Divergent Practice

In my Creative Enquiry project, I am exploring the texture and detail of flowers in 3D and I am making botanical plaster and clay tiles. For my Divergent Practice, I would like to further my exploration but focus on working in 2D, primarily in print. I think the best print processes for picking up fine detail are photographic printing methods using a negative image carrier, such as cyanotype printing or dark room printing. I would also like to explore other print methods such as relief printing. I will get my inspiration from nature and will document my walks that I have been taking throughout the lockdown.

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In my Divergent Practice, I furthered explored my concept for my Creative Enquiry project. At the start of the project, I was exploring the ephemeral, capturing the texture and detail of flowers I picked up along my daily walks in clay so that their form could be preserved. For my divergent practice, I wanted to continue exploring the ephemeral but working primarily in print. 

Using seaweed collected on my walk on the beach, I worked with photographic print processes (cyanotype printing and collograph printing) to capture their unique texture and shapes. I was inspired by my artists research which I have included within this blog, and I also was inspired by being in nature as it was my main way of staying sane during lockdown! 

Throughout the project I came across obstacles due to not being allowed to travel to collect more seaweed and plant samples and not having printmaking studio access, which meant I could not do as much as I would have liked, for example I would have liked to try screenprinting and dark room photography. However, I feel I do have some strong prints showing many different designs which I would like to frame and display as part of my degree show. 

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Finished Piece Cyanotype Printed Cushion

Although I think my cyanotype worked well framed I thought the fabric material could be better put to use. I think it works really well as a cushion and as a one of a kind piece that is unique to my experience of my walk on Gullane beach and this cushion reminds me of that day. I would love to cyanotype print onto fabric in the future and make other soft furnishings, as I really enjoyed the process and the results I got. I would also love to work with seaweed in the future too as I’m really fascinated by their diverse forms and beautiful shapes, which I feel this final piece captures well. 

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I turned the cyanotype fabric face down and began sewing the sides. When three sides were sewn, I turned the case inside out and inserted a cushion before sewing the final side.

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Making my final piece cushion cover

I started out by cutting my cyanotype printed fabric and a plain piece of fabric into a square, and placing my cyanotype face down on top of the plain fabric so that I could begin sewing the sides to make my cushion cover.

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Endless Blue Framed linen cyanotype print

I have framed it in a simple black square frame which I think works well with the design. 

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Wrung out and hung to fully dry. I have never cyanotype printed onto fabric before and I love the results. I may turn it into a cushion cover but In think it would work well framed too.

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Rinsing my cyanotype in the sink

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For my final piece, I chose to cyanotype print onto fabric. I soaked a white linen tablecloth in sensitiser and dried in a darkened closet. I then exposed the image onto the linen using a UV exposure unit and my collected seaweed. The above image was taken immediately after exposure and before rinsing in water. 

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I made extra use of my collected seaweed for my Creative Project in which I am making botanical clay tiles. I first made a mould by pressing my seaweed into air drying clay, and then casting these final tiles from my moulds. I think this process is in a way a form of relief printing, so I have included them here.

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I experimented with my collograph plates by running through the printing press before inking them to create these paper embossings. I like the effect and want to try this again on a larger scale 

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Finished collographs

I produced around 20 collograph prints in this studio session and I think they turned out well! They would work well as individually framed prints but I also would like to scan these and make them into a booklet similar to Teagan White’s zine

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Using my seaweed, I made collograph plates using cardboard and sealing it using many layers of pva glue. Once the plates had hardened, I inked them using etching ink and wiped off the excess with a piece of scrim. I then ran them through the printing press with dampened paper to create my prints. 

Using this process I was able to pick up the fine detail of the seaweed and create different effects depending on the amount of ink on the plate, as shown above.

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Endless Blue Set of 3 cyanotypes

I used a sensitiser kit which I sourced from amazon to coat my paper, which I then exposed the image of my collected seaweed on to using a UV exposure unit. 

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Gullane beachcombing haul

A selection of seaweeds in a range of colours and forms. They are beautifully shaped and can be used in a variety of photographic print applications to enhance their unique shape.

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Collecting artefacts

Walking trip to Gullane Beach, East Lothian. I walked along the beach and collected seaweed and shells that had washed up on the shore. 

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Page by page view

Every page of Atkin’s cyanotype book available via the Natural History Museum, London.

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Blue prints: photography pioneer Anna Atkins's hand-crafted images – in pictures

Victorian botanist Anna Atkins brought nature to life with her striking, modern-looking cyanotypes of seaweed and algae

Anna Atkins was a Victorian era botanist and avid algae collector who learned of early photographic techniques through her scientist father. Disappointed by the lack of illustrations in an 1841 Guide to British Algae, she employed the cyanotype process to create her own illustrations, captioned with the genus names, which she hand bound into a 307 page book. The book is the first ever to be printed and illustrated by photography. One of the few copies existing is held at London’s Natural History Museum. 

I am in love with Anna Atkin’s book, it’s almost hard to believe it’s from the Victorian era as it looks very contemporary. Atkin’s work has inspired me to use the cyanotype process with my own collected seaweed to create photographic prints.