Evolution of a Collage

 After creating cyanotype prints and background papers, the final step of the retreat workshop was creating our collage.  Below is a short video of Sue's process, what she started with and where it ended up.  You'll notice that some pieces come and go, others change placement.  Believe it or not, this represents about a day and a half of working/re-working to come up with the final composition!  Of course, that included instruction and demos from Lesley as well as time to enhance/alter some of the pieces used.

Funny story, after deciding on the placement of things, Sue discovered that she was working on a piece of paper that was 2 inches too tall and had to condense everything to fit it in before starting to glue to the foundation!  The video below is the process for gluing everything to the foundation paper.  Then it gets glued to a canvas board, and then finally mounted on a cradle board.  The final mounting for this piece remains on the "to do" list.

Hope you enjoyed our recap of the botanical collage retreat! 

Altering Cyanotype Prints

 At the Red Thread Retreat, we enjoyed learning ways to alter our cyanotype images by using different chemicals and techniques. Serendipity is also a big part of the process. Even though you change things up from a traditional blue and white cyanotype print, you never know what you will get when you start adding other components to the experiment.  There is a lot you also don't have control over such as the amount of sunshine, the humidity and the angle of the sun.  You can somewhat control other additives to the botanicals placed in your design.

To end up with the image above, a piece of watercolor paper which had been treated with the Jacquard Cyanotype chemicals was used. Once the botanicals were added some turmeric and then Ferrous Sulfate was sprinkled around the edges of the plants.  The very interesting results on the left of the paper was from a leaf that had many holes in it having fallen on a gravel parking lot and been run over by cars.  The piece was also lightly misted with a vinegar and water solution.

For an October day we were fortunate to have warm temperatures hoovering in the high 70s to 81 with lots of sunshine so the paper. with plants and chemicals incased under a piece of glass, sat out in the sunshine of the parking area for at least half a day to "cook".

When the botanical materials were removed, the image looked like this but it still needed rinsing off in cool water to remove all the chemicals.  Before rinsing it looked like this:

The development process can still continue for a day or so, the final image looks like this now.  It might get cut up to put into a new collage and likely that geode looking area on the left will be a highlight of a new piece.

Botanical Collage Retreat

Two years ago we signed up for a Red Thread Retreat with Lesley Riley - master of cyanotype printing, modern botanicals, inventor of TAP (Transfer Artist Paper).   We were really excited to learn from her and create a botanical collage.  Then COVID hit, and the May 2020 retreat had to be cancelled.  After several attempts at rescheduling through 2020 and 2021, it was finally scheduled for the end of September.  So last week we spent 4 days immersed in art at the Rhodes Grove Retreat Center in Chambersburg, PA.  

Full disclosure: being fiber artists, we both thought we would be working with fabric in this workshop, and didn't realize till a few weeks before that it would be mostly paper, so what ensued was both of us making some last minute cyanotype prints on paper that we could take with us to the workshop.  Most were done on watercolor paper, some on coffee filters which were ironed flat.

We spent the first 2 days making cyanotype prints and learning to create background papers - "rusted" papers by toning, mineral papers by adding assorted chemicals, and lightening prints in a washing soda solution. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and it was warm and sunny - perfect conditions for cyanotype printing.

These are some of the cyanotypes we both did at the retreat.

Above, Lesley demonstrates how to use the toning solutions which included black tea, an iron solution, and a caustic soda solution.  The papers dipped in these solutions were plain papers, not coated with the cyanotype solution.  Below. are some of Elizabeth's prints "cooking" out in the sun.

Speaking of cooking, the food at the retreat center was delicious!  And abundant!  We ate more than we needed to, but it was all so good!  Kudos to the kitchen staff, they excelled at their job.  All our time was spent in the main building, where we had class in a very large conference room, meals in the basement dining room, and sleeping rooms in the adjacent wing.  It was the perfect set-up.  If your group is ever looking for a location for a retreat, be sure to check out Rhodes Grove.

Stay tuned for more posts sharing our retreat adventures.