Week 6: Capturing everyday moments with Cyanotype

Sunlight makes shadows. Can sunlight help in making art? This is how week 6 of Kutty Kutty stories started; with our kutties searching for sunlight on a rainy day.

The class started with the boys learning about cyanotype - an early printing process where sunlight and chemicals are used to create prints of objects. We showed some models to the children and the room was filled with curiosity as they guessed to find which objects were used to create the prints.

After understanding the process, they first searched for objects that they can use to create prints. They looked around to find objects like leaves, flowers, twigs and keychains. Having found an object they wanted to make a print of, we went up to the terrace in search of sunlight.

The children placed the objects on a paper dabbed with cyanotype chemical and waited for the sunlight to make a print on the paper. There was a rush in the terrace as they had to quickly do it before the sun disappears. It was tricky given it was a rainy day yet the boys persevered.

Once their prints dried, they washed it in water and were awed by they saw the prints slowly turn blue. After seeing the successful prints and understanding the process, they rushed to do one more print. In some cases, children tried to do 3 more prints at once.

When they waited for the prints to dry, they had fun singing and enjoying the cool weather. And this time, they didn't have to wash the prints for there was a sudden rain shower and all of them ran downstairs along with their prints - seeing them turn blue.

It was fun to see them applying their minds to figure out how they can creatively position the objects and let sunlight make beautiful patterns. Week 6 of Kutty Kutty Stories was a beautiful Sunday filled with curious young minds playing with sunlight and rain.