A month or two ago my husband took the kids – all four kids – for a weekend adventure.  While they were gone I took a trip to the National Art Gallery and while there picked up a sun print kit to do with the kids.  The other day when my husband was traveling I knew that an easy mess free art project was in order both to energize my spirit and to occupy the troops.  I think my own mother had done this project with us when we were kids – I remembered loving it. Basically it’s a super easy project.  All you do is ask the kids to gather a few interesting specimens from around the yard and then lay these on top of one of the sheets of treated paper.  After a brief exposure on a bright sunny day of about one minute the image is ready for a bath in tap water and then voila!

Before we dove in I did a little research and discovered that there are various methods for darkening the Prussian Blue and for lightening it.  Usually, it’s my understanding, a bath of hydrogen peroxide before the final water rinse will darken the color.  In my experience with these prints a spray of hydrogen peroxide (undiluted) before the water rinse bleached out the image but an application after the water rinse slightly darkened the color.  The white splashes in the above image are the result of hydrogen peroxide.  For more information on the process and for a site that sells chemicals to make your own chemical solution to treat the paper with see here.