Registrations Closed
 

What to Expect

In this workshop, you’ll create a cyanotype print using a contemporary cliché-verre technique which involves drawing with a sharp etching needle onto blackened film. Your film negative will be contact printed to create a small series of cyanotype prints.

The emphasis of this workshop is on investigating and exploring an historical technique with contemporary materials. Many early cliché verre prints were landscapes, but participants can bring in any source material (photographs or drawings) they would like to take inspiration from.

Cliché-verre originated in the 1830s as a method of producing hand-drawn photographic images. A glass plate was prepared with a ground of printer’s ink and the drawing was made with an etching needle. The plate became a photographic negative and exposure to light contact printed the drawing to a light-sensitive paper. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot was an early exponent of this technique. Later artists such as Brassaï, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso experimented with and adapted this technique.

Materials provided, including cyanotype paper and chemicals, 1 x Autotext film and tissue paper. Cyanotype equipment includes: chemicals and mixing equipment, sponge brushes, trays, dark boxes, metal rulers, cutting mats.

Please wear protective clothing, including close-toed shoes.

This workshop has a capacity of 8 students.
 

What to bring

• Protective clothing, including close-toed shoes
• Lunch and water bottle (please note: there are plenty of cafe options available for lunch if you’d prefer)

Learning Outcomes

In this workshop, participants will:

• Coat Berger paper with cyanotype chemicals.
• Scratch a drawing into a blackened film (Autotext).
• Contact print the film negative onto the sensitised cyanotype paper.
• Process the cyanotype in water and then hydrogen peroxide (if a darker more intense blue is desired).
• Preparation of A6 Autotext film with Gans rubber-based ink and talc will be demonstrated.

About Your Teacher

A broad education in fine arts has underpinned Dianne Longley’s career in the visual arts. She works across a range of media including printmaking, encaustic, artist books and small-scale bronze casting. Her artist books and prints have featured in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, Mexico, the UK and the USA and are in numerous public collections. Dianne is currently a master printmaker at Agave Print Studio, an access printmaking studio she established in picturesque Trentham in 2014. Agave Print Studio offers professional printmaking facilities for intaglio and relief/letterpress printmaking, specialising in photopolymer plate printmaking.