Tuesday, 2 December 2014

When You Are Feeling Blue

It is a very sad day today ... it is the funeral of Ann Holden who recently died after a brave fight against cancer.  She was a dear friend and wonderful tutor from whom I learnt a wealth of techniques over the years I have known her.  My everlasting memory will be "the class glasses" which were always on hand for those who had forgotten to bring their own with them.  It was always a huge joke in the class.

Recently, whilst undertaking a Fine Art Printing course at Hereford College of Art I had the opportunity to create some cyanotype prints on paper.  I have had a kit for years but have never used it as it involved making up the solution, preparing the fabric and then keeping it in a light free environment until a nice sunny day came along.  The College have a huge ultraviolet light box which makes the whole experience so easy and holds the items you are exposing down with a vacuum so they cannot move.  Can you imagine doing it outside on a sunny but windy day.  All your materials would either blow away or move during the exposure.

Above is an image created using a mixture of hydranga flowers, skeleton leaves from the garden, dress pattern tissue and some lovely old lace I acquired from the sales stall at our local Embroiderers' Guild meeting.  The detail on the lace is amazing.
Prior to the lace and dress pattern tissue I had been playing with honesty seeds.  I had to peel off the outer casing to get a transparent image, which also meant losing the seeds inside.  I think the odd colour effect on this print is due to the fact that the cyanotype solution had not been painted onto the paper very evenly.

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