Cyanotype Prints

My granddaughter was here yesterday and we had a lot of fun working on the Cyanotype silk scarves I had ordered from Freestyle Photographic supplies.  They were $18 each, but I found out they are $2 less when you order directly thru www.bluesunprints.com.  The scarves are 9" x 54" in size and come in white, fuchsia, and lime green. If you want yellow, you run the scarf thru a rinse of a phosphate detergent like Tide, All, or even TSP.   The design left on the scarf would be that particular color I just mentioned, and the rest of the scarf would remain blue.

Our first step was to figure out the design.  We had combed the house the night before looking for ideas and 'things' to place on the scarf for a design.  We mostly went with plant leafs and flowers, but we also added other objects such as:  Chinese coins (some were transparent), blown glass 'blobs' for lack of a better word, an animal cut out, feathers came out pretty cool too.  I used a knotted yarn for a border which came out pretty cool surprisingly enough.  We did find out that smaller or thin twigs didn't come out as well.  We still need to do some more testing on what to use.  We decided to stick to 'themes' and go from there.  Bluesunprints.com does give you ideas, like cutouts of images, downloaded images printed on clear plastic such as sheet protectors, and of course negatives.

Next we ironed the scarf to remove some of the wrinkles from being packaged.  Then I put together some cardboard to fit the length of the scarf in order to stabilize it so we could place our objects (because later you move your piece of 'artwork' outside in the sun).   We used tack pins to hold the scarf down  I'm telling you all of these steps as we did not find any videos on the Internet, including YouTube, demonstrating the scarf process. Next we wait 10-15 minutes for the sun to do it's trick on the scarf.  I would suggest you do this process on a non-windy day.  We had a little breeze once in a while and we had to re-position some of the pieces back on to the scarf.

After time is up, bring in the scarf, remove the pieces, and rinse under cold water until the water runs clear.  Hang to dry and then press.  They came out really cool I must say.  We are planning on wearing them today, or as my granddaughter said, "...they're art, and we're going to an art gallery!".

Dick Blick Art Supplies

Perusing thru the Dick Blick catalogue www.dickblick.com (now that I have a gift certificate!), I found the Strathmore cards that I'm out of.  It's more economical to buy the box of 50 v. 10 pack.  If you buy the 10 pack locally you will pay around $8.  The 50 pack is $19.00.  I'm also finding that their wood and metal ready-made frames are a great deal also.  Less than Aaron Bros., as well as Delta Mat & Moulding.  I'm not sure why I didn't order from them before.

Dick Blick also carries the brand Krystal Clear bags for storage of your individual cards as well as for matted prints.  I remember I did have a problem with this particular brand in that one of the sizes didn't quite fit the artwork.  However, I usually buy my bags from www.clearbags.com.  You get a pack of 100 for the card size for $7.00!!!  Their west coast supplier just happens to be over in Placerville.  I've never been over there, but I probably should do the drive and save the $15 shipping charges.  I have another artist friend who said she would be interested in going over there with me sometime.  I'll have to take her up on that.  In regards to mounting your photo onto the Strathmore card, artists can get really wrapped up in the 'special glue' to use and various other processes, placing them in between books to set, etc.  I've been through all those and the bottom line is:  two sided acid free tape works perfectly!!  Quit wracking your brain over it.

Photography Contests

Between things going well, and then the weather not so well...we had snow, it was a long weekend.  I am not a fan of the snow, but luckily it was only 3 inches worth and it was gone by 1:00 p.m.  That was Sunday.

I have been cutting mats off and on and that's about it.  I promptly hand carried my two entries to City Hall on Saturday.  When I got home I told my husband, "My stuff paled in comparison to other entries!"  I mean there were some very large format size artworks lining the walls.  We were told if you get a phone call by 8:00 p.m. tonite, that means we are calling you to tell you your work was selected.  So 8:00 p.m. and beyond comes and no phone call.  I figured as much.  The next morning I go back into town and there's a sign on the door that says something about the photography.  I walk in and I said I'm here to pick up my artwork.  And she says, oh did you see the sign on the door.  I said, yeah, sort of .  Well, we had to split up the show into two groups since there was an outpouring of photographers!!  So the photography will  be in a separate show in July and August.  So does that mean my photography was selected?  I mean, come on, am I in or what?? ; )  Yes you are in.  Just bring back your two pieces the first part of July.  We will also be sending out an email to remind you.  So, to make a long story short, this is why I don't do contests.  It's too much emotional ups and downs, photography (or any artwork for that matter) is subjective to whomever is looking at it, admiring it, or judging it.  Too much chaos for me.

Sunday was also High Hand Gallery's Artful Sunday, so after picking up my artwork from City Hall, I headed over to the gallery and helped out setting up.  Considering that the weather went everywhere from rain downpours, to a little bit of sunshine, to hail, and back to overcast, we had quite a few people braving the elements to come out and visit our gallery.  We had live music, candle making and car stamping classes going on too.  I was there taking photos for our Facebook page.  I got home just in time to see it start to snow again!  Ugh!  It didn't last long though.

Today I'm working on paperwork for High Hand Gallery.  Oh, by the way, I lost my address book last Friday, and in the process of tearing my studio apart looking for it, I found a $150 gift card to Dick Blick I got two years ago and totally forgot about!  Some good things happened this weekend!  I need to order some supplies! ; )

Portrait Photography

Still cutting mats, and still finding ?? prints I had printed out and forgot what drawer I put them in!  Hah!  This just gets more fun as time passes on.  When you're not sure of a printed image - as to whether or not you liked the paper you printed it on, or was it worthy of being printed, it's a good idea to just leave it alone for a while and then go back to it.  I wasn't sure if the Velvet Fine Art Paper was the right choice for one of my black and white digital images of the hillside of Oia on Santorini.  Now I look at it, and I'm thinking...wow, not so bad after all.

I've always enjoyed portrait photography and I like to do it in the individual's home or space they are comfortable in.  I like spontaneous.  If I were to do it in my studio I would have to move a lot of furniture around which wouldn't be so easy.  What I'm getting at is I'm getting in the mood to do that.  Just black and white film, black back drop, subtle lighting.  Now I need to find a guinea pig! ; )  Here's a funny story I've never shared.  I did a boudoir shoot for my girlfriend years ago.  She wanted to surprise her husband for their anniversary.  So I load up on film, we're using my four poster bamboo bed and also I had several Shoji screens as back drops.  She would change into different outfits as we went along.  I'd tell her what poses and she would have some of her own.  It was very casual and spontaneous, and took about an hour and a half.  We were laughing and having a good time.  When we got done, I told her I think we got it!  Your husband's going to love these!  Then I said, "Dang, why do I feel like I need a cigarette!!"  Too much!

Celebrity photographer Jerry Avenaim did a color photo spread on Jeff Bridges in the Rangefinder Magazine two years ago.  I just loved those.  They were mostly of the face and shoulders, different facial expressions, mostly black background, subtle lighting, very simplistic and yet striking.

Here's the black and white Oia, Santorini image I was referring to.  Now, back to mat cutting!!

 

Double Mats

Rain, rain, rain, and more rain!  That's good, just not good for satellite reception!  However, Hughesnet was having a bigger problem, mainly the satellite.  We had no Internet for most of the day.  When we did get reconnected, I spent most of my time uploading the images to the High Hand Gallery's Facebook page.  Just now it took me forever to just sign on to my Google blog.  IT gadgets and gimmicks can fill up one's day and you're still not getting anything accomplished!

So as I'm cutting mats the last couple of days, I'm showing them to my hubby for his input.  His take was that I need to cut double mats and do the photos justice!  Grrrrrrr, that 's not what I wanted to hear.  Dangit I hate cutting double mats - it's HARD!  To make a long story short I bought four more colors of mat board yesterday.  I'm still working on them.

Monday I finished up my gelatin silver print of the Mountain Quarries RR Bridge for the Centennial contest.  At least I thought I had, and again my husband says right off the bat, "...that frame doesn't do it justice."  Just like that.  "You need to frame it in just a black frame."  And then he leaves.  Hhhhmmm.  So I change out the frame to a plain black anodized metal frame v. the rustic brown and black wood frame.  I have to admit, it does look crisper.

I'm going back to cutting mats for the time being.  This image from Oia, Santorini is one that I am cutting an under mat of white, then an over mat of gray that matches the gray in the photo.

Re-sizing, Uploading!

This morning and up until about an hour ago I was still working on those photos for the High Hand Gallery.  Re-sizing them for Facebook, and also re-sizing to be used for postcard size!  The uploading them to FB is the real pain.  Did I mention we have satellite??  Oh, yes, I did.  I gave up and will try early in the morning.  That seems to be the better time for it, unless it's raining and storming which is what's supposed to happen tomorrow.

I switched back to my toned darkroom prints and pressed them in the dry mount press for good measure.  They came out just the way I was hoping.  I have yet to dry mount my darkroom prints.  Hinging them seems to be working so far.  Sometimes I use the clear corner mounts.  Got the mat cut and just happened to have a vintage-looking frame for this historical image of the Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge.  I'm still going to let the image dry overnight before I put it together - just for good measure.

Now since I have so many of my European prints completed from a couple weeks ago I'm going to start cutting mats this afternoon.  That should be soothing - cutting mats and listening to Tony Bennett! ; )  Then maybe switch over to Louis Prima to wake me up!!

Berg's Brown/Copper Toning Solution

I mixed my newly delivered toner this morning and am going to tone a couple prints of the No Hands Bridge.  I'm heading into the darkroom shortly.  If you haven't tried any of the toning solutions - it's not that hard.  Before I get started I will have to re-soak my prints as they were developed and dried last week.  They will soak for 10 minutes, then they will be ready to immerse into the toner.  I want an antique look to the print, so I will only keep them in the toner for 30 seconds.  Previously I had done test strips at various times so I would have something to go by.  I'll head in there as soon as I finish writing.

This morning I headed down to the High Hand Gallery as I needed to take some photos of all the new artwork for our Facebook page, as well as for the upcoming cards that are mail out to our patrons.  The gallery has been changed out as of last Wednesday and it really looks great.  We have a couple of new artists too.  this month's theme is "Spring Forward".  It took me a good hour to get numerous shots:  close-ups of the individual artwork; group wall shots; and also got a couple of some of the visitors at the gallery today.  Because I'm height-challenged, I use a ladder sometimes to get a full on look at the artwork.  Some of the shots are taken with and then without a flash.  It's better to take the photos during the day when the sun is out - it wasn't out today, but it wasn't night time either.  More light gets in there during the day.  Now I get to download the photos onto the computer and start working on them, posting them to FB, and sending them to the other gallery members who require them!