See the Magic

I saw this pop of red from a distance on a morning walk....and HAD to see it up close. I was gobsmacked. Mother Nature's magic blows me away sometimes.

Marita came over for breakfast this morning. We had a wonderful visit on the patio...a nice little walk...and just enough time for a quick cyanotype.

I have given her a couple of cards/prints over the years and she paid one of her fern prints forward to a friend and asked me if I would make her another one. I absolutely love that she passed it on to someone who loved it....AND wanted to replace it.

Rather than make one for her I offered to help her make her own so she could see the magic first hand. There is nothing like experiencing the process in person. I will do this with ANYONE.....even on Zoom. 

While I was at Becky's I was in awe of a small set of stencils in her stash....so many geometric patterns and so many ways to use them. Little did I know that she ordered me a set and they were waiting for me when I got home. Thank you Becky for picking up on my joy and being so generous!

The stencils are translucent (until they have acrylic paint on them) so they work for cyanotype.....but some sun gets through the stencil leaving a light blue design rather than crisp white. Once I've used them for gelli prints....they will be opaque so the sun prints will be crisp white...if I want that. I did a quick experiment with a few....and will certainly do more. I'm going to have fun experimenting with ALL the ways I can use these fabulous gifted stencils. Thanks Becky!

This was the montage I sent to Alyson this morning...a nice mix of just some of the magic that landed in my last few days. I hope you saw some magic in your day today!

For those of you new to the blog....Alyson is my sister-in-law and we trade photos every day. They are often these montages that we make on an app called Unfold. These photos exchanges are a great way for us to connect and celebrate some the magic that is around us. 

Here are a couple of recent montages from Alyson in Colorado.

I love our daily photo trades.

Exam Paper #2

I had one teeny tiny meadow rue cyanotype in my stash that I turned into a teeny tiny card.

Somehow I have a handful of these tiny cards and envelopes in my stash....so I might as well use them up. More teeny cards to come!

Speaking of cyanotype....today I did my second experiment with Roseanne's exam paper. I coated a chunk of it with the chemicals yesterday....so it was nice and dry for some sun printing this morning.

I have to coat papers in a space where there is no natural light so I've set up a cyanotype prep station in my garage. It's working well....and I don't have to tidy up. This is the treated exam paper.

I put down layer of airy plants and covered it with glass. I exposed it to the sun for about 45 seconds before putting down the grass and another piece of glass. 

This what it looked like when I took it to the sink. It's still on the glass.

It seemed to hold up well to light rinsing.....better than tissue. But I still was careful and never took it off the glass.

This is after rinsing the chemicals out and spritzing it with peroxide to speed up the processing.

I'm pretty tickled. I left it on the glass until it was completely dry.

A few hours later it was perfectly dry. I love it!

How pretty is this exam paper! 

Thanks Roseanne! I'm going to think of a special project for it.

Good Day

It was a good day for a nice long lunch with Rebecca and Patty.....a great way to kick off the holiday weekend. 

There's nothing better than time with people who share you values and celebrate your joys. 

Thanks for getting us together Patty! 

 It was also a good day to make indoor cyanotypes.

I experimented with some lace pieces....and got back to basics with simple layering. It was nice to have the indoor option on this very hot day.

Dotty combined haiku, sisters, watercolor and puzzles into her post today....and it all made me smile. 

Taking her lead....I tried my own 5-7-5 syllable haiku. I am NOT a poet.

Shades of Blue

clipped and pressed with care
these precious plants became art

all in shades of blue

Some wins....others not so much...but lots of lessons learned. Some of these will get a bit of watercolor and some will stay just blue. Some will be made into cards...and some will be cut up for bookmarks. All in all...it was a good cyanotype session.

Blue

Subtitle: That's Exactly What I'll Do! 

It rained most of the day today...but I'm celebrating blue. 

This blue sky was from a few days ago...but what an amazing cloud formation it was! 

And while Sue and John were visiting....Sue and I played around with a few cyanotypes....this one of a fern with some vinegar spots

Here's the fern at the bottom which is growing like crazy...and there's a lot of new growth on my foxtail fern. 

I spent most of the afternoon in the studio. I came across this sunflower stencil cyanotype and decided it would make a nice cut out journal cover. Here's the front and back.

I used a mix of papers and pockets...mostly in shades of blue. I hope to make a handful of these for the free little art library in Falmouth and I will include snippets and collage fodder.

Today rainbow is a Dotty collage inspired by my rainbow collage I posted yesterday. I couldn't love it more and seeing it again inspires me to try something a little more organic like this. Maybe I'll make a small one for a joy journal cover! Yes...that's exactly what I'll do.

Rainbows

Tomorrow is Pride Day in Portland....so Patty and I are celebrating the rainbows in our yards. 

I adore her parade of rainbow pigs in her back yard! I grew up on a pig farm in Wisconsin so I have a penchant for pigs. And you know how I feel about rainbows.

And I love the rainbows at my front door. Patty gave me the vintage metal red laundry basket on the right.....it's now one of my favorite planters. 

All are welcome here!

I've been experimenting with lighter weight papers for cyanotype so I can cut things out easier. For this one I used one of my stencils on rice paper. My first try was a failure because it ripped apart when I rinsed it. The second time I treated it like tissue paper and left it on the glass while I CAREFUlLY rinsed the chemicals out...then let it dry right on the glass without touching it. Once it was dry it was easy to handle and cut. 

I mounted it on a page from one of my vintage manuscript books. 
I wondered if I should have fussy the lower part...but I kind of like the dark blue accent. 

She's Not Wrong!

Because I knew more blooms were coming...I picked the stem with my single Bowman's root bloom yesterday and made a few sun prints. Today I added watercolor. 

I think this may be one of my favorites.  I love the shades of layered blues....the light and airy plant with its single whimsical bloom...and the touch of watercolor. 

I think it captures the magic of this very handsome plant.

More of these to come! 

I texted these two photos to Alison this morning as part of our daily photo exchange and my caption read: Playing with my Bowman's root. Her response made me laugh out loud and had me chuckling all day:Sounds like the name of a botany inspired porno flick! 

She's not wrong!

I actually pressed a stem a few weeks ago when the buds were just forming and used it for my cyanotype session yesterday. The leaves were large....so the the white spaces were big and blocky. 

I paused on the patio this afternoon and did a little experiment using watercolor pencils this time to create today's rainbow. 

I use fairly inexpensive watercolor paper for my cyanotypes so it couldn't really take all the shading from the pencil's.  

The minute I started adding water to blend the colors I could tell I couldn't do too much or I would gum up the paper. The gold speckles seemed to help soften it a bit. 

So from now on....I'll stick with regular watercolor. I can't afford to use good paper. 

It's always a good day when there's time to pause and play a little on the patio.

Restraint?

It was one of those absolutely perfect spring days! I spent all morning outdoors walking and puttering in the gardens and tending the birds and feeders. Then I puttered indoors and even checked a few pesky chores things off the list. I love days like this!

Can I go the whole month sharing some sort of rainbow spectrum I encounter or create each day? I think I can! Especially in June. 

There are times I should show some restraint with the gold splatters. But then again....maybe not! Sometimes they work out better than other times. This was a failed background  texture experiment....so I made up for it in splatters. 

And it looks better trimmed up and mounted. It was too big for one of my cards...so I mounted it on a 5 x 7 piece of cardstock. I wonder if it can be mailed as a post card?

Along with my puzzle gang.....I'm celebrating this fabulous explosion of rainbow color. This Asian Oil-paper Umbrella puzzle was engaging from start to finish. And now I get to start another one!

Prime Real Estate

I didn't have to look very far on my camera roll to find a rainbow. June is for rainbows. 

Until the Winslow Farm stand fills with vegetables...my cards get front and center prime real estate. They are currently selling plants...both flowers and vegetables outside and in their greenhouses. Sarah asked me if I would be interested in teaching a cyanotype class at their shot. Yes! I'm in. We are both going to think on it and

I wondered how a cyanotype print would look putting the sharpie words down FIRST...then the plant.  So I did a quick experiment with a maiden hair fern today....I like the texture it creates! 

I'm going to play around with a fine tip marker with smaller writing...and maybe even some India ink. 

This is one of those times I wish my handwriting was better. I may have better luck with asemic writing. 

Talking It Through

Right next to October....June is one of my very favorite months and I'm going to celebrate it all month long. But I guess that's mostly what I do the other 11 months....so I'll just carry on.

What I love about June...and some of what I'll be celebrating:

It's Pride month! So there will be plenty of rainbows. Image was found on Story People's Facebook Page.

The gardens are nearly in their full glory.

Purple shines in the June gardens.

There can be days that feel like summer...but chilly spring days are still possible. I actually like that! 

The new leaves on the trees still have that spring green glow.

The start of long stretches on the patio watching the birds and celebrating the season. 

Kelly came over yesterday to talk through some ideas for a cyanotype lesson for her students. They are talking about shadows and how our feelings and thoughts are sometimes suppressed...and in the shadows. She knew she wanted to incorporate cyanotype because of the need for light...but wanted a way to tie the process in even more. 

I suggested incorporating in some writing....actual  handwriting or asemic writing that stood for thoughts and feelings but not readable. So we gave it a try.

Kelly wrote down some her thoughts on a piece of acetate with a black sharpie. We placed a pressed meadow rue leaf down first...than after about 10 seconds of processing we placed the writing down and topped it off with a piece of plexiglass to hold it all down tightly. 

It worked well. Students could find their own plants or use some other shape as a focal point that has some meaning to them. 

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Just to see if it would work....we tried it again with words layered on words. The thinking is that negative thoughts could be overshadowed by the positive thoughts.  We liked the way you can see through most of the letters...giving it a nice effect....and some interesting symbolism. 

I'm already thinking about how I can apply this to my own cyanotype art.

I gave Kelly a UV lamp for her birthday and she played around with it a bit more when she got home trying out different pens. It was so good to talk it through with each other...and will set us both in motion.