Monday, March 16, 2009

Veneering Book Coves


I'm really excited about my glue. I found some new glue that is heat activated for laminating Burl type veneers to substrates of odd shape. The glue wasn't cheap at 40 dollars a gallon. It came and I immediately tried a test out on a scrap tube. After heating up the iron, and allowing the glue to lightly dry I positioned the glued veneer onto the glued tube substrate and ironed away. It worked fabulously. Next I began on the real deal, coating the beginnings of the sculpture/book cover top and veneer, then rough cut to fit. Very exciting to have a product that worked so well and I was no free from using a very expensive vacuum press that i've been avoiding buying for years.
The Veneered book cover to the scroll I want to do, came out great, not a hitch, except for burning the tip of a finger slightly on the iron. Now for the top side...
The Japanese Tamo ash really has a topographic image to it, Its own intrinsic nature really translates into the context of these landscapes. After the top piece is laminated i'll begin to cut out the absent shapes of the snow fields and glaciers, then seal the veneer surface with a coat of polyurethane.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Veneer 101


Sweet! I got my veneer,that came last week, unpacked today and its super nice.
One sheet is a Tamo Ash from Japan and the other is a lot of plane sliced Redwood Burl. The veneer is quite exotic and will work well on the outside of the two new sculptures i've been slowly finding my way on. Its sort of hard to work in an away that is conducive to process when so much of the early fabrication involves thoughtful procedures. Gee this sounds like grad school.
This week I should get some heat activated construction adhesive for the burl veneer so I can start veneering the outer covers to the pieces. Mary's been hard at work in her studio working on some new linocut blocks and prints. we were at artist and Craftsmen shop for some new engraving blades.