A peak into my process

With this weeks post, I wanted to give you a peak into my process in creating my rust pieces. I start out with a blank metal piece and apply paint to the surface. I then apply the salt solution on top of this. As seen in the first picture the metal plate is wet and the salt solution bubbles. For optimal results I prefer to let the plate dry in the sun, as this allows the salt to form a crystalized layer. After the second phase as seen above, the solution dries to a flaky texture and lifts from the surface. This is an exciting moment for me and I am tempted to pick at it...but I don't.

This current salt solution just sits on top which allows me a little more control but I am getting bored. There needs to be more risk involved. I'm looking into different metals that I can combine together to eat away the surface of the metal plate. The questions that I am asking myself are; If I continue to work in the salt solution, what can I do to seal it and will the sealant continue to produce the results that I want? (in the last post I sealed the solution with Epoxi Resin, and I didn't care for the results), will it matter if the sealant was matte and not gloss? Do I even want to move forward with any kind of sealant, period? What will happen with the new metals? How will this change the plate's appearance? Will it be different from the salt solution appearance? How many applications will I need to do?

I have a few more ideas of the direction that I want to take my work including using new metals. But for now I will leave you with a quote from Francis Ford Coppola, "If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before."