WIP: Mouse and rat traps continued

continued from this post

"The next tests will...
-use sealed timber and less ink retarder with longer drying time; see if this prevents any of the ink from rubbing off.
-use spray varnish over the print + see if this makes any difference in retaining the detail"

I tried these; then decided that it is not worth the 'shiny' surface as the resultant darkening of the wood grain makes it look less like the original rodent traps. 

Comparing spray varnish to raw timber.

Left: spray varnish test. Right: GAC varnish (on top of ink.)

Left: GAC varnish underneath. Right: spray varnish on top.

Difference in surfaces - compared to original trap

Testing different inks and colours on raw timber. Top left is Aquaprint ink, bottom left is live to print (eco-friendly) ink - magenta; right x3 are live to print magenta+yellow (red mix) 

"-use green ink instead of red. I'm interested in the implications of the colour green (Green = go. Green = eco friendly, healthy, etc. Green = toxic.) and of course it is the natural colour of edamame beans. I imagine the resulting effect/message will be 'here is an inviting, seemingly healthy snack; but it's a trap.'"

Some green tests…
The first shade of green was representative of the slightly dark / earthier shade of edamame beans.
Struan suggested I use a more fluro / toxic shade of green to get this message across.

Re-shaping and sharpening all the staples (such a process):

And then trying to decide which colours to present:

While hammering the pieces together, and trying to make sure the contraption worked, I ended up trapping my fingers by accident. God it hurt. But I was really happy that it worked!

For the 'Food?' show, I displayed the red ones. The logic was that conventional red made them invisible. You have to look twice…

The works on subtle display in the corners of Projectspace:

All four traps (one corn, 3 edamame) were set + activated, and a small note warned visitors not to touch them. Luckily no one did. Knowing they are activated is an important part of the work for me - this gives them a tension. They're almost invisible, but dangerous. Or perhaps just cheeky.