandwich the vellum print between glass without attaching it with any substance.

I also did a photo shoot this week but I'm not happy with the images so I want to redo them.

WHAT'S NEXT: To play with different ways to apply the acrylic gel in order to reduce the texture effect. Also, I have begun trying to make cubes out of plexiglass so that I can figure out what glues work/look the best and how thick the plexi needs to be/how the light looks inside it etc.

WHAT I DID: I changed the bulbs in my "dock" lamp so that almost half of them are blue. It definitely helped with having a more subtle flow of color and the mood more correctly matches my intentions now. I tried out a bunch of inkjet photo transfers. Of course some were more successful than others. I also tried transferring onto glass and plexiglass with acrylic gel. I have some ideas as far as content and new images I need to take so I've started gathering materials to do some shooting. Once I have the transferring technique decisions made and the correct images it will be simple to put the two together.

WHAT I DISCOVERED: That with inkjet prints, I'm not crazy about the transfers. However, I do like straight prints on fabric, plastic, and especially vellum. I found out that gel transferring doesn't work with inkjet prints. I had success with transferring a magazine image onto glass and some success transferring a laser printed photo onto plexi.

WHAT'S NEXT: Continuing to figure out the best technique/materials to get the desired effect. Also. doing some shooting this week so I have images I actually want to use for my final work. Lisa did finally reply to my email and I have a polaroid camera now so I'm still pursuing that process on the side.