Printmaking goes Alternative!

If you’ve been following me on Instagram for a while, you’ll know that I love nothing more than to dabble in a variety of printmaking processes for making my artwork. Rather than saying I’m “an artist who makes work inspired by nature”, I would more describe myself as “an artist who likes to explore nature through printmaking”…

To this end, when I discovered and followed the wonderful Alternative Processes @alternativeprocesses account on Instagram, my eyes were opened to a whole new array of creative possibilities. My decision to join Chiara’s Alternative Processes Academy at the start of 2023 was arguably the best creative decision I made last year. I had already practised cyanotype printing for a couple of years and had become hopelessly hooked on this addictive traditional photographic printing process – but on this online course, there were just so many other ways of creating analogue photographic prints, apart from my beloved cyanotype – lumen printing, anthotype, polaroid lift, caffenol printing, chlorophyll printing – and so, so much more! It is the last mentioned process in this list, chlorophyll printing, which I’ve decided I’m going to blog about this month.

The minute I clicked the “play” button of the chlorophyll printing module on the Alternative Processes Academy, I felt a tingle of excitement at the prospect of playing with this printing process that I already knew was an entirely natural, chemical-free way of creating prints – on the face of it, nothing could really be a better fit with my beliefs and values, than this!

From what I had picked up by watching the tutorial, all I needed to get started was some leaves – “hedera” (ivy) was one of the recommended types, a sturdy board/sheet of toughened glass, and some positive images printed onto clear film – and I was good to go! Oh – I do need to mention at this stage that the most vital component for making chlorophyll prints is strong sunlight – and plenty of it! Depending on where you live on the planet, this requirement can place major limitations on when and how often you can work with the process – which certainly applies to me, here in the UK…

After a hot spell last June, our summer voted to go on strike for much of July and August, which was just when I wanted to start playing! Undeterred, I decided that although clouds were dominating the skies, the UV rays must still be strong enough to have some effect and exposure time would just have to be lengthened accordingly. Patience was to be the watchword in these circumstances – and so I went ahead with my first ever chlorophyll print experiments as follows:

• Print your positive images onto inkjet film (I use a biodegradeable “micro porous” film, available on Amazon)
• Collect ivy leaves, preferably larger sized, fresh and healthy. I found the darker green ones worked better because they resulted in clearer prints with greater contrast
• Lay out the leaves onto a sturdy board so they’re not touching each other – I use a sheet of MDF which I find is good for this job
• Carefully lay a positive film image over each leaf, ensuring the “waterproof” side of the film is in contact with the leaf. I achieved better results when the piece of film covered the whole leaf, which meant that there were no printed impressions of the edge of the film, to distract from the printed image (if that makes sense!)
• Place a heavy sheet of toughened glass (shatter proof) carefully down on top of the leaves/films, ensuring that the films are in full contact with the whole surface of the leaf, resulting in clearer, sharper prints. I had my glass cut to exactly the same size as my sheet of MDF, for a snug fit 🙂
• Securely fasten each side of the glass sheet to the board using a large bulldog clip
• Place the board in the sunniest outside spot available and leave to expose.

During that largely cloudy, unsettled period last summer, I left my first batch of leaves to expose in the garden for almost 1 week, to be sure that they had received a decent amount of rays over that time. I could see the exposed parts of the leaves had changed colour to a light, golden brown – so I figured that the areas of the leaves that were covered by the positive images would contrast sufficiently with the areas that had faded – and so hopefully a “printed” image might possibly be visible…

There was only one way to find out – and that was to lift the glass and peel away the films. There would be no going back after taking this action – and so it was with some trepidation that I did it. The results were mixed, but a few of the leaves especially, were embellished with clearly distinguishable images. The areas of the leaf which had been covered by the black parts of the positive film image (unexposed to UV rays) had remained a dark, greyish green, whilst the exposed remainder of the leaf had bleached to a pale golden brown. Definitely room for future improvement – but I had made my first chlorophyll prints and I was excited to do more!

I need to say at this point that I am not, in any way, shape or form, an expert in chlorophyll printing. I only started playing with it last summer and out of the scores of leaves I exposed, I have a small percentage of reasonably clear prints, which are stored in a box, in the darkness of a cupboard. The leaves are fragile and the prints will fade away if kept in daylight. If they are to become an artwork, they need to be preserved and protected from their worst enemy – which conversely, are the UV rays that created the images in the first place. I initially toyed with the idea of casting the leaves in resin – but quickly abandoned any thoughts of using such a toxic substance, which completely goes against my goals of achieving sustainability in my practice. “Floating” frames made with 100% UV resistant glass remains a possibility though – and I am working on it…

If you have read this post with a view to having a try at chlorophyll printing yourself – I’d say go for it! Do check out the Alternative Processes WEBSITE and follow them on Instagram/Facebook @alternativeprocesses, for inspiration. If you’re serious about exploring a variety of traditional darkroom and cameraless photography printing processes, I wholeheartedly recommend signing up to the Alternative Processes Academy – a wonderful online resource where you can learn at your own pace, as well as engaging with a like-minded community of artists.

Will I be playing some more with chlorophyll and other printing processes? You bet I will – just watch this space!!