Did You Know that the Sun Can Create Beautiful Fabric?

Look around your house and garage. Maybe even something as boring as a gasket can make a beautiful design in fabric.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? And maybe a gasket is a silly example, but how about the grill from a barbeque? Maybe some feathers, leaves, shafts of wheat, or even a design made with masking tape.

Pretty much anything will do, although the results are better if the object is flat and will hold still for 10-15 minutes. So, for example, a live halibut, although flat, probably wouldn't be a good choice for this kind of art.

But, back to our other examples - suppose you took 1/2" wide masking tape and made a plaid type of design with it, and could then turn that into the blue and white of a fabric design.

It's all very possible, and has been done for hundreds of years, thanks to Sir John Herschel. You see, Sir John was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, experimental photographer and inventor. He was also the father of 12 children and the son of Sir William Herschel, the famous astronomer.

In short, he was a brilliant, busy guy. And maybe as a method of entertaining one of his many children, he discovered that by soaking paper or cloth with the right chemicals, and then exposing it to the sun, he could create permanent images in a beautiful assortment of blue colors - thus the cyanotype, more commonly known as a blueprint, was born.

This was back in 1842, and quickly one of his neighbors used this new process to create art prints. It didn't take long for fabric artists to create fabric art using the same process, which we know as sunprints.

Sunprints are easy to make, and you don't even need to be a chemist to make one. And, you don't need to store any chemicals. It is easy to find pre-treated fabric to make your sunprint, yet the process is basically the same, and your result can look modern, or take on an antique look

The pre-treated fabric should come in special packaging that prevents it from being exposed to the light. Developing the "picture" on a sunprint is basically the same as developing a photograph - one of the old fashioned kind, that is. Digital photography is something different.

Basically, you create the design of your choice, using objects - toothpicks, pressed flowers, stencils of various types, even black and white photographs - then you place your design on top of the pre-treated fabric. If you can place a piece of glass on top of your design, it will make the images sharper. If the glass wobbles around, leave it off.

Once everything is set, you take your creation out into the sun and place it in direct sunlight. The length of time needed will vary according to the direction of the sun and the temperature. But 5-10 minutes on a warm, sunny day or 15-30 minutes on cooler days should be enough to make a good sunprint.

Once the blueprint has been exposed, remove the objects, rinse the fabric and then lay it flat to dry (out of the sun). After the fabric is dry, it is ready to use.

And how do you use it?

If you have created an overall design, you could cut the fabric up and use it in patches for your quilt.

Possibly you created a design with leaves and flowers that will make its own quilt block, and you can make a nature quilt.

When my son was in third grade, his class made sunprints and each one of the children got to take theirs home as a treasure. I didn't think of it at the time, but each of those could have been a block in a quilt presented to the teacher at the end of the school year.

Each quilter in your quilt group could contribute a sunprint block for a quilt. Sashing between the blocks, and an interesting border are enough to make a great quilt - maybe even something for a charity auction.

Sunprints are so fun and easy, every quilter should make at least one, even if it turns into nothing more than a simple wall hanging in a bathroom.

Rate Article

Related Videos
Play Video Rolling Star Quilt Block Pattern - Fabric Postcard	Play Video Spool Quilt Block	Play Video Lincoln's Hat Quilt Block

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Crafts Hobbies" article category.

People interested in the above article "Did You Know that the Sun Can Create Beautiful Fabric?" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

 

Obtaining Rare Coins: Where To Look

If you are interested in finding rare coins, for whatever reason, there are a few places in particular that you are going to want to keep on your list and make sure that you check out. These are places that you can trust to go shopping at for something as valuable as rare coins, and so you will never have to worry or think that you are going to get ripped off or get taken advantage of.

Inlay Design On Blanket Chests

Master wood craftsmen, usually known as cabinet makers, during the Early America Era, created blanket chests with very intricate designs. Beautifully crafted inlay design patterns on blanket chests was one of the sophisticated style choices.

Create a Memory Quilt for Your Wall

You could recreate pieces of clothing into a valuable artwork and a souvenir. This could be perhaps the greatest gift you could either give or get as a mother. You could easily create your memory quilts with the assistance of several local quilt shops. These offer quilt-making classes from beginning to the end, provided you already know the usage of a sewing machine. If sewing and quilting is not exactly your forte, these shops may help you to find someone who will allow you to help designing the quilt and create it too. Nothing can be more enjoyable then creating a unique memory quilt wall hanging. This quilting project is truly fulfilling.

The Serious Hobby of Autograph Collecting

The hobby of collecting autographs scaled to new heights of popularity during the 1980s. Earlier on it was only children who asked celebrities for their autographs. However, soon people from all age groups began to get interested in philography. Seeing the huge market potential of autographs as memorabilia, the dealers and celebrities started charging money for their signatures and a once innocent hobby became a commercial venture.

Woodworking Projects to do with Your Kids

Some families watch television, others like to play sports. But you are a woodsman and your child loves to copy you! So how can you safely include your children in your woodworking activities? It's simple. Before letting your child touch any of your woodworking tools, you must have a safety talk with them.

A Great Hobby in Woodworking

If you like working with your hands, woodworking is a good hobby for you. It is easy to get started at woodworking. You just need a few simple tools, some hardware, a little education and some practice. As you progress you can get more woodworking tools, hardware. The more woodworking projects you work on, the more your skills will improve. The possibilities of things that you can make woodworking are endless. While woodworking, you can make clocks, chess boards, flag boxes, and toys, among other things.

The Origin Of Ancient Tapestries

For the most part large size looms have been used to weave tapestries on. A good amount of types of threads have been used to create laces like gold, silk and silver threads weaving different pictures of subjects plus those of the peasant scenes after Teniers, Biblical history, mythology, etc. Tapestries have been used as wall hangings yet unlike needlework, it was woven on a loom. It was also made in levels much larger than would generally be used in hand-stitched embroidery; tapestry panels ranging from ten or twelve feet in height and twenty feet long are rather typical.