Process: Printing With the Sun

I wanted to share my process with the wonderful world of printing using the power of the sun. It all started when I was looking up an assignment for students to be able to work on from home.

The requirements I had set for the lesson were that: it had to be a print making project, inexpensive, accessible, and interesting enough for them to try on their own. The most practical and accessible project was printing on construction paper using the rays of the sun. I ended up using opaque objects such as leaves, found objects from around the house, and precut paper stencils to create my image. The negative space of the construction paper exposed by the sun was bleached lighter leaving the original darker color of the paper and revealing the sun printed image. Here are some expamples:

Stencil over Construction Paper

Use a stencil made from a manila envelope. Est. time to burn image onto paper about 4-6 hrs.

Stencil

The stencil was cut out of the front cover of a manila folder. This made it easier to slip the construction paper in between. The folder helped maintain the construction paper from moving around. The weighted objects were placed over the stencil to maintain contact between the stencil and paper.

Organic Objects on Construction Paper

I took leaves and a flower from my avocado tree for this stencil. I held the items in place and in contact with the paper with a piece of glass.

C2 Stencil

Instead of glass, a clear sheet protector could work to to hold items in place while paper is bleached by the sun.

Stencil option

Here is a section of the manila folder with the image cutout of the front.

Transparency over Construction Paper

The transparency was held in place using a piece of glass.

Transparency Print 1

Transparency Print 2

Chlorophyll Process

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This lesson lead me down the wormhole of Chlorophyll printing. A process very similar to my construction paper sun prints but this process used leaves as the matrix for the print.

At first I tested out Avocado leaves and had some disappointing results. Only after more research I started using lighter, flatter, leaves. I picked a couple leaves from a near by Calla lilly plant and this seem to do the job.

• I printed out a transparency with an image that fit the contours of the chosen leaf.

• I positioned stencil over my leaf. I then sandwich the leaf and stencil inside a picture frame. This ensured a good contact between the surface of the leaf and my transparency.

• Then I let the leaf and stencil sit in the sun for 24 hours. The quality of the exposure could vary due to local weather patterns, quality of the stencil, and what type of leaf you are using.

• After 12 hours give or take I check on my leaf to see if the process had started. You will begin to notice discoloration in the leaf’s color.

• After image is burned onto the leaf, make sure to remove leaf from the glass and separate the transparency very carefully

• I placed the leaf between two sheets of paper to dry out a little

• There are several options for preserving your chlorophyll print. Due to this pandemic it may difficult to obtain some of the recommended material mentioned in the following video.

• I ended up using acrylic varnish to seal my leaf. This gave it a satin finish and waxy appearance but did make it easier to hold and transport.

Transparency and Calla Lilly Leaf

The transparency was place over the leaf and sandwiched into a photo-frame.
I found out that having the frame upright at a slight angle worked really well. I moved the image every couple hours to follow the sun.

Leaf Detail

I was very careful and slow to separate the leaf from the transparency. I used some water to lubricate between the two and ease the separation.

Calla Lilly

Leaf Detail

Exposure time: 9 hours

Abuelita Image of Calla Lilly Leaf

This exposure took about 24 hours.

RESOURCES

Below are all of the sites which were helpful in my disocovery of this project. Feel free to take whatever info that may be helpful from here and make customize your own lesson.