Wednesday, March 03, 2010

A Substitute for Citrasolv?


I've tried almost all techniques for image transfer and after hearing so much about using Citrasolv, I thought I'd give it a try. I looked on their website to find out where I could find it in Rockford - one place. Since they didn't have it in stock, I had to order it. Alas, when calling that store today, I was told that it won't be ordered until this Friday and I'd have to wait until next Tuesday. NEXT TUESDAY? Well, that's way too long for an artist who is on a mission to try a new technique, hello?

I started my trek across the far east side of Rockford in search of it. Read: I live on the west side where there's virtually no traffic and no strip malls every few feet to slow down by to find that tiny store front. The big stores are even a little intimidating to me, but I took a deep breath and pulled into the local Home Depot.

I might have found a substitute for Citrasolv. I know it's not completely natural as Citrasolv is, but the solvent in it is the same - from orange peels.

Thank God it was sunny and a little warmer today, so a window in the studio was opened, the heat turned off, and it was time to experiment. I had read about the National Geographic art project on their website: Citra Solv's Artists Site . It involves brushing the product on every page in the magazine, squishing it together, pulling the pages apart and placing them on newspapers to dry. Messy it was, but the outcome was well worth it. Next time, however, instead of doing a whole issue, I'll just pull out certain pages.



On to image transfer...it worked. When it dried, I did feel the urge to heat set it, which left a stain on this small piece of one of my hand dyed cottons. Afraid that the image would disappear, I was hesitant to dunk it in the sink. Oh well, experimentation. I ran cool water over the fabric, rubbed it a little, and to my delight, the image stayed in place. When it dried, I noticed that some of the color had faded from the cloth - I chalked this up to the fact the this orange stuff was a "cleaner" after all. Can you say residual dye?




5 comments:

JoAnn Deck said...

thanks for this tip, I'll run right out and get some to try. I'm in that transfer experimentation mode myself right now.

Julaine said...

JoAnn - please do what I did NOT do if you try the magazine thing - wear gloves and old clothes. Hope you don't mind getting messy. Today should be good as it's supposed to be near 40 degrees in Northern Illinois - yeah!!!

Ventilation, my friend, okay?

Anonymous said...

Just bought ZEP at Lowe's. Looking forward to trying this out to create mixed media paper...and will follow your recommendations. Thanks for the suggestion to substitute this for the other brand...

Julaine said...

have fun! remember...it's messy! i have also learned that really ancient nat geo mags don't work as well as newer ones do...guess the ink needs to be fresh!

Julaine said...

have fun! remember...it's messy! i have also learned that really ancient nat geo mags don't work as well as newer ones do...guess the ink needs to be fresh!