Thursday, April 17, 2014

Blogging for Thor: Where Am I Gunna Hide This?

My first coated skin! Good thing I had that board.
Today I got my order of 10 goat-skin splits, whatever that means. I don't know what a split is, but apparently they're for all kinds of things. What got split? Why isn't it a whole? Anyway, what I got was ten suede-soft leather pieces, about 4-6 square feet each. They're really cool, with great tattered edges and an amazing texture. I've just finished coating the first one, the smallest, in cyanotype chemistry.

Eventually I'll have to buy a new board, because the rest of the "splits" are too wide for this one. Dealing with the size of them is an issue I'm gunna have to work around. It'll have a big influence on my choice of objects to print onto the skins, and that size issue is going to mean I can't apply glass to keep the objects in contact with the chemistry. That'll have an effect on the clarity of the resulting image. I'm actually still trying to figure out what to print on here, but considering how long I expect it to take to dry, I figure I'll come up with something before it's ready.

Washing the skin is going to be interesting, too. I've never tried wetting this material, but it basically feels like a chamois, so I hope it'll dry without too much distortion. I'll probably just wash it in the sink, then re-stretch it on the board to make sure it dries flat and un-wrinkled. I contacted the tannery to ask if there are any special techniques for washing it to keep it undamaged, and looked online for suggestions about cleaning leather suede. So far nothing specific, but I hope to hear back from the tannery soon.

The hide sucks up chemistry like a sponge. I went through about 300 ml of working solution to cover this smallest skin, which is crazy. I was expecting it to take a lot of chemistry, but not that much. The parchment I'm used to dealing with takes a lot of chemistry, but I'd get a single stroke of the brush before it went dry. I'm probably going to need more chemistry to do the rest of them, but the first one is a test. I'll update with results one I get the thing dry. I anticipate it will take a long time, considering how much chemistry soaked into that skin. This is so exciting! I've been wanting to do an entire cyanotype hide since I got my first parchment scraps!


EDIT: I researched and the stuff I bought is called a "split" because it's only part of the entire hide. The tanners split the hide into different layers, and this stuff is created from some of the lower parts, which is why it's suedey on both sides. Cool!

No comments:

Post a Comment