Promise and Potential

Ann texted me today telling me she recommended my blog to two friends. One who wants to look for joy no matter what was going on in her life...and one who does a lot of crafting and is trying to think of herself as an artist. Ann thought that sounded familiar. Check and check.....I'll take it as a compliment.

I've been a crafter my whole life...so I'm often the one people give things to they are done with. MaryAnn will take it they say! She takes anything sees promise and potential in everything. 

Several years ago Melodee gave me a stack of large plexiglass pieces. They were samples from her work to be used in offices I believe. There are a few different etched designs and they are quite lovely. I had an idea at the time but I needed to cut them....I tried with my glass cutter but no luck. I knew I could pay to have them cut somewhere but never got back to it....so there they sat.

They moved with me from Lexington to Portland 3 1/2 years ago and got tucked away still packed with promise and potential. 

Then I had another idea. Light can go through these lovely designs....could I use them in my sun printing? 

The answer is yes I could! 

This is a close-up of a piece of linen I printed this morning using the plexiglass. It was in the sun for an hour. The image is not super defined...but I absolutely love the intersecting lines and almost blurry texture.

I also love all the different tones of blue. The etching on the plexiglass is also a bit translucent...so some sun gets through those parts just a bit creating a slower reaction resulting in a lighter blue and almost no stark white. I think it's just beautiful. 

I want a few different tones and patterns on my fabrics....so the one on top is printed with the same plexiglass and was in the sun for about 1/2 an hour.

The wildflower print is from another day and on white muslin.

I want a variety of fabrics before I start cutting into them and creating some art quilts....but you can see how well they pair together.  

The darker fern is on cotton quilting  fabric that has writing on it. I love the dark inky blue...but the writing would show up more if the blue was lighter.

I think there is promise and potential in these fabric cyanotypes....

but Melodee's plexiglass has finally found an actual purpose. 

My experiment this morning featured fabric...but I had a little solution left...just barely enough to cover this piece of watercolor paper that I tucked under the plexiglass with the fabric.

It turned out pretty well and tells me how little solution I really need. This paper will be a nice filler is collage pieces. 

Thanks Melodee for passing these precious plexiglass panels with such promise and potential! 

(I couldn't resist all the P's!)