PRIMARY TOOLS & MATERIALS:
TEXTURED PAPER, INKJET PRINTER

Additional Tools & Materials: tape, scanner, Adobe Photoshop

Today's matchup seemed like a pretty obvious, boring one: paper + inkjet printer. I used a brush pen to write this uppercase script G. To keep it fresh I decided to try printing it on a variety of textured papers I had never attempted to feed through my inkjet printer. I started with flat, more traditional card stock with only subtle textures, and slowly increased the complexity of the paper to see what my printer would handle. The most unique papers still printed pretty clearly, which surprised me; I was expecting at least one goose egg in this study - a paper that my printer just couldn't handle. After testing several sheets of textured scrapbook paper, I decided to tape a paper doily onto a sheet of white card stock and see if I could create a stencil effect. It printed very well, and gave me three different letterforms: the "solid" letter printed on the doily and the cardstock underneath, the doily alone with the doily's cuts knocked out, and the "stenciled" card stock with the doily removed. 

Most of these printed studies only altered the letterform by adding texture or iridescence. The "stencil" image (number 9) was the only one to create an entirely different letterform. To flesh number 9 out as a complete letter set would require careful planning of where the shapes of the doily (or any stencil) meet the letterform, and I think some interesting choices could be made by using the shapes of the stencil to more clearly define parts of the letter anatomy.