I've finally got the "dirty side" of my studio up and running. This is where the hazardous materials, messy moldmaking business, glass dust, enamels, wax etc. live. They are NOT allowed on the clean side of my studio! I picked this up from the age-old darkroom rule that you live and die by, which is wet side/dry side.

I still haven't found a good place for the mica flakes and glitters I like to use, though. They're so invasive they don't even belong in the dirty side, I think. Someday I'll have a boxed-in ventilation booth dedicated just to glitters...

Some sort of pastel crystal rainbow due to a trick of the light.

I've always been a huge fan of the nearly-colorless, white-on-white, especially if it involves sparkle––so, this week I'm revisiting poured paint solutions and substituting salt for pigment instead. I've tried pure oversaturated salt solution, which crystallized beautifully and left cuboids large and small bonded fairly tightly to the paper; I've tried pouring the salt water over pre-existing gouache paintings; finally, I've tried introducing liquid fluorescent pigment into pre-spilled salt water. All three have yielded interesting results.

I'm interested in MSG as a possible additive. The crystals are sharper and more cylindrical in food-serving form, but who knows what kind of fabulous larger formations they may form when diluted and dried?