Waxed

I play.
Even though me bod is racked with a blimin cold, I'm coughing like the proverbial, I cannot sit around and do nothing. I took a quick stroll in the surprising sunshine this morning down to the village shoppe where 'Up Yours Mrs Maciver' was lurking with a smile, refusing to give me discount on my bulk purchase of one first class stamp. I noticed an ink-squirt print of two shoppe 'staff' [I use that term loosely here] has appeared on the wall - ripped off from this very same blog without so much as a by-your-leave. Eh? My lawyers are on to this as I speak and no doubt I'll be able to retire once the case has been settled :-) .

Eishken Estate sheeps

In the meantime, another masterpiece has been created after copious sloshing of liquids plus some elbow grease as I finished  a print I made yesterday in t'darkroom. My sisters both keep bees - I hate the things myself - but the wax they produce does lovely things to darkroom fibre prints. If you heat the print [on the Rayburn ] on top of a newspaper [The Guardian is obviously best but since I read that on-line and the computer screen in all likelihood would melt, the local Events rag had to suffice ] then rub a block of bees wax all over the print till the wax melts and the print is covered. Then take a piece of extra special exclusive paper - in this case kitchen towel - and rub the print all over till any excess wax comes off - whilst still hot. It's a really nice thing to do on a cold day as you keep warm doing the process and it smells nice.

Oh, excuse me while I wipe the keyboard. This cold is worse than I thought! I hope someone at work HQ is reading this as I am still on shift at the moment. Not now of course but tonight.

Once the print has cooled [and here it's best to hold the print flat with a few handy weights on the corners.  I used four cameras I found down the back of a chair ]  you can polish the print using the extra special exclusive paper again. Not sure why there's a light bit on the left -side of the print, something to do with scanning I shouldn't wonder.

Not sure the print is any better but I love doing the process. Makes me feel like a proper artist like my dear Mum who passed away last year and would often be found with paint, paper-mache or suchlike adorning her hair after an artistic session.

Gosh, I have such a sore nose!