An easy and fun way to make art!

 
Today I joined the one-day cyanotype workshop in the Craft Centre, Dunblane run by artist and art teacher Katherine Gallagher. It proved to be totally absorbing, something of a revelation and altogether delightful. 

This is an obsolete technology developed originally in 1842 by Sir John   Herschel , a British astronomer, mathematician and photographer for reproducing mathematical tables and later used to reproduce technical drawings known as blueprints.
 
Now it’s used by some artists interested in combining art with technology. I was astonished how easy and clean the whole process was and we were all soon churning out images. Some took the opportunity to start making their Christmas cards.
 
Basically, cyanotype is a process to make blueprints using sunlight. Today we speeded it up by using hair driers and UVA lamps.
Objects i.e ferns, feather or text are placed on chemically coated paper then placed under a lamp for eight minutes. It's then rinsed and hung up to dry ( see extra).

PS. No sign of the sparrow hawk today.