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| Topography inspired by the Himalayas. Are these mountains surrounded by water, or maybe a tropical coral? The white highlights are actually white mica on the teal layer of ink. |
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| Clockwise from upper left: gold, silver & white mica, all medium coarseness. |
My previous efforts had used either sizing or glue to adhere gold leaf to paper — applied with either a brush or a needle-tipped squeeze bottle. This was very time consuming and inexact. I wanted to exploit the preciseness of my printmaking layers — where there was either wet ink — or not.
I decided to see if the mica would stick to the wet ink, and if I could print on top of it. In the linocut above, after printing the third layer of ink (it looks teal) I quickly brushed on white mica with a soft make-up style brush. The mica seemed to only stick to places that had wet ink. After this dried, I printed the last layer (a deep purple blue) that covered part of the mica. Even after some blowing and gentle wiping, a modest amount of the mica can still be seen.
Now the question is how I use the mica to enhance the design, and not look like the flocked wrapping paper that leaves a mess under the Christmas tree. I’m using it in my first two linocuts in my new series, Beloved, and I’m excited about the results. Stay tuned…
I am very new in this ( 6 months into linocuts) I am a sculptor that want my printings reflecting depth into a flat surface.
Working with mica as well but having a poor result. Do you put mica pigment with medium on the paper directly?
When I was working with mica, I put it onto wet ink. I found that it was not a strong bond. Plus you really don’t want to inhale mica. On my current collages, I either use real gold leaf with water-based sizing from Da Vinci, or interference powder on sizing. Both stick well. Good luck!