Dendritic Painting

A group I belong to met today to have a try with Dendritic Painting.  This is a very simple process of squashing paint between two sheets of glass, prising them apart to see the wonderful pattern they make and taking a print from them on fabric or paper.  The definition of a dendrite is

1. a short branched extension of a nerve cell, along which impulses received from other cells at synapses are transmitted to the cell body.
2. 
   

   a crystal or crystalline mass with a branching, tree-like structure.

I think you will be able to see, in the pictures below, why it is called 'dendritic' painting. 

I'll talk you through the process to show you how we achieved our prints.

First drop small blobs of acrylic paint onto a sheet of glass

We found less was more in this instance as it produced a finer print

Next place the second sheet of glass on top of these blobs and squish down firmly.

I just love how these blobs form perfect circles!

(the oval shape is the stripe in the first picture)

To reveal the dendritic process, carefully prise the sheets of glass apart.

Just look at the beautiful patterns that form!

You are now ready to take your print.  We found the first one was not always the most successful so this picture shows the second (left) and third (right) print on paper.

These are very simple prints to show how easy the process is but you can make them as complicated as you wish, mixing shapes, colours and even double printing. The ones below show some of my experiments from today.

There are many more pictures showing what the other ladies created, far too many to add to this blog post.  I've made the folder available on google drive so if you click this link you should be able to see many more of what we created today.

Have fun!

Itty Bitty Week

Thank you for all your interesting comments on my previous post.  I am so pleased it inspired some of you to have a go at Dorset Buttons they can have many ingenious uses. The ladies on the workshop I did last week were also very taken with the idea.  It was only a short workshop at Spin A Yarn my wonderful local woolshop but was such a success that we have decided to make the next one in the Spring Term a whole day!

I had a lovely time at my daughter's last week and thoroughly enjoyed spending my prize money.  I now have a few outfits to wear and we also managed to squeeze in a couple of bits for her too.

On the craft front, it has been a rather itty bitty week.  I am still working on my mandala which although complete, needs attaching to a hoop - very kindly cut out by my OH I may add.  So another 2 or 3 rounds needed to attach this to the hoop.

I have also started another crochet project called Sophie's Garden which I found on a wonderful site called Look At What I Made.  It's packed full of wonderful crochet patterns to fuel the imagination.
You can see what I've achieved so far, but the picture is a little odd as I was crocheting in the car on our way to stay with friends!

I am using Axminster carpet yarn which is at least 80% wool and intend to make a loose cover for a foot stool.  I want to be able to wash it and expect it will felt slightly which will be interesting.  I'll let you know how it goes.

My OH is on an acrylic painting course this weekend, so I thought I would share his creation with you.  It's a little different for him as he often works in water colour but I rather like the effect he has created. They were painting in some woods nearby and he was trying to capture the light shining through the trees.  See what you think.

Today he is painting 'water' so I am looking forward to seeing what he arrives home with later. Watch this space!

I'm off for a quick walk now whilst the sun is out, but will be linking up with Handmade Monday when I get back.  See you there!