Acrylic Transfers

About acrylic transfers - if you want to try these at home and bring them ready to collage in wax, here is what you can do -

- your image has to have toner in it for this transfer process to work. Not every copy machine works well for this so you may want to take your image to various machines and get a copy from each machine. You can do the transfer process on all the images at the same time to see which machine works best.

- cut out your image leaving a scrap edge around it.

- tape it down, face up, to a smooth surface - plexiglas, glass, marble table

- day one: paint the surface completely with a thin coat of acrylic medium *

- day two: paint the surface completely with a thin coat of acrylic medium

- day three: same

- day four: repeat until you build up 6-8 layers

- at this point you will have an image on paper with built up layers of acrylic medium on top. Now comes the revelation of the transfer bit. I'll bring mine to class at this stage. We're going to free it from its surface, turn it over and rub off the paper backing. It the image has transferred from the paper to the acrylic we'll be left with a transparent transfer.

About acrylic medium - I'm using Golden GAC 100. Another one that works is Golden GAC 700. Also try acrylic gloss medium or any other acrylic media. We'll survey the various media and see what works best.

I use a disposable foam brush. I keep it in a baggie and tape the brush/baggie to the bottle of medium between uses. I don't wash it out between uses. It stays moist in its plastic bag.

Timing - you may paint faster than every 24 hours. Twice or even 3 times a day may be fine. For the sake of useful information, keep track of how many coats you apply.

Bring your transfers to class, done or in process, so we can all see.