Happy New Year! Any excuse to say that makes me happy.
Hooray! The moment you’ve all been waiting for. This post is devoted to describing my anthotype process.
As you know from one of my previous posts, I like to go to the farmer’s market and find a fruit or vegetable in season that has a natural dye. In the past I’ve used beets, and in this particular instance, I have chosen pomegranates.
Thus the process begins…
The pomegranates come home with me and I arrange them on my big white art table to begin photographing.
Once I am happy with the photographs I make with the whole pomegranates, I cut them because what I am really interested in are the seeds, nooks and white vein-like parts that weave their way through the fruit.
As promised, I will show you the correct way to cut a pomegranate (all learned from Jimmy, the farmer from whom I directly bought the pomegranates). I am VERY excited about this because it is the most efficient way to access the seeds and WAY better than my old approach to the pomegranate.
*** Please take notice how much juice comes out of these pomegranates as I work and cut into them. I start with a clean board and end up with a lovely, juicy and even stained cutting surface. Jimmy’s method of picking out the best pomegranates did not fail me!
First you cut each end off.
Then you can see the thick white fleshy parts of the pomegranate which are your guides.
Using those guides you score the outside of the pomegranate from the top to the bottom. You don’t even have to cut all the way to the core, just enough to cut through the outer layer of skin.
Then you can pop the wedges out!
I was so shocked as to how easily and cleanly the wedges came out that I blurted out (by myself mind you):
“You’re kidding me!”
The seeds are perfectly exposed without the pomegranate skin weaving through them making it VERY easy to take them out. I have been doing it wrong for so long and struggling with the seeds just to taste a little bit of pomegranate goodness and this method is so wonderfully easy!
Now for some entertainment, I will cut a pomegranate the way I’ve been doing it for years just to show you the difference (and for photographing reasons of course) and hopefully share with you my elation at my new found wonder in eating and working with pomegranates.
I present to you the absolutely frustratingly Sara way to cut a pomegranate.
First, cut it like you would an orange for orange slices. Right down the middle…
Then proceed to cut the pomegranate in half again.
And again, continuing on in the orange mentality — creating slices.
And now let me show you the difference between a pomegranate cut the Jimmy way (foreground slice) verses the OLD Sara way (background slice).
Can you see how easy it is to access the seeds from in the slice in the foreground as opposed to the seeds from the slice in the background? Not to mention that the seeds in the background slice have been cut in half and not are not the whole and ready to use seeds like the foreground slice.
So now that I’ve cut the pomegranates into various slices and sizes, I go back to photographing them again on the table.
Once I feel that I’ve gotten what I want photographically out of the pomagranate, then I can start making a dye from the juice of the fruit.
Out comes the blender!
First, I pick the seeds out of the pomegranate and put them into the blender.
I use the seeds from all three pomegranates as any extra dye I make can be saved in the refrigerator for later anthotypes.
Then its time to blend them up!
The result is a frothy mix of liquid and debris…
Which I siphon through cheesecloth to extract the pure pomegranate liquid while pouring into a plastic container.
Then comes more of the messy part. I squeeze the juice out through the cheesecloth (I can’t wait for it just to drip out, it takes too long and I definitely don’t have the patience for that!).
Squeeeeeze!!!
And I end up with a beautiful, deep red pomegranate dye to paint on my paper.
But before I move on, let me show you why I love this process so much. Its messy!
Then I have to clean up, which I don’t mind at all, in order to move on to painting the paper with the pomegranate dye.
For the record, the cutting board I used is still stained with pomegranate juice even after multiple washings… just what I am looking for!
After I clean off my fabulously white art table, I bring out my paper. Over the years I have accumulated a lot of acid-free fine art paper that has just been hanging around my studio. This is the paper I have decided to use for my anthotypes as it’s nice to be able to make good use of what I already have.
You’ll notice my supplies here. I have my pomegranate dye in a plastic container, my paintbrush on my plastic palate, some drafting tape to hold down the corners of the paper and my trusted green towel for the eventual mess that I will make.
With the paper taped down, I am ready to start painting. Note that I have two sheets down, both are size 11×14. I like to do two at once (and sometimes more) as the painting and drying process takes quite a bit of time and it’s nice to be able to have sheets painted and ready to go when I am inspired to create an anthotype.
So as you can see, the first coat is quite light. I continue to paint over each coat in order to get the deep, dark red that I am looking for; however, the trick is to wait for the paper to dry between coats or else it can buckle and/or there is a risk of poking through the wet paper. This is why this step takes a while as its mostly a lot of waiting for the paper to dry. So in the mean time, I upload my photographs of the pomegranate to my computer and begin to edit them.
I keep coming back to the paper to continue to paint and now I am starting to see that dark color I am looking for. Also, some of the pomegranate pieces have made it through the cheesecloth and I am now painting them on the paper which creates a sporadic texture. I love it!
Now that I have that deep color, I need to wait for the paper to completely dry before the next step (which can take up to a day). So back I go to editing on the computer.
* Side note — For my past fine art projects I have used a film camera and slide film which I have to send away to a lab to be processed off-site. For this particular art, I like having the whole process happen in my studio and on my sunny deck which means using a digital camera and computer. From taking the photograph to printing, I can do the whole thing myself. The digital camera allows me to edit the photographs that I just took, all while the paper is drying, which keeps me inspired to pick the photograph that I am excited about throughout the process.
When I choose the photograph I would like to use, I print it out on my Epson 2200 (which is about 8 years old and I recently read is considered the “reliable old gray mare”) on transparency paper. As in the same type of paper that was used for overhead projectors… remember those? Ancient reference, I know.
Now that I have the photograph I want and the paper is dry from painting on the pomegranate dye…
I can bring out the printing frame!
Front
Back
This is the tool that I bought in order to efficiently contact print my photograph onto the dyed paper. It sandwiches the paper and transparency photograph together and they don’t move due to the spring-loaded hinges keeping the back in place. This allows for the photo to be in sync with the dyed paper when being exposed to the sun.
Here are the final steps:
I take the transparency photograph and line it up with the painted dyed paper…
Then I release the back of the printing frame using the spring-loaded hinges.
This allows me to take the entire back off and place the transparency and dyed paper in the printing frame facing out.
I then carefully place the back of the printing frame on top of the paper (any sudden movement and it makes the transparency paper and the dyed paper move out of place) and put the spring-loaded hinges back into place.
Next, I cross my fingers and hope that nothing was moved as I turn the printing frame around to check my image’s alignment on the dyed paper.
This time its right on!
The last step is placing it out in the sun for 3-7 days, depending on the strength of the sun. The sun’s job is to fade out the background and leave the dark parts of the photograph imprinted in the dyed paper.
I check the image every day to see the progress (how much or how little that day’s sun has faded the background away). The cool thing about this printing frame is that it is hinged 2/3rds of the way across the back of the frame and I can easily lift up the back without disturbing the alignment of the image to check on how well the sun is working its magic.
Ta Da! The anthotype process ladies and gentlemen!
Welcome to my new (well, new to me — the process is originally from the 1850′s) favorite fine art process. I love it because there are no chemicals involved and I can do the entire process at my house, contained in my studio with materials that I already own. I also get to go out in the community and talk with farmers and get in touch with my neighbors at our local market.
When this pomegranate finishes its time in the sun I will post it and you all will be the first to see my anthotype process from start to finish!
