Decorative busks

[izodiea]

A little while ago I approached my friend akikotree about helping me with a project I had in mind- to transform my plain store bought busk for my regency stays into a one of a kind art-piece.
Yesturday when I met up with her at The SF Alternative Press Expo (APE) she surprised me with this:

Comments

[smadaf]

These busk ideas are fancy.

I designed a drawing in Photoshop and then transferred it to wood to make a creation with my wood-burning iron.  The way I did it was to print the line drawing from the computer onto normal paper, then turn the other side of the paper gray with graphite pencil:  then the gray side went against the wood, and I used a pencil to press on the printed side in a pattern tracing the line drawing, with the graphite on the back of the paper being applied to the wood by my pencil pressure.  In other words: poor person’s carbon paper.

[izodiea]

I tried something like that as a test (I have not tried real carbon paper yet) unfortunately the busk is coated in some kind of varnish that makes the pencil smear off, or not transfer at all. The only really clear way I could tell where my marks were was if I pressed so hard it dented the wood. That led me to the poke-holes theory, since pressing really hard made my hand hurt :(

good plan, epic fail in practice sadly :(

[smadaf]

Hmmm.  I wonder whether crayon wax would stick and would be applied more easily than pencil.  Maybe not.  I thought of oil pastel, but I don't know how you'd get only the pressed part (instead of every bit of the grease smeared on the back of the paper) to stick.  Maybe your hole-poking idea is best.

This does make me wonder, though, what will happen when you apply that iron (whose tip, I vaguely recall, is at least 800°F-?) to the varnish.

Maybe connect the dots?  Make little holes just at way stations, and then use pencil (if it will stick to the varnish without too much effort) to connect them-to reduce the amount of stabbing you must do.

Cool camouflage dress, btw.

[izodiea]

I don't know about crayons, just because they seem too big to make a fine line (or are you thinking of some kind of fine artist crayon?) But that reminded me that Colored pencil is largely wax (A Prismacolor representative just came and gave a lecture at my school) She said you can lightly heat them to make them "melt" slightly onto surfaces=might stick to the shiny varnish!

This does make me wonder, though, what will happen when you apply that iron (whose tip, I vaguely recall, is at least 800°F-?) to the varnish.

Do you think the varnish might catch fire? I honestly had not considered that kind of side effect, the project I did before was untreated wood. I really hope it doesn't :(

I'm glad you like my camo dress! I just finished it, it was a pattern drafting project. I have better pics here: http://izodiea.livejournal.com/24960.html