Experimentation: Ultraviolet Pen on Plates and Glass
After doing more surveys on Family Association, it became clear most people associate eating and dinner time with their families. This makes the idea to do a table setting work out to be more relatable for those viewing it. I am thinking of doing a plate a person for each like figure in the immediate family, though if I have time I may include aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Though I'm going to play around with the idea some more first.
With this in mind, I tried the ultraviolet pen on plates and glass, initially it worked well and looked really bright under the ultraviolet light. The glass looked particularly good as the light was dispersed strangely due to the shape and nature of glass. However, the ink doesn't dry because the porcelain and glass aren't absorbent which creates a problem as the writing smudges and becomes illegible. After speaking to people, I gathered a few suggestions, my tutor suggested frosted glass may work better due to the texture, whereas my peers suggested using an invisible primer or baking the plates to see if that would set the ink. Alternatively I could use unpolished plates if I could find them as a coarser medium may work better.
I am happy with how it looks however, because it actually worked quite well, even if it hasn't set. To improve I'm definitely going to look into this and explore how to set it properly so it doesn't smudge and I may try different styles of handwriting and even illustration to fully communicate what families are actually like. I feel almost excited about this project and I'm enjoying it a lot.
