Saturday Creatives- June

You may have heard of cyanotype, which is commonly called “sun prints”. Ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide are applied to fabric or paper that allows you to make a positive/negative print when you put things like plant material, or photo negatives, (or any object with an interesting shape), on the paper and set them in the sun. After the sun exposure (UV light), you wash the paper or fabric in water to remove the chemicals and have a beautiful positive/negative print! It is what eventually became known as “blueprints” in the architectural and engineering industry for the beautiful Prussian blue color the chemicals leave behind. I have been doing these for decades and love the process.

However, I wanted to find a way to do prints without the chemicals, and learned about anthotypes, which are prints made with the juice of plant material. It is actually one of the earliest forms of photographic-type printing. We will talk more about this fascinating process when we meet in class. The natural dye we will be using for our prints is TURMERIC. Yes, the spice. It makes beautiful prints! And, as you might note in the photo, half are a dark orange, and half are yellow/ochre. The key to why that is so will be revealed when we meet.

Join me for this fascinating and very old process for making prints.

For LPAC Members- the cost is free, but please be sure to register so we have enough supplies and can ensure you have a spot- class size is limited.

Louise Placek