The Monsoons are here! I love the thunder and the smell of rain in the desert. It is so wonderful, after weeks of running the air conditioner 24/7, to slide open a window and listen to the rolling rumble. Even during the monsoons though, there is one thing Arizona has plenty of – sunshine. This week I took advantage of the sun’s rays to create some cool fabric prints. These sunshine prints can be used for pillows, totes or even just a wall hanging and are super easy (and a little bit addicting). There was a little bit of a learning curve but I think I figured out the best way to get good results. I hope you enjoy this printable “craft recipe” and get inspired to create some of your own sunshine art.
DON’T MISS THE GOODIES AT THE BOTTOM
Check out the product links and special notes for this project at the bottom of this post.
JUST A FEW NOTES:
The main difference between the end results of the Solar Fast Liquid Dye Process and the Cyanotype is that the Solar Fast gives you some color options while the Cyanotype is always only blue. The Cyanotype is a little less messy and it does give you a little bit of a crisper image though. Choices, choices, choices…
Here are a list of items I have successfully used as shapes on my Sunshine Art projects
Here are some other links to products I used. All of these can be purchased at Amazon but I also like to shop local art supply stores. Also, the Jacquard website is a wealth of information and problem solving. Here’s their link: Jacquard: Solar Fast
Jacquard Solar Fast Dye , comes in 14 colors BUT READ the note in my instructions about fabric yellowing. I tried teal first and I was very sad as it stained my fabric a yellowy green color where it should have been white. In the Arizona sample picture, I used Burnt Orange
Synthrapol, This can be used to both pre-treat your fabric and as an after wash to help remove the dye. IT REALLY DOES HELP to pretreat your fabric as it often has sizing and dust on it which can mess with your dye.
Cyanotype Pretreated Fabric Sheets , comes in different quantity packs and also in different types of paper if you don’t want to work with fabric.
I hope you enjoyed this project. Please share your sunshine art at the comment section below.
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Tania | 26th Jul 17
Wow, that’s cool!! I’ve never heard of Cyanotype before.
Tania
JoElle | 27th Jul 17
Hi Tania. Cyanotype is always that amazing blue color – like true blueprints. You can get the pre-treated medium as paper or fabric. I plan on making some pillows or totes with the ones I did. Thanks for checking it out.
Vikki | 26th Jul 17
What a great craft and great idea. Yours turned out beautifully. Thank you for doing all the testing for us and giving us all the hints to make ours turn out great too.
JoElle | 27th Jul 17
You are very welcome Vikki. It was a fun project and really quite easy – especially the cyanotype pretreated fabric sheets. Thanks for following.