Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Cool Stuff: Cyanotype Fabric

Photo from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts

If you've been reading for awhile, you know that I'm not exactly the craftiest chick on the block. But my daughter showed me this project from her beloved and already dog-eared copy of Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts, and even I was tempted to give it a try.

Martha (or, more accurately, Martha's army of people) used fabric that had been specially treated to become photo-sensitive to create textile cyanotypes, which were then used to recover a pair of chair seats.

Photo from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts

Simply choose an object or set of objects you'd like to silhouette, lay them on the fabric, expose the fabric to the sun for a few minutes, and rinse in water to permanently set the image. Then use the resulting print to cover chair seats, sew up a throw pillow or table runner, stretch and staple around a canvas for instant fabric art, or for any number of other simple projects.

The cotton fabric is from Blue Sunprints, and costs $16 per yard.

P.S. For a similar effect on paper, check out the Sunprint Kit (a small set is $6 at the Curiosity Shoppe, or you can pick up a large set for $13 right here). I bought the paper as another gift for my creative daughter, and am planning to frame a collection of beautiful fern frond prints she made with it.

6 comments:

lotta said...

very cool. I am inspired. thank you for sharing.

Kim J. said...

i love this. i used to have a sunprint kit when i was a kid. i still have one of that i did. i am very excited it is back!

Cute_Anarchy said...

That is really neat! And not actually all that expensive for a yard of fabric. Thanks for posting, I'm going to have to try this.

So funny we were JUST talking about that paper & playing with it as kids.

Carlene said...

This is a great DIY!! I am going to have to check this out for myself as well.

http://itsheavenly.blogspot.com

lindsey said...

oh. my. god.

thank you.

Lucy C said...

Thanks for sharing - what a great idea for a DIY project. now I just need to find a supplier in the UK - if anyone knows of one I'd love to hear about it.

 

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