Moving Forward

 It's been forever since I've blogged and like many, I've vowed to start up again.  

 I think I'll share a little bit of what I've done in my blogosphere absence, as well as what I'm doing now. 

Let's start with rust printing.

Cotton fabric soaked in white vinegar   

90 lb cold press watercolor paper soaked in vinegar

Doodling with white, black and brown marker

The method that works best for me is to soak fabric or heavy paper in white vinegar for at least half and hour.  Be sure to wet each piece of fabric or paper separately before stacking to ensure that all surfaces are soaked.

Then I layer the pieces onto an iron plate that I found over by our local RR tracks.

  I sandwich different types of teas, leaves, berries and rusty pieces of metal in between the layers of fabric and then place another iron plate on top.

 I cover the entire pile with a plastic bag to seal in moisture and then leave it overnight.

In the morning I unwrap all the layers, shake off tea, berries, leaves, etc.  IMPORTANT: Then I soak the fabric and paper in salt water (I fill one side of my sink with warm water and add 1 cup salt) to stop the rusting action which can eat away the fabric and paper.