an original tie

I have finally finished the slate engraving started in November 2019.
It has a hole on the back that allows you to hang it on the wall or, if you prefer, to insert a fixation that will allow you to wear it proudly as a tie :-)

the engraving has been filled with acrylic paint and rust before being varnished.

Capri, it's over!!!!!

And to think that it was the city of my first love!!!!!!!!

Yes, well, sorry, I'm getting ahead of New Year's Eve or I'm late for Christmas, it looks like I'm drunk and not even 11:00 in the morning, it's not serious.

So I get it together, I try to stay decent for a few minutes but you will admit that putting the finishing touches to a composition started more than a year ago is enough to make you happy, even if it is expressed in the form of a song by Hervé Vilard... (hopefully, if you read my blog in english you may not know about this song, it seems that an english version with quite different lyrics exists)

Here, the rust has embedded itself, the varnish is applied, I love it (unlike my wife who finds it very ugly, we can't agree all the time).

As a reminder, the slate piece is about 30cm high

Guillevic

I have read again for the umpteenth time the collection Du domaine by Guillevic.
I find new inspiration with each reading.

A slate engraving, filled with rust & wax for a poem about time
(home made translation : Here the time, believes itslef innocent)

and a poem on rain (and time), engraved on a terracotta pot, which I have already posted in video but of which I give you a still image (I recommend the video, the problem of the pots being their roundness which prevents us to cover their entire circumference at a glance).

Knotwork

While cleaning (once is not usual) my workshop, I fell on some slates of the Monts d'Arrée, full of rust. And as I had a little time, I took the smallest of them to try an engraving and I chose a knotwork pattern from the book of Kells.

The top layer of the slate has left in places, removing the rust color on fragments of the pattern but I'm not too dissatisfied with the result.

Rust

Well, it's not totally successful (by far) but it's interesting.

The steel washer is 8cm in diameter, I let it rust for a while in the garden before writing some gothic capitals with etching varnish and then plunge it into a bath of sulfuric acid.

I like rust:-)

sub products

No, I didn't disappear, nor have I stopped to calligraph.
I'm working, to prove it, here are some sub products of my ongoing works (which I won't show for the moment).

These are only "trash", created by doing something totally different but it gives me ideas ...

Albertus

I know I don't post very often these last weeks but it's because of spring, spring & garden. And this means a lot of work.
I nevertheless continue to work on different projects (even if they have a very tiny link with calligraphy) & I consequently have the pleasure of introducing Albertus (he's missing 1 & a half arm but that will probably be solved shortly).

He also has no head (I'll find one) and no legs but that's not necessary :-)

rust & vine

After quite a long time under the rain, followed by a scraping, more rain and a final sanding, I still can't get the expected result from the plate I already told you about here.

It's not bad, it's just that I was waiting for something else.

I think it will go back to rust in the garden :-)

Bolt

Digging in the garden, I made an almost archeological discovery, an old bolt eaten by rust. I cleaned it a bit, not too much for the patina to remain and, as I found it really beautiful, I decided to find another use for it.

I turned it into a seal by electro-etching a man hole cover pattern on his head.

And the result is perfectly functional as you can see.

This is how to turn rubbish into design and original object :-)

Man hole cover electrolysis

I'm still experimenting electro-etching but with no time to do real work so I'm just playing. Among patterns that I like and that will not take too long to reproduce are man hole covers. So be it ...

Of course, It's made out of steel plates that I threw in the garden to rust after the electro-etching. I love the result and I think I'll continue with this idea :-)

S like Stele

The weather is much too beautiful to stay in the workshop trying to do some calligraphy. So I try to get some fun outside.

A small initial S, in the gothic style, first engraved on slate and then filled with rust.

It has to remain some days in the garden for the rust to look similar on the whole letter but it already looks good or so think I ?

Rusted rose

Still trying to get steel plates to rust only where I decided they have to.

Still not the expected result so back to rust under the rain. But it's a good start, at least better than the previous ones.

Cursed be ...

As promised, here are more pics of my latest work on steel. It's a text by Pascal Quignard.
For the first time, I didn't use varnish for the calligraphy but regular tar.

Here is a small video of the action of rust (took about 3 weeks).

And to see the whole work, have a look in the gallery.

Rust - new try

Just to make you wait until I find some time to take other pics, here is a close-up of my latest work on steel, using varnish and letting time and rust doing their job.

Carpe diem

I wanted to use rust in conjunction with engraving. It's now done with this short quotation from the Odes by Horatius. I think, I'll do other works using this technique, I really like the result.

First, I engraved the slate and second, I added some filings and then waited for rust to do its job. Once happy with it, I varnished the whole to freeze the development.

You can see another detail here, to see the whole work, it's there.