Contact: Diana Clarke
Tel. 408 249-9211
Cell Phone: 408 306-9065
dianacarolclarke@yahoo.com
Exceleste.com

DIANA CLARKE BRINGS BLUEPRINTS ON FABRIC TO WESTGATE MALL

Sunnyvale, CA - September 24, 2011

On September 21 Diana Clarke, a Sunnyvale resident, contracted with Eni Thing who will offer her blueprints on fabric for sale. Eni Thing is a consignment shop at Westgate Mall that contains homemade items. The store is shared with One of a Kind, another consignment boutique.

“Enica, the owner of Eni Thing, was very friendly and open to my suggestions . I am delighted that I have the opportunity to show and sell my fabric sun prints locally,” says Clarke.

Most of the items, clothing accessories and home decor, are made of 100% silk. But the silk—charmeuse, chiffon, crepe, and habotai--vary in color intensity and in the way they feel and gleam.

“I strongly believe that you need to see and feel the silk in person to appreciate the art form,” says Clarke

Clarke uses pressed flowers, rice, yarn, masking tape and other objects in her designs. She also scrunches, ties, and folds the fabric before exposing it in the sun. Also, some of the blueprints are printed on fabric other than white. For instance, pillow covers that are pink would create a pink and purple design.

Cyanotype is an alternative photographic process in which the sun is used to produce a blueprint.

The blueprinting process or cyanotype was invented in 1842 by an English astronomer, Sir John Herschel. But it wasn’t until the industrial revolution that the process was used widely to copy drawings by architects, builders, and engineers.

Blueprinting on fabric begins with the fabric being saturated with a solution of two chemicals--ammonium ferric citrate and potassium ferricyanide (water soluble iron salts), which react to UV light producing the compound Prussian blue.

“You can also work with pretreated fabric in which case you won’t need to mix any chemicals,” says Clarke. The treated fabric is safe to use.

Diana Clarke has created sun prints since 2004. She was looking for something related to the sun and to photography when she came across a book entitled Blueprints on Fabric: Innovative Uses for Cyanotype, by Barbara Hewitt. Clarke has a website devoted to sun protection and science at yourskinandsun.com. She is also a credentialed teacher who works as a tutor and an exam rater for the Educational Testing Service.

For more information, contact Diana Clarke

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Last modified: 09/24/11

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