Cyanotype Magic: Transforming Drywall Tape in Art Journaling
If you’ve wondered about using the cyanotype process in your art/mixed-media journaling, learn how I use cyanotype on drywall tape for stunning additions to my journal.
I’m using paper joint tape or drywall tape to make paper strips for my art journal.
These are so easy to make and use in my fabric-page art journal. I stitch them down using my sewing machine.
Transcript:
Here's my 3 drywall tape strips that I made using cyanotype and pressed leaves and flowers. Let's get started.
I like to eco print and when I do, I save a lot of the leaves and flowers that have been flattened and I keep them in an old phone book. Now I can reference back to these plants and pull them out for different projects. This is the collection of flowers and leaves that I'm going to use to print my drywall tape.
Here's the tape. I know I'm going to use this drywall tape in my art journal*. And you can see right here, this piece right here that runs along this edge is the drywall tape I tore out of this group of tapes.
I know pretty much how long they need to be, which is this the height of my journal. I've torn my 3 pieces of drywall tape about the same length, and now I'm gonna tape them down to this cutting mat. It's turned upside down, and I'll tape these pieces down just so they stay all together. I use cyanotype chemicals A and B. Now these come in a kit as a dry powder inside the bottle, and then I put distilled water in them, fill them up to the top with distilled water, shake them up, and these are will be the chemicals that I put together, one cap of part A and one cap of part B, and I will brush it on with a foam brush. I'll turn the light out, mix these chemicals together, and brush it on my drywall tape.
Now my paper strips are dry, and I have my leaves and flowers in my phone book ready to go.
I'm just gonna randomly lay these down and make sure that the leaves fall across more than one piece of the tape just to make it look more interesting. I like to use leaves that are kind of, smallish but not too small to try and blend in with the proportion of the tape itself. And when these are all laid down, I have a piece of acrylic that I'm going to lay on it. If I had a piece of glass that was the right size, I would use the glass, but I don't. So I'm gonna lay this down just like this and take it outside and expose it in the sun for about 10 minutes.
I'll be back.
Alright. I brought my plants in from outside.
They stayed outside about 10 minutes, and you can see that the paper has turned dark. But as I take all these off, you'll see a little bit of the image through the dark. And the next task is to take these strips to the sink and wash out the chemical. The chemical would be washed out what with whatever was covered up by the plants.
I'll run these to the sink and be back. I've laid them out on a paper towel and now I will just let them air dry. The thing I enjoy about drywall tape is that it's so durable. It's more like fabric when you go to rinse the chemicals out.
If you try this and you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to email me. And now I'm ready to put these in my art journal.
*Find information about my “Tiny Stories Art Journal” course here.
The focal image on this page is a cyanotype-process embroidered tea bag. The flowers are gaillardia, the state flower of Oklahoma.
I have an online course about making art using tea bags “Snippets Tea Bag Art Course.” You can find it here.
Here’s the supply list:
(I am an affiliate for Amazon and may receive compensation for sharing this information with you)
Jacquard Cyanotype Chemicals on Amazon
Drywall tape at Home Depot - https://www.homedepot.com/p/USG-Sheetrock-Brand-2-1-16-in-x-250-ft-Paper-Drywall-Joint-Tape-382175/100321613
Pressed leaves from your garden.
If you try the process, please email me a photo of your work. I would love to see how you’re using this process.