Yesterday on my various social networking sites (as I’m sure everyone is painfully aware) I blogged about being in a new gallery, and deciding to experiment a bit with one of my pieces.
I decided, since I had a few old frames left over from another project, that the best thing to do would be to destroy the ever-loving hell out of one of them. Story of my life…
Ultimately, I chose to work over a frame based on a piece of art I did this spring called “Infection”, which looks something like this:
infection
Instead of just a standard frame, I decided to try and have fun with it. To that end, I took one of those old frames and beat the crap out of it.
Now, that actually is simplifying the process just a bit. But I did get to use the phrase “beat the crap out of it”, so I still consider that a win.
I sanded a few choice spots on the frame, somewhat randomly. They are in a rough path from the top of the frame to the bottom, but not a line per se. After a little sanding, I took my Dremel tool and, using various tips, “ate away” at the frame.
After getting rid of the sawdust, I added a few colors of ink and (heavily) watered down acrylics to the raw wood areas, giving it, frankly, an awful, infected look. Which, unlike waking up Saturday morning after a night of drinking, is what I actually wanted.
I then took a black mat and tore the top black layers up a bit. I used a scratchboard tool that is, more or less, a bunch of random sharp wires, and roughed up the mat in spots to match the frame. Again, I added ink and acrylic.
I did also fool around with the Dremel and the glass, and I think with some practice it could work, but it was becoming a bit too “obvious” so I abandoned that. Maybe with the proper tools, or an acid on the glass, the effect might work better.
So here, below, is the final product. I took a few pictures from different angles, and as always let me know what you think. I’m trying to decide what the best price to sell something like this would be too, especially since it’s a “one of a kind” piece.
infection frame 1
infection frame 2
infection frame 4
infection frame 3
