Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 104

Hello and welcome to part 104 of my experiments with wet cyanotype. For this session I used leaves from columbine, brunnera, lamiastrum and cotinus. The first three pre-exposure layouts shown here are on cotton fabric. I mixed a small amount of various Solarfast chemicals in with the cyanotype.

I then did four layouts on 9 x 12 mineral paper using columbine and lamiastrum. This paper never fails to surprise and delight me with the way the chemicals flow and merge on it.

Here are the prints after exposure but before rinseout. There's a lot going on and at this point I am full of happy anticapation.

Here are the finished prints. Once again, this process is only partially under my control, as there are so many variables to account for--temperature, angle of sun in the sky, length of exposure, and the chemistry inherent in the leaves. 

And once again, I am delighted with the results. I hope you are too!

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2026 Summer Solstice Pinhole Camera pics

One of the fun parts of my artistic practice is making pinhole camera prints. They are incredible low-tech, consisting of photo paper sealed in a beer can, with a literal pinhole used as an aperture to let light in.

Each solstice, winter and summer, I take down and process the ones from six months previous, and set up a new batch in various locations where I have a somewhat unobstructed view of the sky.

Two of the things I love about this practice is the way I really have to slow down my down my expectations of when the art will be "ready", and the reminder that whatever events are transpiring here on the planet, it keeps revolving around the sun in a predictable manner.

And then, of course, there is the curious and ethereal beauty of the images, with just enough familiar elements to make sense to the brain, and enough wierdness to transport one's thoughts to a different realm.

There were a host of intense weather events in the past six months--howling ice storms, endless early spring rains--that resulted in some of the images being damaged by moisture in the cans. I was still left with these beauties. And hope springs eternal for the next batch! Enjoy.

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New Work - Mink and Sycamore

 I am pleased to share with you my latest work, Mink and Sycamore, part of my Flora and Fauna series.

Mink and Sycamore

I am interested in the small mammals that make their homes near my suburban habitat in Pennsylvania. I enjoy catching glimpses of them, and am saddened but also intrigued by their eventual demise and their skeletal remains. Mink and Sycamore is the latest in a series that uses macro photos I take of the skulls, printed as cyanotypes, then combined with botanical prints from the area I observed them in. It’s a bright and somewhat cheerful momento mori.

Mink and Sycamore - detail 1

Materials: artist painted and commercial cotton and silk fabrics, wool yarn

Techniques: cyanotype prints from original macro photos, leaf monoprints, patchwork, couching, stitching

Mink and Sycamore - detail 2

Size: 46"h x 59"w

Mink and Sycamore - detail 3

Mink and Sycamore made its debut in the current Summer Issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, as the opening image for my feature article "Pressed in Cloth - An Enduring Vision".

Mink and Sycamore - detail 4

In the article, I talk about my life and long-term work as a fiber artist, and detail my tenents for the core vision that informs my work. I think artists at any and all stages of their creative journey will find it useful.

Mink and Sycamore - detail 5

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Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 103

Welcome to part 103 of my experiments in wet cyanotype printmaking. I had an steamy hot day to work with, so rather than venture far I picked what was readily at hand-- some horribly invasive Japanese knotweed leaves and some lovely native boxelder twigs. This time of year the leaves are fresh and vibrant, but there are already a few bits of insect damage apparent. These are the print layouts, on cotton, after treating with cyanotype and Solarfast chemicals and before exposure.

I'm also back at it with the experimental prints on mineral paper. These are incredibly unpredictable and often spectacular. Here I'm using some cutleaf elderberry leaves and boxelder twigs.

Here's all the prints after exposure and before rinse out.

Those rusty brown colors on the mineral paper always rinse out, so it's fun to get a photographic record at this stage.

Here are the two finished cotton panels. There's lots of good stuff going on in these prints. At some point they will make their way into an art quilt or some other form of fiber art.

Here are the mineral paper prints. I love them so much, I feel like this batch is extra-special.

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