grammatjr

Cyanotype is basically how they used to do blueprints for architectural drawings. The paper (or fabric) is treated with chemicals that are photo sensitive. You must hide the fabric in darkness until you are ready to print. Once it sees light, it begins to develop (think of a photographers darkroom and how the pics develop - same thing, really).

The company (http://www.blueprintsonfabric.com/) I buy my fabrics from sells the pretreated fabrics, or you can buy just the chemicals and treat your own fabric.

You can lay items on the fabric, and if it is solid and tight against the fabric (imagine a block of wood), no light will get to the fabric, so it will remain the color of the fabric. If it has rounded edges (imagine a ball), then the edges will be sort of fuzzy as there will be some indirect light that will get to it. Any areas which receive light will turn cyan blue - real bright blue. What is hidden from light will remain white if the original fabric before treating was white.

It is funny, when you get the treated white fabric, it is bright chartreuse green. You expose it to light, and it changes to confederate gray. You rinse out the excess chemical, and it becomes bright blue. You can do a couple more steps to remove the blue, and it goes pale yellow, almost all white, then one more step, and it can become brown! It is so fun!

There is a great book by Barbara Hewitt http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Fab...2922433&sr=8-4 that I learned from. She makes fabrics for clothing as well.

For the photos, I make a negative print of the photo, then have Kinkos copy it onto transparancy film (like the teacher uses for overhead projector presentations).