Rescued

I saw a version of this idea using layers of ferns as a trees on line and wanted to give it a try. I think the concept is a winner...and I hope to make a batch of Christmas cards. I will never grow tired of making sun prints.

Back when I was putting together torn paper collage supplies for Lily....I made several tags as floral collage samples. I punched the backgrounds out of different heavy weight papers including one from a not-so-great cyanotype.

I wish I had a photo of the original tag....but the print was washed out...and as I glued on the torn papers the surface of the inexpensive watercolor paper started to peel. So it got set aside....but not thrown away.

I just came across it again and wondered if I could somehow rescue it. Turns out I could!

I painted over the parts of the washed out print with an inky blue watercolor to intensify the color and help conceal the peeled parts. I added some gold and outlined the flowers and leaves with a black pen. I actually love it now.

The back is a cyanotype print from a stencil...that I also outlined.   

 

From the start of this rescue....I had in my mind that it was make a fun next tag for my Tag Project 2.0. Nope! 

But I had used my tag punch...which is a different size and shape than the tags for my project. I'm not sure the flow would have been right anyway. So now I have a rescued little tag for just the right gift or journal.

I like the concept of outlined collage flowers on a cyanotype background. And painting in washed out backgrounds will be a good way to rescue some reject cyanotype prints! 

I'm calling this rescue a win win!

Be Like Ray

I dried some of the seaweed I picked up this summer and made this cyanotype print. The second and third layers didn't come through very well....so I'll be trying it again. I love the unexpected subject matter of seaweed....it's so Maine.

I'm going to be working on cards throughout the fall and winter for the garden shop next spring. Some may end up in the mail...but most will go into my stock in support of Maine Needs.

This was a print from the wet fresh seaweed this summer. Kind of magical don't you think! 

For those of you new to the blog....my sister-in-law Alyson and I text a photograph or two every day to each other....and we've been doing it for years. Our shares are often a montage of nature photos from our day with other little nuggets of joy mixed in...and it's a wonderful way for us to connect. 

I sometimes share them here too....but not always...but I had to share this one from Alyson....it made me smile all day long. 

She met Ray as he helped her cross the street in a busy construction zone. His smile...and his hat caught her attention and she asked his permission to take his photo. She said it was clear that he was pretty tickled with himself and his hat....and I'm pretty tickled with him too.

It's going to be a long weekend as we head into next week's election. Let's be like Ray....and be a ray of f%&#@ing sunshine!

The postcards on our fridge that give me hope. Please vote!

Moonrise?

if 

peace

had

an 

address.

it

would

be

somewhere

between

the moon

&

the trees.

@reviveyouroar

There are always more questions than answers.

We had a delightful dinner with Dana and Anne last evening at their Portland condo overlooking Casco Bay. We were able to watch the slightly waining full moon rise over the bay....and we could actually see it move. Or could we? 

Can the moon....actually rise? Or is the earth doing all the moving?

Dana has come to think about it as the earth rolling over....and we had quite a lively discussion about what is actually happening.

But I like the sound of a moonrise.....so I'm sticking with that. 

And somewhere between the moon & the trees is peace.

There are always more more questions than answers...and we all had lots of questions. But more important than any answers is that we were fully present while laughing...wondering....and watching a nearly full moon appearing to rise over the bay. It was spectacular....and felt like peace.

Clean and Simple

It is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything. Winston Churchill

That's how I feel sometimes this time of year as I anticipate a quiet winter and everything I want to do in the studio. But had a couple nice walks and did more garden cleanup today and most of the screens are washed. So that's something! 

I'm not sure if I shared this print before...I painted it several weeks ago and just turned it into a card to get in the mail....and that's something too. 

I love the simple layers of leaves...and just a touch of soft green watercolor. I tucked the print into a Michaels pre-made frame card and stitched around edge. It's clean and simple and in the mail as a thank you note to Bill and Kaki.

I don't know what I love more about this moment on my morning walk....the frosty edge of the vivid red leaf...or the shadows. Clean and simple joy!

Pin Oak 101

Dotty commented on yesterday's post that she didn't know the difference between a pin oak and other oaks. I only know a little bit....so I looked it up. 

This is the pin oak in our front yard.....and I stand corrected because it actually has rich shades of yellow and orangey/red. Not bright like the maples...but still beautiful in an understated kind of way. 

Pin oaks are medium sized deciduous trees. The top branches point up...the middle branches point outward....and the lower branches point downward. Their leaves are smaller and deeply cut with sharp points....and they can be a little wonky. Which I love.

I found this online...and thought it was very helpful! 

We have a lot of Northern Red Oak in the woods....and they turn a bit yellow then straight to brown and the leaves are large and chunky.

For the second year in a row....we have virtually no acorns in woods and the backyard. Most years I rake and shovel them up by the bucket.

The acorns provide food for the squirrels and deer in the winter....so we're a bit concerned. But a few years ago we had a HUGE crop of acorns...it's called a Mast Year. I read that sometimes it takes a year or two for the trees to rest and recover from a Mast Year!

I have a great amount of respect for that....and so glad the tree knows to rest.

I did this watercolor in a bit of a hurry....so I'm not sure I love it. But I had to get it out of my head. I like the concept....but I know I can do better. 

Once it's good a dry...I may work the green leaves a bit more....maybe add red dots....or maybe they need a little white. 

This is cheap watercolor paper...so if I work it too much when it's wet...the top layer scrapes off. The paper is great for once and done....so I have to get it right enough the first time. And the price is right for my mass cyanotype printing sessions.

The boys are coming for dinner....so I'm a bit preoccupied! There is always joy in the house then the boys are here.

I wasn't very patient...and did a quick sketchy solution late this afternoon.

It's better....but I think I can still do better. More pin oak prints to come.

Artistic License

I needed a few cards to send....so I had a cyanotype session yesterday. My main goal was to play around with some small pin oak leaves from our front yard in honor of the season. Ironically enough...pin oaks generally go from green straight to brown...but I took some artistic license and gave them more color. 

As I look at these photos...I realize they are different prints. I did several...so I have more to paint And aren't the blues are so much prettier in natural light.

Everything changed when I splattered the gold.....it seemed to bring the print it to life! 

One card ready to go!

  

No Surprise

You don't have to do everything. Just do the next thing.

It's probably no surprise that I picked up the seaweed for a cyanotype experiment. I was completely inspired by prints I saw on Instagram by cyanokai.......and I knew I needed to give it a try.

This one was my favorite prints so far.

The seaweed I picked up was quite different than hers....but I got some interesting results. There is a little bit of translucency in the plants....and I worked with it wet giving even more texture and interest.

I'm going to be keeping my eye out for interesting seaweed and kelp when I'm at the coast. I love how wonky and irregular it is.

Embracing Imperfection

The most well adjusted people are constantly adjusting!

I purchased a pack of 5 x 7 tea bag papers knowing they would be a sturdy substrate for cyanotypes. 

I've printed on tea bags before....and it worked really well. Roseanne is the one who gifted me the bags...so I printed her this little tea bag filled with cyanotype snippets. 

You can read about Roseanne's teabag here:
https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2024/07/tea-bag-project.html

I made several others at the time that I gifted here and there.

When I coated my papers I used a few of the tea bag papers to blot up the solution. from my work surface. No blogs of solution should go wasted. When the papers were dry I put ferns on both sides all sandwiched between pieces of glass. Then I processed it on both sides yesterday outside in the sun.

I think it made a fun print with really interesting texture.

I did the same thing with some meadow rue leaves. When I held it to the light I can see the plants on both sides. The two sided teabag paper will make a pretty page in a journal.

I was compelled to make a tag. I started by glueing a piece of this meadow rue print onto a tag....and decided that would be the back. I wanted something more interesting  for the front and I wanted to transition to another color. Orange is the compliment to blue...so that's the direction I'm going. 

I cut an old Real Simple magazine title into strips and collaged them on for the background. Using recycled materials has been a theme on a couple cards.

The overlay flowers (which I don't love)  are cyanotypes on tissue.....so they collaged on easily and that kept the Prussian blue color going. I also added some gold speckles for more flow.

I should have left the back alone...but it was too close in design to last back with the blue and white blotchy paper. So at first I tried coloring the white spaces orange and I didn't like it at all. Thank goodness there is no photo.

I decided to go with the Japanese practice of Kintsugi where they fill cracks in pottery with gold embracing the imperfections. 

So I filled in the orange with gold paint....embracing the imperfection while also celebrating the blotches in the print. I actually like that there is still a hint of orange peeking through.

Deep Indigo Blue

Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity! 

I came across these pressed lavender stems in one of my pressing books. They were delicate and fragile and kept their color so well. They photographed so beautifully that this post could stop right here at the first photo....but I really wanted to make a sun print. 

The problems was....I was out of pretreated paper....but I did have had an envelope of smaller scraps that I keep on hand for printing bookmarks. 

I placed the stems on one of the scraps...clipped on a piece of glass and set it on the front walkway....the only place I had direct sun at the time.

Then I got busy with other things and forgot about it until Paul reminded me. After what was at least an hour I had a deep indigo blue.....almost black.

The flowers had some dimension...so didn't lay completely flat on the paper under the glass leaving a bit of a shadow. Shadows often enhance an image.

I'm quite tickled with the print and learned a few lessons:

Process some prints a little longer!

Always have pretreated papers on hand.

Don't forget about the envelope of scraps!

The closeup shadowy detail is really special....almost etherial!

I'm smitten with this deep indigo blue print...I'll have to do something special with it. 

I did treat more papers in the garage. It's not a pretty process...but it's a necessary part of the process. And I made more blotted paper and coated a book page...stay tuned!

Better Than Expected

It's always fun when a cyanotype print comes out better than expected. I made this sun print from three layers of one of the the ferns by my front door. 

It's on lightweight but sturdy art paper and would fold into a beautiful journal cover! The blues on this particular paper always come out on the aqua end of the blue spectrum. 

When I went to trim up the prints for the cards I just delivered to the farm stand a few days ago...the cutoffs from the previous set were still on my cutting table. (I'm not very good a picking up after myself in the studio.) They were too pretty to throw away with all their pretty shades of blue and gold watercolor speckles....so I turned them into a tag.

I glued them down and trimmed up the edges....easy peasy. The Prussian blues flow nicely from the catalog page cutouts and I repeated a paper cut providing good flow and focal point. 

The back was an experiment where I blotted up the chemical solution onto rice paper. Once it was dry I put it in the sun and let the blotches process! No plants or stencils needed.     

  

The flow on the backs of the last two cards is better than expected too....which was pretty easy when working with just blues. But I am going to be more tuned into that going forward. 

Farm Store

I love finding these pops of color this time of year. 

It's still full on summer...but we're rounding the corner towards a season of change. 

Change is the only constant in life. 

It's always a good day when I go to the Winslow Farm store. Sarah and the staff are warm and welcoming and I always come home with colorful bag of veggies. Today I also made a delivery.

Sarah said she was down to one cyanotype card....so I scrambled over the past few days and stitched up another set of 12 cards and delivered them today.  

I didn't take any photos of the finished cards...but most of them came from this batch or prints I did about a month ago. I trimmed them up.....added watercolor and gold speckles to some...and all of them got stitched onto cards. 

This one was actually recently sent in the mail. I think meadow rue is one of my favorite leaf shapes. I'm going to make more of these.

    

Do you see the newly stocked wire stand on the back table. I love having my cards here and my portion of the sales goes towards much needed items for Maine Needs.

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.