This week we got a chance to try our Wood papers with Jacquard SolarFast dyes. SolarFast dyes work great with paper and natural fabrics and we found these dyes are also great to use on wood paper! We did a few image and time tests and ultimately created some shadow prints with leaves and twigs. It was easy to follow the simple instructions included with the product. We are thrilled with the results. Our shadow prints look great and we love this photographic look on our wood paper.
Supplies for Wood ‘Shadow Prints’: Cherry Wood Paper, Birch Wood Paper, Solar Fast Blue Dye, Solar Fast Wash, paint brush, sheet of glass, and random leaves or flat objects.
1. Cut the Cherry Wood Paper and the Birch Wood Paper to the desired size. We cut our wood paper to 4″ x 6″.
2. Gather your leaves or whatever type of object you’d like to create an image with. Flat thin objects work best.
3. Evenly apply the Solar Fast blue dye to each cut sheet of wood paper with a paint brush or sponge. We coated each sheet of wood paper twice.
4. Lay your leaves or objects onto each sheet of wood while the Solar Fast dye is still wet.
5. Place a sheet of glass on the top of the wood paper and leaves to hold the objects in place. We found when we used a piece of glass to sandwich the items together we got a better shadow print.
6. Expose to sunlight or UV light. We exposed our prints outside on a sunny day at high noon for about 13 minutes. Exposure times vary so we recommend you do a quick test.
7. Remove the leaves and wash your exposed wood prints with hot water and SolarFast Wash for about 10 minutes. We washed our wood prints in a 9×11 dish and agitated the prints for 10 minutes.
8. Lay each wood print out to dry. Curling of the wood paper may occur. Some of our prints did curl after drying. If this occurs simply press or heat press the wood paper after it is dry to create a flat smooth surface.
For more suggestions on how to apply SolarFast to your substrate visit the SolarFast site.
