Revisiting rusting (part 1)

Five years ago I took a Book arts class at the John C Campbell Folk School led by Holly Fouts and Cheryl Prose, where I was introduced to rusting metal and paper.  Just recently I attended an online class hosted by Frederick Book Arts Center "Traces of Beauty: Rust Prints".  Lauren G. Koch, another amazing artist, presented information about rusting techniques using artwork she and artists she has worked with created.  We had several great class discussions about process and techniques.  

I combined her suggestions on rusting techniques with directions on how to rust multiple pages for my paper rusting experiment.  Below are the steps and results.

Items used:

• Water
• Salt
• Vinegar
• Spray bottle with a mix of vinegar and water (~70/30)
• Newspaper
• Bricks
• Rusty baking pan
• Rusty bits (cut metal, nails, barbed wire etc)
• Black tea

I soaked three sheets of RIVES BFK paper in water until completely wet.  The first sheet of wet paper was placed in the rusty baking pan.  A variety of rusty metal bits were placed on top of the paper, and sprayed with the vinegar/water mixture.  I also sprinkled some loose black tea on the paper.  This process was repeated for the second and third sheets of paper.  On top of the stack I added some sheets of folded newspaper and two big bricks.   

I checked on the stack a few times during the afternoon, re-wet the pages if they were dry.  I left the stack overnight.

The next afternoon I carefully disassembled the stack and rinsed the three pages in water to remove any remaining vinegar.  I was quite happy with the results.  

• First two are the top and bottom of the sheet of paper on the top of the stack.  
• Second two are the top and bottom of the middle sheet of paper.  
• Third two are the top and bottom of the last sheet of paper that was resting on the baking pan and was completely rusted.