Botanical garden in Canary Island

I made some really good friends in Canary Island. Gea an Lluvia took me to a botanical garden, Jarden Botanica, the other day. It was very hot day, but we did not mind because it was so beautiful...

The garden starts from the top of a mountain. Then you walk down to the main garden.

Drago trees. I love them so much!

A fruits and there are more fruits inside the fruit.

Foods in Canary Island

I have been eating really yummy cheese, fruites, and olives. I will show you what I have been eating while I am staying in Canary Island.

This is my table and lunch.

Plums from a tree. It was small and really sweet.

I went a farmer's market and local supermarket. I love having cold gabacho and Spanish cheese!

Papaya, plums, and cactus fruits. I don't know the name. Prickly pears? Or opuntias?

I did not know they have stings. I grabbed it by accident. Guess what happened after that...

This is my breakfast.

We had Korean food feast on Saturday evening. 

It was a lot of foods! Amazing night. It is kind of funny that I had to come all the way from Reno to Canary Island to eat Korean food, haha!

Typical Canary food. Boiled potatoes with spicy sauce, baked potatoes and pork, cheese, and corn deep with onion. 

Yum~ some sweets, of course.

And calamari. It was exceptional!

Las plantas

One of amazing things about Canary Island is exotic plants. I have never seen anything like it before. So, I was not sure what to think of it at first. I started with the garden at my place.

I don't know all the names of the plants, but they are amazing!

This is goji berries. It was fresh and very yummy.

This is a tree originally from Canary Island called drago.

Its sap is red. So people here call it " San gre de drago", meaning drago' blood.

So, I made a drawing out of it.

I am going to Jardin Botanico de Las Palmas Grand Canaria soon. I will post more plants!

Beautiful trees!

Electro non toxic intaglio

You might have wondered why I am in Canary Island. I came here to learn electro etching 

and make some art out of it. My teacher Alfonso taught me this amazing new technique.

This is an electro tank. It is a mixture of water and copper sulfate.

The principle of this process is that two copper metals are faced to each other.

Then, put some electricity into the solution. It sounds very complicated but very simple once you see it.

I am getting ready for some plates. You simply file the edges of the plates, sand them down, and degrees them with vinegar and whiting.

I use Lascaux resist for the process. First etch. Iron neutralizes copper sulfate.

Stop out some area.

After second etch, clean the resist.

Then, stop out for electro-tint, which is very similar effect to aquatint.

Right before putting the plate to the sulfate solution, make sure to put the plate into vinegar/salt solution to degrease the plate.

My first electro etching ever!

This is graphite ink technique. You use graphite ink from Graphic Chemicals with lithotine and cobalt dryer and apply it into the plate with a brayer.

I did an etching first.

Then, apply the graphite ink.

This is semi dry technique. Place your plate on newspaper and plastic wrap.

Place the plate and some fabric, strings, or paper. Put some sulfate on the plate.

Then, put two pieces of sulfate soaked felts and weight them.

These are some of my work that I did!