Moses Lake artist finds unlimited possibility in acrylic medium

MOSES LAKE — Phyllis PuFahl said her exploration of jewelry making started as a way to use acrylic pouring paintings that hadn’t turned out like she planned.

The technique of acrylic pouring is pretty basic – the artist pours the paint onto a surface, whether it’s tile or canvas or or an old LP record. But there’s almost infinite variety in the results.

“There are often times I don’t really like (the result),” she said. “Maybe I like part of it, but not all of it. And I don’t like wasting anything.”

PuFahl frequently uses tile as her surface, and she discovered the dried acrylic paints will peel off.

“They call these skins,” she said of the dried paint. “And with the skins, you can create all kinds of things.”

PuFahl uses skins to make necklaces, earrings, bracelets, key chains and brooches, among other things. Her jewelry is on display and for sale at the Basalt Collective Fine Art Gallery, 114 E. Third Ave. in Moses Lake.

She discovered acrylic pouring about five years ago, she said, and found it to be a completely unpredictable medium.

“I don’t even know what it’s going to look like when I start pouring,” she said. “You really never have an idea what it’s going to look like. And they never come out the same twice.”

The artist controls the initial step of mixing the paint, but after that it’s up to the paint. PuFahl starts with a disposable cup and different colors of acrylic paint she has mixed with other agents to make it more liquid.

“You layer paint in the cup,” she said. “It’s all kinds of colors, and you’re choosing how your colors are going to blend together.”

There are different ways to apply the paint to the surface. The simplest is just to pour it from the cup. Sometimes PuFahl starts by placing the tile or canvas on the cup, then inverting the two and picking up the cup. The flow of paint can produce all kinds of different effects. PuFahl has a painting of a fish on the wall of her studio.

“That fish just showed up,” she said. “I put the eye and the lips, but the shape of him was – just there.”

To the extent the artist has control, it’s in mixing the paint.

“A lot has to do with the consistency, and with what product you use as a flow agent,” she said.

One kind of flow agent will produce cells when the paint is poured, while others will produce eddies.

“And then you’re twisting it and turning it, and composing how to want it to be. It’s really all in how the paint combines.”

Fine art acrylic paints, sold in tubes, will produce different effects from craft paints, she said. She also uses dry pigments, mixed with a wetting agent and a flow agent.

“The pigments are something new that I’ve just started using, probably in the last year or two. They’re just so shiny. In the light they just pop,” she said. “There are a thousand different ways to do acrylic pouring. It’s really fun.”

The drying process also plays a role in the final result. PuFahl said she covers a new canvas or tile with a primer.

“Sometimes the acrylics or the pigments dry faster than the paint that’s underneath it,” she said. “It cracks. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not so good.”

The paints will separate in the drying process, which produces an entirely different and sometimes unwanted effect.

“But I kind of like the texture. It gives (the painting) another dimension,” she said.

The results are sometimes in the eye of the viewer.

“Somebody told me that one looked like a dragon,” she said, pointing to a painting on the studio wall.

A black heart showed up in another painting. The paint dried in a third painting revealing another sea creature.

“You see the shrimp in here? There he is, with his clackers,” she said.

The swirls of paint on another canvas resemble a horse.

“This phantom horse showed up at night,” she said. “I had already poured it, and I came down (the next morning), and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a horse. He’s running, you can see his tail. We call that one the Phantom Rider,’” she said.

The paint isn’t confined to the canvas or tile, often running off the edges.

“That’s where I find the paint for my jewelry. Because as it comes off the canvas, it creates patterns, and once that dries, I can cut it apart and use it for my jewelry.”

She started making jewelry when she wanted to find a use for the skins, and a friend suggested jewelry as a possibility.

The jewelry starts with a setting and a clear glass cabochon, which can be round, rectangular, square or oval. PuFahl previews each jewelry piece with the cabochon, moving it around until she comes up with a design she likes.

She uses scissors to make the rough cut, then trims each piece to fit the jewelry setting.

“I had a lot of these small cabochons, and started with that. Then somebody wanted a bigger pendant, and somebody else was looking for a set of earrings to match, and it grew from there.”

Like the acrylic paintings, customers come in infinite variety.

“Some of my jewelry that has sold has not been my favorite, and it’s one of the first ones that sells. Everybody has such different tastes,” she said. “(Pieces) that I’m not even really happy with are the ones that sell.”

“I need to learn how to wrap wire now,” she added.