Odiorne Point State Park – Cyanotype Mural

September 14th, 2018

To introduce our students to the class, we  created a life sized community mural using a process known as cyanotyping.

Potassium ferricyanide + Ferric ammonium citrate + UV Light → Prussian Blue

Prussian Blue + UV Light → German White

German White + Hydrogen peroxide → Prussian Blue

Students learned about the chemistry of the process, how to expose cyanotypes, and practiced developing them using commercially available sun print paper. Once the students had a firm understanding of the process, we took them to Odiorne Point State Park to make a class mural. Our students laid out on the fabric for 20 minutes while we talked about the historic discovery of the chemical process. We watched as the color turned from yellow, to Prussian Blue to German White.

 

After the two murals were developed and exposed, students created their own murals using items found on and around the beach.