Cyanotypes

The SSC Library First Friday Art Club explored cyanotype printing on June 2.  Special guest instructor, Marnie Lersch, led the exploration.

Cyanotypes, GO!

Marnie defined the term cyanotype by breaking down the word.  Cyan is blue and type meaning print, so you can say this is like a blue print.  Having worked in a blue printing facility, we were lucky to NOT smell the diazo process, which can knock out a person with the ammonia fumes.

Chemical Overview

Students who arrived early got a chance to peruse the sample and supply table.  Marnie showed interested parents the chemicals which we would use to complete the process.  These chemicals are light sensitive, meaning they need to be kept out of sunlight.  Since they are hazardous, everyone was instructed to wear gloves while applying the liquid mixture to the fabric being used.

Safety First when Working

First step in this class was to prepare our fabric with the light sensitive chemical mixture. Using foam brushes, rubber gloves, and table cloths, each student was responsible for this step. We often remind our students that safety is always first when making art.  We only get one set of lungs and the skin we're in, so they have to last a lifetime.

Time to add the Goodies

Once the chemical application was dry, it turned a pea-green hue and it was time to get creative.  Using items we collected from the garden and an array of interesting shaped goodies, each student took time to compose their image.  This required a bit of thinking about positive and negative space, as well as transparent versus opaque density.

Wrapped and Protected

After composing their imagery, the students wrapped up their fabric on a cardboard sheet sandwiched by bubble wrap and secured with clothes pins.  There was a whipping wind to contend with outside and we did not want all of the loose items to go flying!

Waiting for the Sun

Once outside, the sun was in control of this project.  

Each student was a watch-guard protecting their projects from the wind.

Make your Mark

I tested this process and teamed up with a student with a bubble wrap experiment.  "What will happen if we leave the bubble wrap on?," we wondered.  As the sun processed the image, this student took a chance to use her body as her signature!

Expose in the Sun for about 10 minutes

After about 5-10 minutes of bright sun exposure, the chemicals on the fabric turned a slate gray/ green tone and Marnie told us to wash our fabrics in clean water.  This was a fast action of tossing materials into bins and rushing to the water tubs to process the image.

Leaves and Seashells were flying!

If you can imagine the flock of leaves, seashells, glass nuggets, and macaroni literally flying into storage bins, the mad rush panicked everyone to make sure they finished their projects before the end of class.  Washing the fabric in water surprised everyone at how fast the fabric turned from green to blue.  The imagery everyone composed was so gorgeous.  This project offered immediate gratification.  Who doesn't like that?!

Success

The variety of blue tones this process offers is quite lovely.  I have a blue love-affair and believe I will further explore this process in my home studio.  One parent who enjoyed the results of this process envisions a Cyan Family Room.  She took notes on the chemicals needed and borrowed some books to further investigate.  If you have interest to learn how to make cyanotypes, visit this Alternative Photography for more information.  

Check back in July to see what Steampunk Costumes our crew creates as they prepare for the ever-epic Library Unmasked: Steampunk Edition cosplay event.

Until then, thanks for visiting!

~erica

Tie Dye

Since this First Friday Art Club seemed to mark the end of summer vacation for my students, I planned a fun Tie-Dye program outdoors so we could design fun fashions for the new school year.

I selected several books to inspire students to a particular pattern.  These books included instructions on folding or wrapping fabric in ways to achieve specific results.  I highly recommend checking our catalog for books which inspire you>> of course, you need to live in our region to borrow books from our library system.

Dye!  Quickly!!!

Searching for patterns seemed too much effort for my students.  Luckily Tulip Products offer Tie-Dye kits with excellent, concise instructions and simple to follow steps on producing your own projects.

I instructed the students to wrap, fold and bind their fabrics with rubber bands before we went outside to made a glorious mess.  Once we covered the tables with plastic sheeting, I covered some basic rules and words of caution>>> THIS DYE IS PERMANENT.  IT WILL STAIN EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES, EVEN YOUR FINGERS THROUGH THESE GLOVES!

Once that bit of "housekeeping" was final, I let the kids loose with the dyes and aided when needed.  We were even lucky enough to have a photographer from our local newspaper, The Leader, stop over to grab some shots for the Saturday paper. >>> FYI, our club made the paper!>>> stop in our library to check the archive of The Leader from Saturday, September 5, 2015.  My First Friday Art Tie-Dying kids are famous!!!

I would share the article, but there are copyright laws to respect.  Just come down and visit us.  You will be glad you did!  

"Uh-oh!  I just dyed my jeans!"

This group worked quickly.  The dye is "active" for only 15 minutes to get the brightest colors possible.  While I helped set up a student to work on a different dye method, "ombre," our guest photographer did his job.

"Ombre" technique

This little lady got her image in our newspaper, but also got A LOT of that purple dye on her shirt...perhaps it will be another tie-dyed creation.

The only hard part of tie-dying is waiting for the dye to set, usually best to rinse the fabric 24 hours after processing.  Luckily I have wonderful students who love to share their results with me.

The Results!

Next month we will make trinket boxes out of soda cans.  Check back next month to see some precious items made from recycled products.

Happy Friday!