Instructors: TBD
Ages: 10 and up
Location: 101 West Rodney French Blvd. Studio 260
Format: 2 hour workshop
Date: Saturday, July 25th
Time: 10:00 to Noon
Fee: $55.00 includes all materials for learning 2 printing processes. Treated Paper, necessary chemical compounds, hydrogen peroxide, rinsing bins, glass protectors, clips, flowers and botanicals, sunshine, etc.
Cyanotype and Anthotype Print Process Making
In this workshop, you'll learn 2 processes, one for making Cyano (blue) prints and the other for making Anthotypes. You'll produce several finished prints to take home and enjoy ! We'll prepare papers in advance as they need to cure over night, but we will demonstrate the mixing of the chemicals, and application to paper. We will then choose botanicals to use in our compositions and take them outside under clear plexiglass for a while for exposure depending on sun intensity that day. We will then bring them in and rinse them, hang them to dry and watch the magic transpire before our eyes. As they dry, the blue color becomes more prominent. You'll be amazed at the results and want to produce these whenever possible. It's easier than you think to make the magic happen.
We will do Cyanotypes in the workshop.
Cyanotype Prints are a beautiful, magical and inexpensive way to make monochromatic photographic images using 5 ingredients; Potassium Ferricyanide, Ferric Amonium Cytrate, paper, sunlight and water. This process was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel and hasn't really changed at all. The process works on the same basis as a photogram or contact print, where a UV light sensitive emulsion is prepared and then applied to a porous substrate like paper. Once the substrate has dried, objects or a negative may be directly applied and then exposed to UV light (the sun.) After the desired exposure time is up, the paper is then stopped and fixed simply by rinsing and resting in water. Due to the nature of the chemicals used to make the emulsion the final result is Prussian blue or Cyan, hence the name.
I will also teach you Anthotype, which is another photographic printing process created by applying an emulsion of, in this case, Turmeric, alcohol, baking soda etc throughout the process then laying down plants, berries, leaves, weeds, lace, feathers, and other objects and then exposing it to sunlight. The light bleaches out the pigment in the exposed areas, while the parts covered by an object or transparency remain colored, forming the image. This process results in delicate and non permanent if Borax is not used in the final rinsing process.. We will NOT do this process during the workshop, as you will need to leave your pieces in the sunlight for up to 5 hours before rinsing.
Have your GPS take you to 101 West Rodney French Blvd. in New Bedford. Once there, please park on the end of the building AWAY from the main entrance. You'll see an ORANGE door that says Mattress Handup...enter there and go up the stairs. At the top of the stairs...follow small yellow signs for NBACE. We're right around the corner behind the mural !!