Tuesday, April 3, 2012

YSM - Joint Compound

That's right, peoples - You Suck Monday is back and will be better than ever! We're excited, we're crazy, we're caffeine-addicted. What could be better?

So, we were trying to find some YouTube videos we'd seen of someone using joint compound in a syringe to make texture. We failed. But, I did find one by The One Minute Muse and she just slapped it on a journal cover and dug into it with stuff and made shapes and it looked like fun, and we were pretty sure we'd be able to find the other video, so I got some joint compound. Well, I went to the hardware store and to the spackle aisle (it annoys the shit out of me that "spackle" comes up in spellcheck - it's a freaking word!!) and I hunted for joint compound but I didn't find any. 

So I picked up two little jars of spackle, a "lightweight" one:


And an all-purpose one:

Then when I finally asked about joint compound, the idiot man tried to take me back to the spackle aisle. When I pushed and said I already had spackle, but I was looking for joint compound he told me it might be with the sheetrock.I wanted to ask if he knew that most people said "drywall" these days, but I didn't. Joiny compound is MUCH cheaper than spackle. Three times as much for the exact same price. But I couldn't get a tiny little bucket if it, like the spackle, so I had to get a big thing of it. Hopefully I'll fall in love with it and want to use it a lot, or else open up a little nail hole filling business. Anyone need a nail hole filled? Twenty-five cents. Oh, and you'll have to come pick me up because I have no car to get to your place. 

Anyway, here it is:

When I got home I wanted to try them all at once, so I put down a stencil and slapped all three of them on to it. This way when I painted over it, it would be easy to compare them since they were all right there. I used a plastic putty knife that was 98 cents at the hardware store. The light one was ridiculously light. It's the texture of marshmallow fluff without being sticky. The other spackle was more wet than I expected, but still really thick, and the joint compound was thickest. They all held their shape just fine as they dried.

Here I added alcohol spray to one side (like glimmer mist) and paint to the other. The light, marshmallowy one feels like foam, even now. The other two are completely solid. The paint worked exactly the same on all three. The ink, you can see at the top, soak in differently to the light one. Then I rubbed at the dried paint and ink to see what would happen. The light one held it, because it soaked in. The other two, the paint rubbed off. 

I had an idea about adding some texture to a painting, and since this one was gray and I was looking to create a dark blue, I used it.

And a blue paint I created myself with glazing liquid:


I put down a plastic doily that Kelly gave me and slapped the blue stuff over it and here it is drying:

I'm hoping to use it more as I go through the Fairies class. I'd like to see what happens when I mix the white ones with mica powders or iridescent medium for fairy wings. I'll try to keep you up to date on how it works!

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