Final views (all ready for my crit!):

Nov. 20-Dec 10

My project is finished!  I did multiple layers of cyanotype printing, collaged (with old cyanotypes and plain paper) before after and in middle of the process, and used some bleach.
A couple of "layer ones" (fun for me to look at now!):

There was a lot to work out compositionally-- as individual pieces and as a whole.... 

 Here are the pieces before I assembled them for the final installation:

Another Esther scroll:

Detail shots showing the collage (I loved the process and how they look like repaired/disintegrated scrolls):

November 13-19

Making "Repairs":

Inspired by the repaired map books I saw at the Beinecke, I collaged bits of paper onto the sheets before I printed them.  I really liked the white on white and may make an all white scroll...

After I printed the cyanotypes, some of the papers fell apart (I am still trying out different papers-- will post my results eventually) and I had to make real repairs.

Also did a second layer on some of the sheets.  I plan to build up the layers slowly, and make compositional decisions as I go along.  Photos to come...

November 6 - 12

Table is done!  I am no longer at the mercy of the weather to make my prints...  and no more schlepping!  Thanks Tom.

Exposure times and coverage are different, but this is way easier.

Composition:

Started to plan my final project.  Made sketches and abstract studies with prussian blue watercolor.  Some were inspired by Helen Frankenthaler's work.  I lovelovelove her prints.

Decided to make a long scroll and worked out size.  Researched sizes of torah scrolls; there is a wide range-- from as small as 4 inches tall (when rolled) to 29 inches.  I decided to make one of the scrolls 18 inches-- because 18 is a good number (chai or life in hebrew) and the proportions work well with the transparencies I have.  I am also making a vertical scroll that is 15 inches-- smallish for a torah scroll but a decent size for a computer screen (I realized that scrolls not only reference a very old technology, but a very new one as well-- we "scroll" on computers).  Just for fun.  In the future-- I would really like to make a very small scroll.

October 23 - November 5

In spite of Hurricane Sandy there were a few nice-weather days for making prints and an NYC trip (trip was before the storm :).

I layered multiple exposures on single sheets, experimented with sizes (mostly scroll-like shapes), stenciled text, and layered text with my printer:

NYC Trip:

Metropolitan Museum of Art --

Faking It; Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop

http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/faking-it

Whitney Museum --

Wade Guyton OS

Guyton makes large scale paintings with printers.  Must see in person, they are beautiful.  

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/WadeGuyton

Also visited the Yale Art Gallery print room and viewed original cyanotype prints dated from 1850 through 1910:

http://ecatalogue.art.yale.edu/results.htm?ksrch=cyanotype&rf=0&rpp=25&sb=objectNumber&sd=0&pn=1

An artist book:

The Poor: Six Prose Poems

Trans. by Stuart Watson, Illustrated by George Laws Weinberg

Charles Baudelaire

Maquokeeta, c. 2010

Book

Vanderbilt University Central Library's W. T. Bandy Center

for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies

The "blue" of the prints is from a cyanotype process-an early 19th c. photographic chemical process using iron. There's a relationship/tension between the 19th century technology (of Baudelaire's time) to depict 21st century technologies, like the nanoscale DNA structures in the first print, made by IBM scientists for IBM supercomputers (called "Blue Gene"). 

This "Week": October 16-22

Started building the light table.  Finally!  Will post detailed info when it is complete.

Continued to experiment with other media-- conte pencil, ink, metal leaf etc.  I am still not satisfied with the results.   Some media work well on a solid cyanotic background, but not when there are images in the background (at least not yet).

Beinecke Trip 2:

More illuminated manuscripts, this time maps.  Although similar, the maps had a lot of individuality. Some were more dense with words, plants or landforms.  The backs had ink staining through, and looked eerily like skin with veins.  I saw a strong relationship between man and nature in the maps;  man trying to control nature (cities) and make sense of it (the maps), and nature controlling man (cities built around landforms or because of them). Some maps were in very good condition, and others had been repaired.  The backs of the repaired maps looked like collages, and the fronts were filled in with ink.

Atlas, Frederik de Wit, 169-?

Atlas factice of 92 maps by Blaeu, Visscher, Jansson, Hondius and others, 1556-1680:

 Rudimenta Cosmographica, Johannes Honter, 1542: 
Almost palm-sized, rich colors and metal leaf.

[Dhikr mulūk al-Furs wa-al-ʻArab qabla al-Islām]. -- [15--?]; An Arabic book on geography:

More maps, just FYI: http://thewalters.org/exhibitions/maps/exhibitions_images.html

Cyanotypes:

Blood Migration by John Metoyer:

An artist book of poems and cyanotype, kallitype, and platinum.  Beautiful other-wordly images.

http://www.21stphotography.com/JohnMetoyer/JohnMetoyer.html

http://www.johnmetoyer.com/John_H._Metoyer/Welcome.html

More Prints:

Made multiple exposures over old prints.  Also put objects  (lace, beads, plants) with the negatives on the sensitized paper...