Hello everyone!
Do you have a list of things that you might want to try out sometime? Well, I do. Dot painting!
I came across it a few years ago, watched a lot of videos of people painting with a stylus, acrylic paint and using stencils, and some even used crochet hooks. I thought, I can do that!!
First thing I looked for were the crochet hooks, I found some at a dollar store, 3 set of 2 in 6 different sizes.
And than they sat there, not being used for a few years. So when I thought I was ready for it, I couldn’t find the crochet hooks, I looked everywhere! Well, no dot painting I guess. I put the whole dot paining thing out of my mind when one day I just saw them sitting there, in a nice glass jar waiting for me.
Wanting to see if I could find more dotting tools, I set out to look for other things as well, preferably tools that gave me lots of different size dots!
I found some screws and nails, they gave nice big dots. The thing with the screw was that it has a hollow for the screwdriver which created an air bubble when dipped in the paint. When pressed to the base it resulted in a little poof! of paint out to the side, and your round dot isn’t so round anymore… I remedied it by putting some plaster in the hole.
The second picture shows 3 paperclips, or what is left of it anyway, a small skewer and a bigger skewer, the back is used for a size dot and the point for a much smaller size dot.
And who doesn’t have pencils! I sure do, and a lot too so I have plenty to spare to use as dotting material.
To get the points all at different sizes I sharpened each pencil first, I then coloured with the numbers two through five until they had the right size, number one was the right size right from the start. I made sure to hold the pencil upright to get an as rounded dot as I could get.
I used sandpaper to get the bigger size dots for pencils six through ten.
I sharpened the back of number eleven just a little bit to get the size dot that was a bit bigger than number ten, and for number twelve I used the back of another pencil.
The second picture is just one of the views in my studio.
I got some chipboard (cracker box material) ready by painting it black, I do sand the shiny side so the paint will adhere to it. After applying one coat to one side I found it warping, it righted itself after I had painted the other side as well. I applied a second coat to both sides to make sure the board was completely covered.
I am drawing lines on the board so I can use them as guide lines to make sure the pattern is even. First diagonal from corner to corner to find the centre.
Next the horizontal and vertical line. Using a compass I draw 2 circles, find the middle on the outer circle between a horizontal and diagonal line to make four more lines through the centre. Now I have eight lines all together.
Making the first dot, which colour and what size shall I use, it’s always tough to start, I decided to use the biggest nail size and blue as the first colour, it IS a practice piece after all. Second round is going to be a small dot on each of the eight lines.
At every round I add more dots, choosing colour and dot layout.
Here I ‘walk’ the dots, using one tool, load up on paint and make 5 dots in a row, the dots are getting smaller as I get to the fifth dot as there is less paint to draw from.
Adding more dots, a big one with smaller all around.
A few more rounds and I think it’s good to go.
Time to finish it by gluing this to a base of wood, in this case I use a piece of particle board that I salvaged from the back of an old dresser. I used the table saw to cut it in 4″ square pieces. The edge is painted black to match the background of the coaster.
I’m using a gel medium as glue, it is strong and won’t likely to come loose.
I applied clear water based clear varnish to one of the coasters and gel medium to another, just to see which I like best. In the video I mention that I like the gel medium best, but I have since used the water based varnish using a very soft brush and applying two thin layers, it hardly leaves streaks and it is not near as shiny as the one I show in the video. I think I brushed on a thick layer which gave it’s shiny look.
Update May 2, 2020, white paint becomes creamy looking when using Varathane clear varnish as a finish.
I finish the coaster by adding a piece of cork to the back.
Thank you for watching, Geesje
Conundrum Quilts 