Au (Gold) Print/Matt

My element is gold with the symbol of Au and the atomic number of 79. The origin of the name is the Anglo-Saxon word for the element. It is located in a lot of places around the world such as South Africa, Russia, and India. They can be found as nuggets or particles in the bed of streams. People also mine for gold. Seawater contains about 4 grams of gold in 1,000,000 tonnes of water. Gold is also known to be one of the softest metals. It is used in jewelry, coinage, gears for watches, artificial limb joints, wiring, etc. Dentist sometimes use gold as fillings and gold can be used to treat some cases of arthritis. Gold was also used in royal graves. The death mask of Tutankhamen, who died in 1323 BC, contained 100 kg (220 lb) of gold.The imagery for my print was inspired by the Greek myth "King Midas and the Golden Touch." The myth was about a king who can turn whatever he touched into gold. He loved it until he touched his daughter who he dearly loved and turned her into gold. To undo his mistake, he had to pour water over her from the river Pactolus which would turn her back to normal and wash away his golden powers. My print was capturing the midway point of her father throwing water on her. First I had to look for inspiration for what part of the myth I wanted to capture. Then I decided to draw King Midas' daughter in gold and water being thrown on her. I sketched out the picture in my sketchbook and then traced it onto tracing paper. Next I traced the tracing paper onto the foam stamping piece but I traced it on backwards so when I stamp it onto paper, the letters and numbers would come out correctly and not backwards. After I traced it, I used a dull pencil to retrace the lines on the foam piece so I know it would be detailed enough for when I stamp it. Then I used a paint roller and paint to roll over the foam piece covering it completely. Next, I place the paint side of the foam onto a white piece of copy paper and pressed it on firmly. Then I used a wooden spoon to go over the foam piece to ensure all the paint had transfer. After that, I peel off the foam piece and wash it under water so I can repeat these steps with different colors to make more prints. When the prints have dried, I used a ruler to rip all the white sides off and pasted it onto a 6x8 piece of constructed paper as a board. That's is the process I went through to make this print. If I were to do this print again, I would change the border of the imagery because I think it kind of threw off the main image of the print. Also, I would use different colors to paint my print of do a number of colors onto one print. Lastly, I would decorate the matt border to make my print more attractive. The part of the project I enjoyed the most was stamping the print because rolling the paint onto the foam was fun. Also, after rubbing all the paint onto the paper, peeling the foam off the paper was so satisfying because I just see all the paint transferred onto the paper and my print was nice and clear so that's why I enjoyed that part the most.