S.A. Holt Studios

Greetings!

I know what you’re asking yourself right now, “What the heck is she talking about, diapering?” Diapering is a repeating pattern, usually in the background of an illumination. It can be geometric or floral. It can be any color including gold, but is usually white work.
Here are a few examples:

Diapering in illumination is another one of my favorite things (another Oprah moment). It is done pretty much like white work is. I use the same tools and techniques (see HHH Scribal Hint 13 for White Work). Diapering is just done on a larger section, with more repetition of pattern.

When I have a diapering pattern that calls for very straight lines, I totally cheat! That’s right, I cheat! Not really. I just use the tools that are available to me.

Here are my easy steps to do straight lines in diapering.

1) After the background paint has dried, I take my pencil (do not use pen or you’ll be sorry – it can bleed through the paint) and ruler and mark out a grid on the paper’s border (remember that 1/2 to 1 inch border you left around the entire design in the page layout, that’s where I make my marks in pencil so I can erase them later).

2) Then I take my mechanical pencil (the one that doesn’t get dull and always has a nice sharp line) and ruler, and I draw the straight lines right over the paint.

3) Once my grid is on the paint, in pencil, then I get may (usually) white paint mixed to the consistency of melted ice cream (remember, this is essentially white work).

4)Once my paint is how I like it, I take my brush with the finest point, and using only the tip/point of the brush, I go over the straight lines, hiding the pencil with the paint.

5)When that’s done, I go back through and add the little dots and tick marks in the rest of the diapering design.

Voila! Easy-peasy, even, straight lines, and no one is the wiser that there is a pencil mark underneath!

When the scroll is completed, I do go back through and erase the pencil marks in the plain paper border. It cleans up the border and gives it a professional, finished look.

Call me crazy (in a good way), many already have, but I just love illuminated diapering. Give it a try, perhaps people will call you crazy (in a good way), too!

Hopefully Helpful,
Hrefna