What will we conclude from all our obscurities?

To add a little something to my rose window pattern on slate, I engraved a short sentence by Blaise Pascal.

I wrote the text with my little chisel, using it as a nib. The engraving is not very deep but it is visible enough.

Brittany forever

This is what I did this weekend. Capitals & decoration inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels.

More vine

Slate engraving is fun but it doesn't help with my project of white vine on metal.
Time for a new round with a new pattern.

First step, the draft on paper

Second step, copy on the metal plate before clearing the spaces for the etching

Slate

A bit tired of working on white vine for two weeks now, I rest a little with this engraving of a slate plate with a stained glass pattern.

I built the pattern by mixing elements from the gothic period, which doesn't mean that it does not exists somewhere in the real world. If you know about it, please let me know, I'll be happy to see it.

And I just don't have a clue about what I'm going to do with it once finished, maybe a table mat ?

Etched vine

At last, I've finished the vine pattern on my steel plate !

I could then etch it, one hour and 60W in salted water.
A short blowtorch passage to burn the paint and reveal the etching and here we are :

Still have to sand the plate a little bit to remove the paint remnants but I already find it quite nice. I hope I'll be able to keep the blue shade of the etched parts.

Steel vine

I transferred the white vine pattern on a plate of steel (which was a closet shelf in a previous life).
And now I'm scratching the paint to reveal the metal underneath.

As you can see, I use a hightech tool to do that, a sharpened nail with a wood handle.

It's quite long to do, already 8 hours of work...

White vine draft

Here is what I did last weekend, still not sure what I'm going to do with it.

Anyway, you are lucky 'cause you can see different steps of the design !

 

Symbols

After the latin alphabet, after the greek alphabet, I'm using more esoteric symbols to create little works with filigrees.
And I stopped using wallnut stain to do the whole work with my home made ferro-gallic ink.

One of the symbols used for arsenic in alchemical manuscripts :

And a stylized fleur de lys

As for the symbols shapes, I found my inspiration in the very good (even if too short) book by Rudolf Koch, The Book of Signs.

Inked circles

Some tries for a project that may be stillborn if I consider the enthusiasm I feel when looking at the results (or maybe I just should try harder).

Some circles are not too bad, here are a few close-ups to show the ones I prefer

What about you ? Do you like some of them ?