I've spent most of the day working on two frames. First decorating the new frame for 'A Light Can Shine Only In Darkness'. I used a wire brush on a drill, a chimney sweep brush sort of shape, to distress the pine along the grain. This tends to knock away the softer, light-coloured, parts of the grain but keep the darker stripes, so has the effect of strongly enhancing the grain.
I then ebonised it; that is stained it black. The best black stain, and indeed the best black paint for any absorbent surface, is Golden Fluid Acrylic Carbon Black with about the same amount of water. This can be sponged on and, in several layers, used to paint anything black, even dye clothing (although it will also stiffen cloth). It won't work on plastic or metal, spray paint or oil based enamel would be best there.
Anyway, as a wood stain it beats solvent based stains by a long way (for most colours, solvent stains are better though, any water based stain will also swell the grain). I've made frames like this countless times but today decided on something new, I masked and painted the inner edge in gold. It looks fantastic and I know it will suit the painting well.
I also cut and set a second tiny frame for a new and secret painting that I painted yesterday with the scraps of leftover paint.
I've been somewhat sad today, pondering the loss of eyesight and lack of this year's painting. After framing I did some light music work, noted a melody for a really silly J-Pop song that jumped into my head last night and would not jump out again. I thought that nobody really makes Easter songs, whereas Christmas songs are commonplace. Of course, there could be songs for every celebration (Mother's Day, Shrove Tuesday, Solstice etc.). For some reason I liked the idea of a fun J-Pop song because Japan isn't a Christian country and probably has even less of a concept of Easter. My first verse is:
Happy Easter chocolate day!
Jesus died but he's okay
Happy little bunnies gay gay gay!
Happy Easter chocolate day!
The melody has all the complexity of The Wheels On The Bus but is more catchy. Of course, part of the fun, perhaps it's only artistic merit, is that is skirts a few boundaries. If I record it, it would be another totally random artistic tangent, but producing such work would hardly prove my brilliance as a writer or producer. Plastic Superman is a light electro-pop song, but my heart lies with darker atonal material.
