Blossom

29th April 2020

The last few weeks have been consumed by the collection and use of Blossom. I’ve experimented with a number of varieties, acquired as soon as they’ve bloomed and most have yielded disappointing results. As I’ve become more familiar with the Cyanotype process, I now know this has partly been down to my lack of skill, exposing essentially delicate flowers for far longer than necessary, resulting in complete loss of detail but it is quite a tricky process to strike the right balance between, developing the deep blues possible and retaining the delicacy of the plant structure.

Cherry Blossom has proved to be much more successful and has produced some really lovely effects. The Prunus ‘Asano’ variety with multiple petals and a powder puff like appearance is my favourite, achieving beautiful ghostly images. When placed individually it was possible to retain the details of the flower in the resulting Cyanotype but more interestingly I found piling up or grouping the flowers created the best results, particularly when used with my transparency images whereby they served a dule purpose.

As I’m having to use what I have to hand because of the lockdown, my methods for producing my Cyanotypes are quite crude. Ideally, I would use a photography contact frame to sandwich together the materials I’m using, instead I’m using the glass and backing board from some old picture frames and bulldog clips. This is perfectly adequate when using plants alone but does not create enough pressure to push down the transparencies, which must lay completely flat to produce sharp images. The easiest way to solve this problem was to use Sellotape and the blossom flowers prevent it from becoming visible on the final print.

Visually I found the blossom created beautiful textures and formations which helped blend together the transparencies to create a cohesive image with a dreamlike quality that I really loved. I felt this somehow reflected a sense of ‘blurred memory’ almost as if the objects are being recollected, but perhaps slightly lost. I can’t think of a way of describing what I mean adequately but I loved the result and it was my intention to develop that further, hence the urgency to collect and use the Prunus ‘Asano’ variety of blossom before it disappeared.

I managed to do a fair bit of sampling but not as much as I would have liked and the last few weeks have highlighted the problem of working in this organic way, namely the weather. It has been so gloriously sunny this month that I almost forgot the reality of the British weather. Last week the wind blew away the blossom quicker than I could collect it and this week the rain is probably going to scupper my new attempts of gathering Lilac. Going forward this is something that I really need to be prepared for.

I was beginning to envisage, producing my printed fabric solely through natural means, perhaps producing Cyanotypes directly onto the section pieces of a garment, perhaps onto a completed garment. Realistically though I need to look at methods of using my sampling in conjunction with digital manipulation and printing as originally intended. It may also be an option to work in sections, I’d imagined creating a garment that had a continuous print but it could be possible to create a sectional ‘patchwork’ effect, perhaps one that incorporates embroidery to collate the imagery. Maybe thinking of ways of preserving flowers for long time multiple use or using cultivated, readily available flowers cold be the answer and might allow me to continue with my current method of fabric print development.

I’m not quite sure what the answer is but it is clear that addressing this issue needs to be the next stage in the development of my print design.