Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Citra-Solv Transfer Technic






These are some pages I made at my local book arts group meeting last Saturday.  Pretty cool eh?  Well I at least I think so.  We played around with this technic, which is new to me.  One of our members had tried it, and we loved the results she got, so she offered to teach it to the rest of us.  Regarding the technic itself, I don't know who first developed it or I'd give them credit.  Nor do I know how long this technic has been out there on the net, or in art books.  And of course, I'm not the first person who has put it on their blog.  I googled this technic, and found some others bloggers who've posted about it.  And chances are, other people have modified this technic in various ways, which often happens since artists are innately very creative people.

That being said, I'm thrilled with the results I got.  Here is what we did at our meeting.  We used National Geographic magazines, published within the past 10 years.  Not sure why that matters, but apparently it does.  We used large sponge brushes to spread the Citra-Solve over various pages in our NG mags.  The best pages to use are those with color pictures, and you have to spread the CS over both sides of the page.  Then we let the saturated mags sit for approximately 30 minutes.  The CS needs time to work its magic, but if left too long, the pages stick together.  After 30 minutes, we disassembled the mags to let each page dry.  Some people had to use a craft knife to cut their pages out, but all my pages pulled out very easily.  I don't know why that worked for me, perhaps I used more CS on my pages and it dissolved the glue holding the pages together.  

At our meeting, we did this technic outdoor on a table, because the smell of the CS is quite strong.  It has a powerful orange smell.  I had to leave the meeting early, so I brought my mag home intact and disassembled it on my picnic table on the patio.  I'm also lucky enough to have a clothesline in my yard, so I hung the pages up to dry, which took around 10 minutes.  Also, there are a number of Citra-Solv products, which are natural cleaning agents.  For this technic, you need to use the concentrated CS, which can be bought at natural food markets.  Apparently it's not available at regular grocery stores.  I'm not sure how much it costs, they have different size bottles.  I did go to the company website, and if you register, you can print a coupon for $1.00 off the product.

I don't know much about this technic, except for what we did at our meeting.  I think googling this might give you more information from different blogs.  Who knows, there might even be some youtube videos about it.  As for me, all I did was spread the CS on the color pages of my NG mag, wait a while, and then disassemble the mag, then hang the pages up to dry.  Obviously not a complicated technic, although rather messy with the disassembling part.

My take on this technic is that it's totally unpredictable and rather hit or miss, regarding how your pages will come out.  Some came out great, others were not great at all.  But hey, it's kind of cool regarding the serendipity of this technic.  Beyond that, it's not difficult or too time intensive or too expensive.  A bottle of CS should go a long way.

I'm wondering if any other product would work, or work in a different way???  Such as WD-40 perhaps, which I recently learned is non-toxic and made from -- get this -- fish oil!  As in, who knew?  Or perhaps Amor-All protectant?  I'm always game to try industrial products in my art, products purposed for a totally different purpose.  Hopefully when I have time, I can experiment with these other products.

So anyway, is anyone game in trying this technic?  Or modifying it or "altering" it, or whatever?

24 comments:

bockel24 said...

I´ve read a lot about that technique and your examles look great, but I can´t find anything like it here in Germany :-(

Chaska Peacock said...

Thanks for sharing this technique. Unfortunately, it's much too hot in Texas to be outside!:-)

Cyndi - Dreams Unltd said...

Great job, Val!

Why National Geographic??? This technique only works on clay coat paper, which NG has used for about the past 10 years. There are a couple other magazines that use clay coat paper, but I can't remember what they are and they are less readily available than NG.

The original technique used either odorless mineral spirits or turpentine (can't remember which). That's one reason I never had any desire to try it until much later when I saw it could be done with Citrasolv - I didn't want to have the mess and (in my opinion) danger of using the other products (you really should be outside AND wear a mask when using those products!). I don't know if WD-40 would work - it'd be worth a try. I didn't remember it was made with fish oil, but I do know that it's relatively harmless. When grooming long coated dogs, you can spray it on their coats to help work mats out (and wash after, as it will also make the coats collect dust and dirt! *LOL*).

Cyndi - Dreams Unltd

Linda Jo said...

It's amazing! And, yes, too hot in Texas.....

Unknown said...

I am wondering why it is important to keep the whole magazine intact for the activity? Does it keep the mess from being all over the place?

Would it not work well to just select pages from the magazine?

Curiouser Alice said...

I think, kathydkeith, that having the pages getting smooshed during the act of adding Citrasolve to all those pages, helps facilitate the ink moving around. I've heard of some people purposely smooshing their pages once their magazines are all coated with Citrasolve (or turpentine - I think people even call these "Turpentine Pages" or "Turp Pages", to get the ink moving in fun ways.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful pages, Val! And thank you, too, for the tip about using concentrated CitraSolve. I'm going to have to get me some of this stuff. I wonder, too, if acetone would work at all. I'll have to try that on a NG page, just to see if it will move the ink.

peggy gatto said...

Thank you!!!!
Your pages are really outstanding!!!! I'd love to try this!!!

Ginny Gaskill said...

OK now I have to try this! I love the abstract look of the papers. I wonder if the color bleeds through. Guess I will have to find out.

Anonymous said...

Citristrip (a commercial paint stripper) is also great for transferring toner photocopies onto paper or some fabrics! The copies need to be done on a copier that takes toner cartridges (usually found in offices). Lay the copy face down on your page, paint the reverse side with CS and burnish with the back of a spoon. The image will usually completely transfer depends on the paper you are using.
Back your fabric with freezer paper for stability, before trying this on fabric.
CS here in Australia has gone up in price - about $20 for a 500ml tin, but a little goes a l-o-n-g way. SharronA

Patti Gibbons said...

I don't quite understand where the transfer part comes in. Do you "paint" with the inks, then use the page in a collage? Or is the ink transferred to paper? I did one like this which is much less messy..using Never Dull, a cotton fiber used to buff out scratches etc. on car finishes...it contains a chemical that also dissolves many inks in magazines. You can tear off a piece of the cotton and go to town. But all of these are chemicals, even citri solve, which recommends not breathing, not getting on hands etc. Caution always advised. I assume that the images are so altered the NG would never recognized them in a work as they LOVE to sue for copyright infringement~ Thanks for the info!

kasmello said...

Very cool, may have to give it a try.

judibel said...

I am sorry to have to tell you that WD-40 is NOT made from fish oil. It is a petroleum product. I know this because the inventor of it just died. In the obituary it described what the product is made of. So it clearly is not non-toxic. If you've ever smelled WD-4oI'm sure you would agree it doesn't smell at all like fish oil.

That said, your transfers are terrific.

Best regards,
Judith

Laurie said...

I had the same confusion as Patti - are you transfering by inserting your papers inside the magazine? How does the transfer come in?

Thanks, this is very interesting to me, as I have a big stack of NGs that I rescued from a free bin.

Unknown said...

I have a suggestion - cut your desired pages out and then place them back in the magazine. When they are ready to remove, it would be so easy. Does that sound like it would work?

Pat said...

Val, I have done this with smell-awful turpentine. Can't ever find Citrasolve. The turp smell eventually leaves. As you say, some pages are gorgeous and some are duds but the pretty ones make great collage backgrounds!
Isn't art fun?
Pat

Tammy Freiborg said...

I love the first page with the outline of people!

rug cleaning Los Angeles said...

Excellent art technique, how did you do it? I’m very interested to learn.

outdoor fabrics said...

Amazing! This is simply gorgeous, marvelous art. That’s a wonderful art technique.

Lisa said...

I LOVE your Citra-solv backgrounds! I've been looking for Citra-solv every time I go to Whole Foods but they never have the concentrate. I would love to try this technique!
Lisa

Melissa Zeitler said...

Hi Valerie,
We are the makers of Citra Solv and LOVE that you wrote about us on your blog. Actually, we were about the last ones to know all the fun ways Artist's like yourself are using Citra-Solv. It is very exciting! Anyway, we are in the process of setting up an Artist page on the website displaying different Artist's work and even links to their sites/blogs. Would love to include you. You can reach me at mzeitler@citra-solv.com Hope to hear from you soon. And thanks again for showing us off!!!

appraiser said...

beautiful transfers!

adrian said...

You left me speachless. I definitelly need to try this... Amazing!

Jess said...

Great job, I'd love to try this technique myself but I can't seem to find any stockists in Victoria! If anyone knows of any, that would great!

sukan said...

The original technique used either odorless mineral spirits or turpentine (can't remember which). That's one reason I never had any desire to try it until much later when I saw it could be done with Citrasolv - I didn't want to have the mess and (in my opinion) danger of using the other products (you really should be outside AND wear a mask when using those products!). I don't know if WD-40 would work - it'd be worth a try.