"Receptacle of Love"

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"Collect your tears in a receptacle of love and the sun will soon shine again." Today's posting is lovingly dedicated to some friends of ours who lost a grand child over the weekend in an accidental drowning. We are crying with them. We pray for the receptacle of love (Jesus Christ) to wrap them completely up in His empowering grace.

The background in this piece was cropped from a larger sheet I created as a background behind a kiln formed piece of glass. It began with textured gesso on Rives BFK paper. It was then painted black with Speedball Printing Ink and a brayer. After that layer dried and received a coating of Acrylic Spray, I applied gel matte medium (one small section at a time) and laid down the gold leaf. It might be necessary to wait a bit and let it become attached to the gel before removing the backing from the gold leaf. Some of the leaf naturally pulled up creating the exposed black areas.

The look of gold covering an entire surface was a bit bright so I applied (2) parts water to (1) part gel matte medium with my right hand and held a hair dryer right where I was brushing to cause the gel to attach to the leaf. This is a very important step because my intention was to brush on charcoal powder to dull the surface and it will not attach to a slick surface. It is also necessary to spray again with Acrylic Coating to fix the charcoal powder in place. You can then prepare the surface for lettering and painting the bowl with a palette knife.

The last bits of gold were applied before lettering and create a contrast between the two values of gold. To paint with acrylics and a palette knife, it is necessary to add a retarder to the paint to give yourself a larger window of working time. So there you have it. Just a few more things to think about.