Sue Reno Studio: September 2021

September 23, 2021

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 71

Welcome to another installment, number 71, of fun with cyanotype! For this batch I continued my experiments with using vintage embroidery as a starting point. These first two textiles, the two halves of a dresser scarf, are courtesy of Martha Ginn. After seeing my previous prints, she was kind enough to send me some of her embroideries to work with. I usually source these from flea markets, and sometimes people give them to me from family estates, but I think this is the first time I actually know who stitched them. It makes the process more meaningful.

Martha says: "The dresser scarf I can recall stitching while pregnant with my daughter, and using, washing and ironing for many years. BTW, I still love ironing--seeing something wrinkled become neat, smooth, and sharp-lined."

These are box elder leaves, with wet process cyanotype and just a bit of Solarfast chemicals mixed in, shown here just before exposure.

For the next print I pulled a deer embroidery from my stash, and used the same mix of chemicals and box elder leaves.

Deer were a very popular subject matter back in the heyday of these embroideries, which were often done from kits, or from patterns in women's magazines. It may have been the Bambi influence, or the fact that many households had deer hunters. I've used a deer embroidery before in a large quilt, adding stitched details.

Deer and Mayapple, detail

This is Deer and Mayapple, from my Flora and Fauna series.

Deer and Mayapple

For the final print in this batch, I used a delicate floral embroidery with a cutwork center that Martha gifted me (but did not stitch). This one has calla lily leaves.

Here are the prints after exposure, but before rinsing.

There's no predicting how the fabric (of unknown fiber, but probably heavy cotton or linen) and the embroidery thread will pick up the chemicals, which is one of the things that I love about these experiments.

The deer print is looking a bit dark at this point, it absorbed a lot of the chemicals.

And this is why I love printing with calla lily leaves, the semi-transparent areas on the leaves leak the light through.

Here are the finished prints.

These two have a very lovely heathered look. When they are stitched to add definition, they are going to be very beautiful in a subtle way.

I'm kind of in love with this deer print. It gives me the feeling of peeking through the tree canopy to see a doe and fawn resting in a clearing. Again, stitching will add definition.

This one is also special, with a twilight-in-the-garden feel.

Thanks for viewing!

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September 9, 2021

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 70

Time for more fun with mineral paper, wet cyanotype, and horrid invasive plants! These two first prints, shown here before exposure, are of Japanese knotweed leaves. For all of their faults, they have nice flat substantial leaves that print really well.

These next two are the opposite, from the beloved and native wood poppy plant. They too have leaves that behave well for printing.

I finished out this batch with a fern frond. When I started in gardening at this property two years ago I made an effort to record the names of all the ferns, but they move about a bit, and while I can recognize some easily, I'm not certain about this one at this point. It doesn't matter a lot for this purpose as all ferns are lovely.

I added just a small amount of purple Solarfast solar dye chemical to the cyanotype mixture for these, and you can see how it sorted itself out in the post exposure, pre rinse images.