Sometime around 2017, I had discovered that interesting textures could be made by pouring varnish straight from the can onto a birch plywood plate and sprinkling the liquid with carborundum powder. I had tried to cheat or speed up the drying process by using a hairdryer. The real surprise was how the mixture reacted to heat. The surface blistered and peeled away forming dark pools out of the carborundum powder that looked and reacted like lava. These printed beautifully with dark earthy tones and a high degree of contrast. The interesting thing about the plates is that the medium cannot be entirely controlled, so that each plate and resulting print can never be replicated.
