Fun Summer Craft Project with Children

Now that the sun's coming out a little more :) here's a fun DIY art project.  They're called cyanotypes or sun prints and they're based on an early photographic process using chemicals on paper.

They couldn't be easier to make  - you just need the right paper (we sell gift packs at the store) and sunlight and water and a little imagination.  Here I placed some plants on the paper and exposed them to sunlight for a couple of minutes.....the timing can be a little tricky.  If you leave it on too long, you'll overexpose the image.  You want to wait until the paper goes light, light blue.

                             

Then you put the paper in a water bath for a couple more minutes......

 At first it might not look like much but let it dry and flatten out the paper.....everything goes a dark cyan blue....hence the name cyanotype....

 I like to write on my pages with a white jellyroll pen that stands out nice and sharp against the blue. 

Here's what the packs of paper look like.

 Click here should you like to go to google images and look at other cyanotypes.  And click here to read about Anna Atkins, one of the earliest photographers who made beautiful cyanotypes of British Algae.  And thanks to Geninne Zlatskis and her great blog for first getting me interested in these.