Friday Inspiration - Cyanotype Fabric Printing

Printing on fabric treated with cyanotype chemicals has always fascinated me - I've dabbled in it a bit, but never really explored it more than that.  With all the plant life returning, I'm getting several ideas using cyanotype printing - hopefully I'll have something to show you in a week or two!

So what is it?  Cyanotype is coating a surface with certain chemicals that when exposed to light make a blue-tinted photographic image.  It's been around a long, long time .... British scientist Sir John Herschel invented the process in 1842 and it was one of the main photographic processes used until the early 1900's when black and white photographic prints became more popular.

British artist Anna Atkins was one of the early users of cyanotype, creating this piece between 1851 and 1854.

You can paint the cyanotype chemicals on a wide range of objects - paper and fabric are mainly used.  I'm especially interested in using the process with fabric!  I've shown this piece of Lotta Helleberg's before, cyanotype fabric pieces put together into a quilt.  This is something along the line of what I'm thinking of working on - I just need to do a little more research into how this type of piece could be laundered.

Entanglement, cyanotype appliqued onto linen and hand stitched, 2016.

detail of the above work

See more of Lotta's work here.

Lynette Miller is an artist who works in several mediums, cyanotype being one.  I love the way light works in this print of hers made with old bottles:

And these are fun gift tags:

See more of her work on her blog here.

Arizona artist Annie Lopez uses the cyanotype prints she makes to create clothing sewn from vintage patterns.

You can see more of her work and read about her in this article from Images Arizona here and the Phoenix New Times here.

Happy Creating!  Deborah