Hello All
I'm doing some metalpoint experiments and would welcome ideas and feedback.
Test Panel 1
To test the value of marks made by 6 different metals on 18 different grounds (2 of which are paper: Plike and TerraStone). Metal hardness will vary (pewter, gold, silver, copper, brass, nickel).
The goal is to see (a) which grounds produce the darkest marks, and (b) how the marks age (I've heard from various metalpoint artists that marks tarnish/age differently depending on ground).
Test Panel 2
Apply different metal points to a single ground to show variety of metal marks possible. Metals to include: lead, lead-tin, pewter, zinc, pure silver, sterling silver, argentium silver, gold (22K, 18K, 14K), aluminum, copper, yellow brass, red brass, bronze, nickel, platinum, bismuth. (I have all but zinc, bronze, bismuth - still working on those...). For applicable metals I'll try both dead soft and half hard.
Any ideas for other metals to try?
Test Panel 3
Test methods to speed up tarnishing using liver of sulpher, onions/garlic.
Any other tarnishing tricks?
Test Panel 4
Add abrasive fillers to ground to see how fillers affect mark making. I'll use either generic house paint or student grade acrylic becasue I'm presuming I can add 10-20% fillers to them and they'll still bind well - yes?
Among the materials I'm considering are....
Titanium white
Zinc white
large micron size pigments (lapis, natural earths, etc..)
marble dust
gypsum
silica
ground glass
bone ash
talc
I realize some of theses substance (talc, gypsum) might be too soft to affect marks, but I'd like to see. Are there other wild and crazy substances I should try, just for the heck of it?
All comments are welcome. Thanks,
Koo