Act-Belong-Commit Art for Mindfulness - Printmaking (Cyanotypes)

Old and new and blue: cyanotype workshops

Discover the patterns and textures of the natural world with this easy, low-toxicity alternative photography process. Add in something old like a scan of a historical photo or simple trinkets to make a story about the past. Watch as the chemical reaction takes place in front of your eyes when sensitised paper is exposed to sunlight: turning found foliage and past memories into ‘blueprints’. Cyanotypes is an alternative photo process from the beginning of photography invented in 1842. Here we will work with old book pages as a background combine the old and new to create stories about people and places.

Workshop Saturday Part A Introduction to cyanotypes — sun prints and preparing paper 1130-1530

We will start with the simple technique of using the sun to print shadows.

• Collect and bring in natural materials including:
• plants from your garden (small leaves, flowers, twigs and branches, ferns, flowers, creepers, gum leaves, finer leaves and small nuts)
• feathers, small bones, ethically obtained seahorses or starfish.
• For contrast, bring in:
• materials that have a pattern of holes e.g. lace, netting, string
• materials that are thin or contain a variety of transparent areas e.g. some non-precious glass or clear plastics
• small objects that have interesting silhouettes/shadows e.g. plastic animals, small non-precious trinkets
• you can also make your own stencils and cut-out shapes.
• You can draw onto clear film with opaque or semi opaque materials and this will print as white lines and light shades of blue (depending on how opaque the marks are).

We will also discuss what to bring tomorrow to extend your printing using digital negatives.

Workshop Part B More from cyanotypes — digital negatives and demonstration of toning and wet cyanotypes 1000-1430

• Bring in digital photos on a thumb drive and transform it into a blue-print. This can include old black and white photos scanned in or copyright-free digital images from the internet. Make sure the digital images are LARGE (lots of detail, as you will be printing at 300dpi)
• Bring in scanned drawings (images will be reproduced as a single tone, so think in black and white)
• Optional: a sheet of glass, fold back clips and a backing board (e.g. pull apart an old glass picture frame) to do a print at home. Do not use frames with museum glass or plastic because these block UV light.

Digital images can be printed on clear transparencies to act as ‘negatives’ for cyanotypes. You can also combine the sun print materials we experimented with in Part A. Toning and wet cyanotypes are longer processes so we will demonstrated on the day, and if you have a sheet of glass and a backing board (e.g. pull apart an old glass frame) you can make a wet cyanotype at home.

These workshops are provided free to the community thanks to funding support from our sponsors, however if you are able to make a donation your contribution will assist us to cover additional costs associated with the Readers & Writers program including travel and accommodation for some of our visiting authors. Donations can be made in cash at the event or directly by EFT (BSB: 036-150 ACCOUNT: 283565). All donations over $2 are tax deductible. If you make an EFT deposit please include your name in the reference and email us if you would like a receipt.

This artwork has been created especially for the Readers and Writers Esperance 2021 program by Nyungar artist Nannapa Jennell Reynolds. It represents women and men from different groups coming together in Kepa Kurl (Esperance) to share and celebrate different types of storytelling. At the centre of the artwork the powerful flow of language and text forges it's way through society, altering perceptions as it goes.