The weather was against us on Saturday for our “Out of the Darkroom” Family Fun event but despite the rainy day lots of children and adults joined us to create beautiful prints inspired by our “Set in Silver” photography exhibition.
First of all the participants drew an image on a piece of paper before tracing it onto a piece of acetate with marker pens. There was a huge variety of drawings including the University crest, a skeleton and a zombie!
Tissue paper and card were collaged onto the acetate to create different layers of transparency.
Once the acetate image was ready it was place over a piece of special Sunprint paper which is treated so that it is sensitive to the sun. On a sunny day you would just leave your paper to expose in the sunshine for a few minutes but the grey sky on Saturday meant we had to wait for 25 minutes!
After the 25 minutes were up the Sunprint paper was soaked in water for a minute and the image appeared. It was worth the wait as the prints came out really well.
The prints were hung on a washing line to dry while the participants decorated frames for them.
We also made pinhole cameras using a simple template and black card. Once made the participants were able to look through their pinhole cameras and see the world upside down!
Our next Family Fun session will be on Saturday 5th May from 1pm-4pm, when we will making Dickensian hats and collars and dressing up to celebrate Dickens Month at the University. It’s a drop-in session and we’ll be in the Events Area behind the gallery. Hopefully we’ll see you there!
Posted by: Lynsey and Sarah
UoA Collections 