52 Weeks of Art: Week 23

Week 23: Cyanotype

Welcome to week 23 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     

     This week we did cyanotype. Now, you might be wondering what that is. Cyanotype is a 170 year old photographic printing process that produces a cyan blue print. It was used mainly to reproduce notes and diagrams - aka blueprints. The whole process uses just two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

     I don't know about you, but I don't really like the idea of working with chemicals. I don't know anything about chemicals, so not using them sounds good to me. I Googled how to make my own cyanotpye. It sounds easy, but again, I don't like the idea of mixing chemicals I don't know anything about. 

     So, instead of making my own, I bought some special paper that's already been treated with the chemicals. I headed to Amazon - the best place to buy anything - and searched for cyanotype paper. It's also called sun print paper, sun art paper, solar paper, etc. For a relatively low price, you can get several sheets of paper. 

     Alright, so how does this fancy cyanotype paper work? It's simple. Place an object, or anything you want, on top of the paper and place it in the sun for a few minutes. Its really fascinating to see the whole process. The paper starts out as this muted blue color. When it's exposed to the sun it turns almost white, except the parts that were covered. You bring it back inside and rinse it in some water. The water turns the white parts blue and the blue parts white. When it dries the blue gets much darker, darker than it ever started.

     I Googled some cyanotype images. I absolutely love the nature prints - leaves, feathers, shells, etc. However, it's winter here right now. That means no leaves. We had to get creative with what we used. Here's some nature prints using cyanotype.

I found this beauty here.

These amazing pieces were found here.

     And here's the whole process:

This is the paper before being exposed.

This is the paper after just being exposed. This pattern was made using a bubble wand.

This is the paper after being rinsed in water. 

This is the paper after drying - the final product. For this pattern I used my nephew's puzzle pieces.

Here's the finished print using the bubble wand.

On to rating cyanotype...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for cyanotype, my rating is: 19

Ease of use: 5

 This is probably the easiest medium we have used. It does not get simpler than this.

Affordability: 5

     For about $11 on Amazon I bought this package of  cyanotype paper. It has 40 sheets of paper. That is about $0.27 for each piece of paper. That's it. No other supplies needed!

Accessibility: 4

     I'm not sure about arts and crafts stores carrying this paper, but you can get it at an art supply store. Or from Amazon.

Fun to Use: 5

    This was fun to do. I don't know that I would actually try to make art out of this, but it was fun to just experiment with. I found the whole process to be fascinating. 

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!