Sun Print Hoops

It's been a while since I wrote a post. I have been quite busy at both the studio and at home and have sadly have neglected the blog.
I did so want to share this project that we did at camp last week. Look at these sweet sun prints on fabric. These cyanotypes are a combination of art and science and can be so fun to do with kids as young as 3.  In order to make fabric light sensitive you need to paint it with a Solar Fast liquid. It does come in a few colors, blue, red and orange I think. We used blue.

             

 

Materials

1. An embroidery hoop- You can use any size. These would be so beautiful using a large hoop. 

       2. White fabric larger than the hoop

       3. Light sensitive liquid

       4. Natural materials. 

       5. A tray or plate to put your hoop and fabric on. 

We give the students baskets and a pair of scissors and head out into the neighborhood to collect our natural materials. We encourage the children to look for different shapes of leaves and long grasses to make designs. We then head back to the studio and pour the leaves onto the table to look at them and decide what kind of design to make on the fabric.

Prepare your wash bath by following instructions on the bottle. You will need to wash your fabric after it has developed. It both washes away the chemicals and makes your fabric light safe.

Place the fabric onto your tray or plate. The amazing thing about this liquid is that it's only sunlight sensitive so you (or your child) can paint the liquid onto the fabric under tungsten or florescent light. Then place the hoop onto the fabric and use the leaves and grasses to create a design of your choice. Many of our students made faces using the materials and many created patterns.

Once the pattern is chosen and placed onto the fabric, carry the tray out into the sun and count to 30. You can see the fabric turn blue before your eyes. There are a lot of OOOOOOOs and AAAHHHS from the kids at this point. Once developed, walk the tray back inside and place in your prepared bath. The fabric just needs to be in the wash for a few minutes and then rinsed under warm water.

I then ironed the pieces of fabrics and we placed them into the embroidery hoops. I trimmed off the extra but you could also hot glue the excess fabric to the back edge of the hoop.

These would make fantastic gifts and are really fun to make.