Happy new year

Magnets

Fridge ornaments, engraving on zinc and shell.

Survey

I'm back (again) with this story of pattern for my next work on zinc. I need your help to choose among the patterns I already created.
If you could answer the survey available here, you may have the good luck (?) to get the one you prefer.

Thanks in advance :-)

leaves

Latest and last try for my project. Next time it will be the real thing, I'm gonna start today.

A

As a present, a three-dimensional A, adorned with acid etched A of various shapes and times.

The trickiest part was the cut out, especially the triangle in the centre.

Tree and fourth

Fourth try, this time with little trees making a round dance.

Not bad but I prefer the previous ones. What about you ?

O3

Nothing to do with ozone but with my third try on the adornment of an initial O.

A pattern of branches this time, with a few leaves (that's the end of automn after all) and no final cleaning which left all the zinc oxide on the parts eaten by the acid bath, increasing the contrast between the two parts even more than in the two firsts attempts.

In the end, I love it too and I'm not closer to the choice of the pattern to use...

Cadel L

It seems that I cannot do anything but zinc engraving these days. This is then a new cadel initial before I go back to me vegetable experiments.

Fern

Second try of adornment with vegetable patterns, this time with a fern.

The engraving left a darker sediment than on the previous try with the ramble pattern, the contrast between the background and the fern is then more important and I like it very much.

I nevertheless cannot say which one I prefer and have consequently to make a third try that has to be incomparably better :-)

G

My latest work on zinc.
It doesn't look like what I imagined but anyway, it's still nice, doesn't it ?

Bramble

For a ongoing project, I'm looking for a way to adorn the inside part of an O with vegetable patterns. A bit tired of historical vines, I made this first try using bramble. The piece is 5cm large in diameter.

As you can see, it is made of zinc, engraved with acid even if this time I used a plate of new zinc and not recovered one.

the heart has its matters which matter knows nothing of

My latest work, on zinc, an engraved white vine in the shape of a heart

I quite like it :-)

Simplex sigillum veri

Another sentence by Wittgenstein, from his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

I wrote it with stamped wax and glued my seals on the work, it would have been their only use.

To see the whole work, follow the link.

Exhibition

I'll be part of the Art Fair in Concarneau the 9th & 10th november.
Each participant has to give a piece of work related to the fish for a tombola, here is my contribution.

A fish skeleton, engraved on zinc and glued to a block of slate, it almost looks like a fossil, doesn't it ?

Embossing

Detail of a work for a customer, a little knotwork embossed on an excellent paper from Capellades, a Catalan mill.

It's has been a long time since my last embossed work and even longer since I last drew knotworks.

One does not see anything until one sees its beauty

A new sentence, this time from The Decay of lying by Oscar Wilde.
I took some pics of banks while walking, which inspired me while drawing the upper border. A bit of italic for the text and it's done.

to see the whole work, it's in the gallery.

Ring

Another try as a jeweller, this time on the basis of the seals I made for another project.
Once the seal assembled with a ring, it makes a perfectly functional seal ring.

It's not only working it's also quite nice, don't you think ?

One year later

Today is our first wedding anniversary. To celebrate, I offered this pendant (among other things) to my wife.

It's about 2cm large by 3.5cm high.
I modified a sentence by Wittgentstein (which I already worked on here) and it now says : my world is all what you are.

seals

For an ongoing project that may never be finished, I'm creating some seals using zinc and the acid engraving technic I'm used to.

Each seal is from 1 to 1.5 cm high.

I'm quite happy with the result for the moment. To be followed...

The world is all that it is

A new item in my series of sentences and a new item in german.
This time, I chose Wittgenstein, a philosopher whose work I really like.

To change a bit from the previous ones, I used a double embossing with an industrial look and a finish in tag mode.

I quite like the result, and you ?

clams have a sense of humour

A dream without stars ...

Third item of my series of sentences and second one by Paul Eluard.

This time, I used a flemish bastard script on a background made with bleach.

To see the whole work, click here.

Shell

Not only zinc is sensitive to acid. Limestone is too and, shells are made of limestone !

A first try, just to verify :

Cadel O

As I'm waiting for the inspiration to come, I made a cadel letter, just because I like this very much.

This time, I "invented" the letter by reproducing a simple interlacing, repeated until it makes a circle. To see the whole of it, click here.

Every angel is terrible

My latest work gave me the idea of working on a complete set of simple sentences. It's quite a challenge for me as I always found difficult to layout short texts, even more challenging by the size I decided to use for all of the items of this set (approx. 30x10cm).

So here is the second item of the set, a sentence by Rainer Maria Rilke, taken from the first of the Duino Elegies (I already worked on the same text, using a more consequent fragment, I really love it).

I first wrote the text using a gothic script before copying it on another paper by transparency and finished by decorate with patterns which resemble feathers.

I'm quite happy with the overall result and I'm already thinking to the next challenge.

Only throw angels to devils

As promised, a picture of one of the works done during the exhibition in Coulon.

It's a sentence by Paul Eluard, written with pigments and gum before being decorated with ... surprise ... filigrees :-)

To see the whole work, click here.

Coulon

Back from the exhibition in Coulon, it has been a great time in a very nice place.

I met very interesting people and hope to go back very soon.

the swamp

 

As you can see, I've been working a bit during my stay. Some more pictures soon ...

Exhibition

It has been quite a long time since I last posted something here. I can reassure you, it's just that I didn't produce any new work :-)

I just wanted to advertise my next exhibition. From next monday and for 2 weeks, I'll be presenting my latest works at the Atelier du 112 in Coulon, France.

white ? vine

A pic of an ongoing work.

Still have to remove the varnish from more than a half of the pattern, with no guarantee at all on the result. It's part of the calligrapher's joys :-)

Cadel J

Yet another cadel initial, yet inspired by the ms Rawl. B. 499 of the Bodleian Library.

to see the whole thing, click here.

Aeneid

Latest but not last version of one of my favorite fragment from Vergil's Aeneid. Still not what I want but getting closer.

Cadels

No time to work on a large scale, so I do little things, here 2 cadels initials.

The first is inspired from the ms832 of the Angers Library.

The second is inspired from the ms Rawl. B. 499 de la Bodleian Library.

To see them entirely, click here or there.

Titivillus

Titivillus is the daemon who harass calligraphers, provoking stains and copy mistakes among other distasters.
He shows most of the times when one doesn'texpect him, here on the paper on which I wipped out the varnish from a piece of zinc.

subproduct

After rubbing an engraved cadel letter using carbon paper, this is how this one looks.

I very much like the differences of  brightness between the rubbed parts and the others. There may be something to do using this material.

wonderfully incandescent

Another try with engraving, this time on copper. I used an excerpt from the Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.

The copper plate was a bit too thin and the result doesn't meet therefore my expectations.
I nevertheless find interesting the different colors appeared on the plate, due to the use of tar instead of my regular varnish. And it perfectly match the text, I think.

To be reworked but promising...