Sunday, July 21, 2013

Sun Printing

Sun printing is something that I wanted to try last year but it wasn't very sunny and I never got round to it. This year I'd forgotten all about it until Fran mentioned it last week.  I planned to do it yesterday but there was a slight technical hitch - no sun!

This afternoon the sun came out and very soon I had 4 experimental pieces laying in the sun to 'print'.


I have to admit I don't understand how it works (I failed both chemistry and physics o levels!) but the theory is that when objects are placed on top of heat sensitive paints/dyes (I used setacolor transparent fabric paint - it has to be the transparent one) then where the objects are makes an undyed silhouette when they're removed.

I had mixed success - the poppies (far right) didn't work at all.  I think because it was all on a towel which retained the dye.

The albums (which everything I read said would work really well) sort of worked, although the texture from the plastic mat came through rather more than I would have liked.


The lavender worked well


but the one that surprised me most was the feverfew as I didn't really expect it to work (I thought it would wilt before it printed).  


I'm not too keen on how the colours of the paint on this one have dried, they look sort of muddy, but the definition is really good.  Where it's a bit blurry is where the shadows were.

It definitely has potential and I will do some more when I'm next at home on a sunny day.

6 comments:

Celia Hart said...

I love the Feverfew one - the colour is lovely too (I like muddy colours) x

Fran Hillman said...

Ooh, well done. The feverfew has worked really well with the 'lost and found' edges all done for you naturally. I agree with Celia too about the colours.
Going to do the second layer on mine later. x

flowerlady said...

I am with everyone else, liking the feverfew, I have never heard of sun printing- probably as we don't normally have any. Am now going to have to go away and look it up

crafty cat corner said...

Oh, now I do like this, I must have a go, never heard of it before, maybe because there was a darth of sun. We are certainly making up for it now though.

crafty cat corner said...

Ooops, mean dearth. lol
Briony
x

Annie Cholewa said...

Fascinating! Have you ever tried cyanotypes?