Never Stop Learning: Image Transfer!

Sometimes I take a class because I want to learn a particular technique: How does this work? What can you do with it? Sometimes I take a class because I am interested in the teacher: I enjoy seeing how people convey ideas, demonstrate their skills, or relate to their students. Sometimes I take a class for the pure fun of it. This time I got all three! Woo Hoo! I even took this class without a buddy.

So, image transfer. I've been hearing about it for several years. It's a popular technique with mixed media artists. There are loads of ways to transfer an image. It's cool stuff because you can take an image (original or photocopy) and apply it to all kinds of surfaces--paper, metal, glass, plastic, fabric. You can even manipulate the picture by stretching it or coloring it. For me, it is especially appealing to use with photographs.

Think of the image as two layers: 1) a piece of paper with 2) the ink that makes up a picture. The goal is to pull the ink (or toner) into the transfer medium and remove the paper backing. As usual, there is a learning curve and a little patience is required. In my first attempts, the image was hard to see and easy to tear--rubbing away the paper backing was no piece of cake.

I started with high quality photocopies of old family photos. Here you can see the original in the upper left corner. The others are photocopies. I applied the gooey transfer medium with a paint brush and let it dry thoroughly. Now I am working on removing that pesky paper backing. First soaking it...

...then rubbing away the paper from the back of the image. My uncle's childhood face is starting to emerge. The image is reversed from the original because we are looking at the ink through the back of the photocopy.

Now the rest of the family is coming through. Aren't they beautiful! I LOVE old photos.

Here is a look at the finished product. I hand bound some pretty scrapbook papers and applied the images to some of the pages. Some are on blank pages and some are on patterned pages allowing the transparency of the image to show. It makes a great journal to keep notes on my family history and it was a fun way to learn something new.

I'm sure I'll be using this again. Stay tuned to find out where it shows up in my work. I hope you have been learning something new this week--it's an awesome gift to yourself. Happy Valentine's Day!