Plywood Versus Hardboard

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A month or so ago I wrote about how I purchased both a 2x4ft piece of 1/4 in thick birch plywood and the same in hardboard. I wanted to figure out which I liked best in terms of ease of use, preparation time and that sort of thing.

Here are my results:

Birch plywood was easy on the saw, with simple measurements I was able to pull a straight line with my circular saw. It chewed through it easily. I was even able to double stack it and cut through a double stack.

The hardboard one the other hand needed a firm hand for cutting or the saw would pull to the side and leave me with uneven sides. I tried double stacking it just for giggles, bad idea, it bound the saw up and made a mess of it.

For the record I'm using a black and decker 18V cordless circular saw with a 6 inch blade. (I think)

For gessoing I use a thinned gesso for the first coat, so it gets down into the fibers and really bonds with the surface. For the second coat I add some titanium white to the gesso to increase it's opacity. the last layer(s) are straight out of the bottle gesso. I'm pretty neurotic about brushing each coat in perpendicular directions to one another. This creates a really nice texture that I love.

The birch plywood dried really fast. The gesso went on smooth and with no skipping or strokes pulling away from one another. The plywood took 3 coats for a nice even coat that did not show the grain of the wood.

The hardboard dried much more slowly. The brush strokes sat more on the surface of it and the thinned gesso had a tendency for the strokes to pull away from one another. This tendency went away as more coats were applied. To get an evenly applied and opaque covering that was sufficiently white I needed to apply 4 coats of gesso.

Overall for my purposes the birch plywood wins out. It's slightly more expensive but the fact that it cuts more easily and uses less gesso means I spend less time preparing it's surface and can get to the business of art more quickly.

Support Your Favorite Artists

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I was chatting with one of my friends the other day about being supportive of our favorite artists online. There are of course many ways of going about this but we came up with a short list, feel free to add to it in the comments:

#1 Retweeting their tweets on twitter

#2 Sharing their Facebook posts, for that matter "LIKE"ing their facebook presence

#3 Watching their UStream

#4 Commenting on their blog posts, facebook posts, flickr and responding to tweets.

#5 Posting links on Facebook and Twitter to their blogs

#6 If you buy a piece from them, you can mention how awesome it is on YOUR blog, twitter and facebook

#7 Mentioning them during your UStream broadcasts

#8 Networking with other artists outside the internets.

One of the things that I think is commonly lost is that we are a community of artists, even if we are worldwide and may never meet in person, we are a community and we need to support each other for success. The days of gallery system competition can be brought down if we support each other rather than cut each others throat.

Being Online

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I post a lot; here as well as twitter and facebook. I've been blogging in some manner for many years. I think I created my first LJ account back in 2000. I started to seriously blog in 2002. So I've been doing this for about 8 years now. I used to blog more about my personal life but quickly migrated over to bookbinding and art. By the time I got to twitter and facebook I was old hat with commenting. I have a rule, if it's positive or negative and on topic it stays on my blog. If it's spam, hate speech or pointless I remove it.

I've developed a thick skin as I've pretty much seen it all, from hate speeches about my sexuality  to the positive fangirls who love my work. I look at the stuff I post online as the start to a conversation. I live for the comments and especially love those that spark conversations. That means that I am doing something right. this in which I write is an interactive medium. Unlike my art, which is interactive in looking, what I post here begs you to comment and then next person to do the same. When I load an image of my work here I want that conversation. The same with my videos

Conversation is the essence of learning. I've learned so much from people that ask questions, give advice and are willing to communicate with me on any level. Life is about learning and I'll soak up knowledge from just about anywhere.

Allergies

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So  a couple of summers ago I was bit by a spider in my studio. THe reaction was severe, my leg was swollen and painful. It went away in a day or two and I didn't think much more of it. I was bit on the arm the following summer and the reaction was worse.

Since then my reactions to things like stings have been by far worse than before. I've always had a strong reaction to mosquito bites but it's been worse lately.

Yesterday I was bit by a mosquito around noon. By 3pm when I left my hand was quite swollen. I got home popped some benedryl and put some ice on it. By the time my UStream started it was even more swollen. I did the stream anyway. I fully expected it to be normal in the AM. It wasn't I went to work anyway and my boss was a little worried when she saw my hand.

I managed to see my DR, I'm on mild steroids for the inflammation, antihistamines for the allergic reaction and now I get to carry an epipen with me, just in case I get stung and my throat closes up.

Yeah so I've had an interesting day thus far. It can only get better from here.