2AM

It's nice to have someone working late with you. Shouts of "You can do it!" and "You're doing it!" echo back and forth between us as Gunner snores and Kitty glares.

Bookmaking begins!

 I started my first assignment for bookmaking last night! For homework, we are supposed to prepare our cover with hinge so that we can start with Japanese Stab Binding next class. This is a class I've been waiting for since being a wee freshman, and it is the absolute last class for a photo major to take. Needless to say, I'm raring to go!

got all my fancy new tools laid out

bone folding champ

kitty helps by hanging out on laundry

corners clamped to set up over night

There will most definitely be tons of bookmaking posts/pictures from this semester.

This week we experimented with cyanotypes! Cyanotypes are a photo printing process that gives a an awesome cyan blue print and an awesome tonal range. It's a contact printing process, so I used one of my ink jet negatives from last semester to experiment.

First, I coated my paper with a mixture of Ferric Ammonium Citrate and Potasium Ferricyanide.

Then, I place the negative on the coated paper, put glass on top to keep it flat, and then slide it in the light box for exposure!

It turns this odd color before you rinse the chemicals off.

After you rinse it with water until all the yellow comes out, you put it in another water bath with a cap full of hydrogen peroxide to oxidize it!

The end result is a beautiful dark blue.

Derp, safety first.

I'm overall happy with my first cyanotype experience! Now that my class is comfortable with the cyanotype process, we are starting on our next project, which is a series of 5 cyanotype images with a conceptual theme. Instead of using an inkjet negative like this time, we are shooting 35mm black and white film and creating ortholitho negatives from those images. Now, that's going to be an adventure.

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Oh, happy Friday! This week has flown by. Hurricane Isaac made a brief and uneventful visit to Mobile, and I got to enjoy 2 days off of school. But now it's back to the grind, back to projects galore!
I finally finished cutting the glass for my murrine project.

Murrines are made by stacking layers of glass together and then melting them. After they are fused, we will cut them like sausages and the small rectangular pieces will show the pattern inside!

I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like! They looked so fun and colorful lined up in the kiln.

These babies are just begging to be fired!

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