Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023 - 7:44 p.m.

Today I tried folding some scrap transparency film, the kind I use for printing my digital negatives. It is not exactly easy to fold, but not impossible, it doesn’t split or crack or anything, and the translucent geometric figure that results is pretty cool looking. I sewed the edges of one together with embroidery thread and that was a cool look too. Lots to play with there.

The plastic is difficult to score and doesn’t hold a sharp crease as easily as paper, but once you put some muscle into it, it stays.

I then coated another transparency with cyanotype chemistry. It dried super quick. I made a print from a negative and it turned out better than I had hoped. Only a couple minutes to rinse fully. The tonal range was superb. It worked because I was using a transparency with a coating on one side designed to absorb ink jet ink really well. I don’t know how other brands would respond.
The coating flakes off a bit at the creases but in the prints at least it just serves to emphasize the folds and so it works.

I took one of the folded transparency objects and made a cyanotype print of that. That too turned out really good even though it was on a piece of the crappiest paper I had, just some extra cardstock I coated because I had solution left and was out of good paper. On the good paper I think it’ll be even better. Every shape so different, different angles depending on the sun and how I turn the object on the paper. The overlapping angles.

Next step is obviously to fold a transparency with a negative on it and make a cyanotype of that. I’ve already done the first part, just waiting on the sun tomorrow to make the print.

�