
Gloria
Meadows brought a number of rocks she had painted. Most were animals; a
few were flowers or scenes. Her rocks have sold well in various
places - In fact, she sold one at the meeting! She told us that
she had not been successful finding suitable rocks in local creeks, but
that many nurseries stocked them. She
suggested large, rounded rocks, preferably those with a flattened side,
so that they would remain in a stable
position.
She also showed us some rocks she rejected because they were too
irregular or rough surfaced. Surface roughness can be reduced with wood
filler or gesso, however. Certain rocks le
nd
themselves to being painted as particular animals.
Gloria
also had a couple of souvenir rocks - rocks she had picked up on travels
and painted with scenes from the areas where they were found.




Gloria
sketched a rabbit on one rock with chalk, which shows up well and does
not interfere with the paint. She uses acrylic craft paints, but said
that artists' paints can also be used. She painted a patch of red on a
bare area of a rock and on an
area
that had previously been painted white, to show us how much
brighter the color was when applied over white. She finishes with a coat
of clear varnish to add gloss and protect the painting. A felt circle
glued to the bottom protects table surfaces. Gloria passed around
several books from which had gotten ideas for painting rocks.

Nancy
Cagle showed us several items which she had covered with gold leaf.
Actually the foil was identified only as "metal foil." It may be
anodized aluminum, which can be tinted many colors. For example the cat
at the right was covered with a foil that was mostly gold, but had red
streaks in it. The foil, which is extremely thin, comes in packets of 25
sheets
that are 5 ½ inches square. Nancy said she hadn't bought any recently,
but though that a packet was about $5 the last time she
bought it. The object to be covered is first sprayed or brushed with a
tacky sizing to which the foil sticks. Then the foil is picked up with a
brush, pressed on, and rubbed smooth. Any foil that is not in contact
with the sizing rubs off. The small
pieces
that are rubbed off can be used to fill small gaps in the gilding. Nancy
demonstrated the process by gilding a picture frame. Another idea
she shared was drawing on glass with India ink, then backing this with
foil, an example of which is at the right.

Nancy
also had a silver- plated pitcher whose plating was defective and would
have been expensive to replace. She chose instead to paint it silver
with black accents. She then added a thin sheet of iridescent material
which gave both the silver and the black areas an iridescent sheen
similar to that of mother of pearl.
We thank Gloria and Nancy for very interesting
presentations, Charlene Isbell and Ellen Foster for delicious
refreshments, and those who brought paintings (shown below) to share
with the group. Proposed bylaws were distributed for consideration
in April.