On Saturday, I had sooooo much fun taking a Cyanotype Class at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy taught by talented artist May Roded.
She had lots of samples to inspire us. Somehow I had always thought the Cyanotype process was much more complicated than it actually is. May provided lots of cool samples to inspire us. I really want to try painting on acetate and printing out photo negatives.
We were given five 8 1/2" x 11" pieces of paper coated with the Cyanotype emulsion and two test strips. May also showed us how we could coat our own paper (which I will be doing).
I brought some of my Joggles Stencils by Elizabeth St. Hilaire to try. What I learned is that the stencils themselves are not truly opaque to the sunlight, so I didn't get the bright white contrast, but I still loved the effect.
I used my test strips with a single stencil, some thread, and I snuck in a fabric butterfly that was in the class materials after I took the photograph. You top the layers with plexiglass or glass and then use clips around the edges to hold it tight.
After the sun does its magic, you bring it in and rinse of the solution. The paper stayed in the water for about 10 minutes until the opaque areas turned truly white.
Here's a close-up of my favorite print that layered the Joggles Tree of Life Stencil with a swirly stencil.
I love having such great art learning experiences in my community.
I discovered a new Instagram group ... @mini.collage.collective ... so I used one of my test strips and made a 3 7/8" square collage. The November theme is Circles.
I added in some die cut circles and stenciled tiny circles together with a dictionary page, one of my Archival Ink embossed pieces and painted dry wall paint from Art Camp with Lauren, and text from books and stickers. It was a lot of fun.