Linen Over Lace This summer will mark six years for me working with the gumoil process. It has been an interesting journey with experiences that were both good and bad. Most people who have come to me looking for help seem to want to believe that once they have been taught the steps for making a print that they will find quick success. That just doesn’t happen with a process like gumoil. There are too many learned subtleties that take time to thoroughly understand. Through the increased interest in gumoil printing, certainly fueled by the beautiful prints made by Anna Ostanina, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with quite a few truly decent people with engaging stories of their own. There have also been the occasional odd ones and even a couple of truly bad ones, but overall, my experiences dealing with people over the internet because of the gumoil process have been overwhelmingly positive. One thing I have found talking with people who are new to the process is that many are l
The US distributor of my favorite safflower and poppy oil lamp black paint for printing with gumoil is currently moving its warehouse to New England, and that means that this paint is not currently available in any of the online shops that I buy it from. So, I have no alternative but to mull (mix) some of my own right now. I started doing this a while back, but since Maimeri makes a great version of this paint already, I've been quite happy just buying it in a tube, all ready to go. Mulling paint is fun, but it's a lot of work, it's messy, and you should always wear protective gear, including a full face respirator mask, because some powdered pigments are highly toxic. Here is a YouTube video I made (with help from my husband) of what it takes to mull paint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJFlTwJzyao