Cast Aluminum and The Summer of Fun

Today's type-play involved a sheet of aluminum foil, dull side up, taped to an underlay of typing paper, with a sheet of wax paper between them. The foil is typed on directly, yielding an embossed effect, whereas the typing paper receives an invisible transfer of a wax image. The wax image is fused into the paper using a hair dryer, then a thin, dry watercolor wash is applied, using very little pressure, revealing the hidden message.

More work is needed to perfect these techniques. The shiny foil doesn't reveal its lettering as well as I had hoped in the scan. I may have to try side-lighting the foil, to reveal its texture better, and photograph it with a digital camera. Or perhaps scan or photograph the raised, reverse side, then flip the image in post.




You can see that the lettering at the bottom of the typing is obscured by the watercolor wash; I started the brush strokes from bottom up; the too-wet brush initially obscures the lettering. I need to adjust where I start each brush stroke -- not too close to the start of the lettering, but also not too dry.