S U P P L I E S

Surface Treatment Workshop  **  Golden Light Molding Paste, Coarse Molding Paste, Fiber Paste, Crackle Paste, Clear Tar Gel, Glass Bead Gel  Click here to see all of the Golden mediums, gels, and pastes  ** Golden Fluid acrylics for tinting pastes or painting surfaces  **   Palette knife  **  I used circle templates with the pastes in the samples.  They make great stencils!  **  Canvas panels to use as a substrate  **  140# Watercolor paper to use as a surface for experimenting

After I finished with all of the samples I used a 11" x 14" canvas panel and created this piece.  I call it Cosmos since I think it looks like a galaxy with planets and other celestial bodies.  The background was painted with two colors of acrylic paint and before it was dry I dribbled a little water on in places.  I used light and coarse molding paste, plus fiber paste for the celestial bodies.  The center turquoise area that partly covers the yellow was light molding paste that I let dry till it skinned over, then I lightly pressed bubble wrap into the paste and pulled it off.  If you do this be sure to pull straight up so that you don't distort the pattern that the bubble wrap creates.  If the paste is too wet and mushy you won't get a good impression, so be sure to let it skin over first.  Once the paste was totally dry I went back and added the turquoise color.

Jess was messing around when we finished shooting the video and came up with this using leftover colors from the alcohol technique.  Light molding paste with some yellow mixed in was used around the edges and as the center of the flowers, which began as circles made from dropping alcohol onto the paint, but morphed into the paste.  It's always interesting to see how projects shift and change as they're created..  She did use bubble wrap to impress into the paste and also to stamp the red pattern around the edges.

Circles in descending sizes made with light molding paste applied with a palette knife to the openings in the circle template.  That's a wash of Cobalt Turquois

Coarse molding paste, also with Cobalt Turquois washed over it.

Same thing with fiber paste!  I like this one the best - it has lots of texture and character.

Glass bead gel.  I think this would be really cool if paint was mixed into the bead gel before it was applied.  That way the gel itself would be colored but the beads would remain clear.

Golden light molding paste.  Right out of the jar on the left and mixed with Cobalt Turquois fluid acrylic before it was applied to the 140# watercolor paper.

Golden coarse molding paste.  This was done the same as the one above with plain on the left and Cobalt Turquois mixed into the sample on the right.  As you saw in the video, I washed purple over them both and you can see how interesting things happen when you play!

Here's the first tar gel sample that I painted in the video.  After the first coat dried I used a paper towel and rubbed the paint off of the get.  You can see the white of the paper through the gel which is cool.  I painted yellow over the turquoise, let it dry, then rubbed it off of the gel, too.  The white paper is always going to be white under that first layer of gel.  I had some of the turquoise tar gel left over so I drizzled it over this piece.

Here's the piece I showed when drizzling the turquoise tar gel.  It will go over the paint and the light molding paste, acting as a resist on all surfaces.  If I had time to paint over the molding paste you would have seen the turquoise tar gel would have remained as is while the rest of the circle was colored with paint.  There are lots of creative ways to utilize the resist property of tar gel!

Using salt as a resist also produces cool effects, though the process is different since the paint is applied, then the salt.  Traditional resists are used like the tar gel where the resist is applied, then the color.  That's how batik fabrics are created, with wax acting as a resist.  Think of the things you can accomplish using various resist techniques!

Many of these products can be used on fabric, too.  This is a piece of canvas fabric that has light molding paste applied with a palette knife.  Once the paste dried I dry brushed paint over it, emphasizing the raised areas.  The fabric needs to be supported so that the paste doesn't crack, but if it's part of a larger mixed media piece or if you use the paste on a book cover, it would be just fine.