Order of Operations

Maybe living your best life just means slowing down enough to see how good it already is. author unknown

It's been downright chilly the last day or two. Yesterday Paul and I walked to nearby sidewalk wildflower garden that we check out every year. It's wild and wonderful...and always worth a look. The feel-like temperature was in the 30's...so I wore my winter coat, gloves and ear protection.  

The garden is in the neighborhood where Fall and Autumn Lanes intersect. It looked like spring...but felt like fall and autumn.

When making layered cyanotypes...the item you put down first is the what doesn't get exposed and stays white and ends up being in the foreground of your print. Every layer added after becomes more and more in the background. I often do two layers and sometimes three giving the pieces depth. 

On this one...I placed the meadow rue leaf down first...then after about 20 seconds I placed a punched circle for the moon.....and it looks like more leaves at the very end.  And it looks like there's a few vinegar spots too.

The paper was already a little exposed before I put the first plant down...so it's a pleasing light blue. I painted the moon with metallic gold watercolor and added a few splatters. 

I quite like it.  

I had to chuckle when I got the order of operations wrong on the FIRST try....and put the moon down first putting it in the foreground.  Oops. But the print wasn't that great....

so it became the background for my sign for the garden store display. I'll be delivering my stack of cards on Tuesday. 

I like the softness of this one!