if you've been on the verge of getting a Solar Fast kit, here's my experience.
Following our cyanotype fashion week in collaboration with Jacquard Product, they were kind enough to send me the Solar Fast starter kit to try.
spoiler: I made several mistakes!
I really struggled to adapt to this new process after becoming so familiar with cyanotype. Also.. it's been a while since I tried something completely new and it was a fun challenging experience!
Key differences of Solar Fast:
Traditional cyanotype is a 19th-century process that uses iron salts to produce blue images, exposes in UV light and gets fixed with water. SolarFast, instead: ✓ comes in different colours, not only blue! ✓ more fabric friendly ✓ exposes while still wet (and needs specific transparencies for that)✓needs washing in hot water and detergent to fix
The process (and where I went wrong)
1. Applying the Dye:
You brush solar fast on the fabric like you normally would. It's much thicker than cyanotype emulsion and you will go through the bottle much faster. It's very easy to oversaturate because the fabric is a bit reluctant to absorb it at first because of its consistency. This might have been my first mistake. (I then discovered that solarfast can be diluted with water without affecting the depth which is great!)
2. Creating the Digital Negative:
Since the fabric needs to be wet, the SolarFast kit includes high-quality transparencies with a waterproof side. Typically, all transparencies have a sticky side (for the ink) and a waterproof side. If using your own transparencies, avoid placing the ink side on the wet fabric (in traditional cyanotypes, you place the ink side of the digital negative in direct contact with the dry cyanotype emulsion for better sharpness). Some lower-quality digital negatives can still be damaged by water, even on the non-ink side.
3. Exposing the Print:
Solarfast has to expose while still wet. This is super important. Expose the coated fabric to direct sunlight or UV light. Different SolarFast colours require different exposure times. Probably my second mistake. Being familiar with the UV light I use, I didn't do test strips (SolarFast provides printable test wedges), went ahead and exposed for the minimum time suggested assuming it was a lot (solarfast needs more time in the sun compared to cyanotype). While my orange print looked good, my violet print needed more time in the sun.
4. Washing Out the Print: I believe this is where I really messed up!Unlike traditional cyanotype, SolarFast requires washing with SolarFast Wash to remove the undeveloped dye and complete color development. You must use the hottest possible water. To save resources, I waited a few hours to wash all my prints together, however Jacquard recommends washing them immediately after exposure to avoid losing highlights. I kept the prints in the dark but I also did not rinse them before washing. It's especially important to rinse before machine washing when you have different SolarFast colors to remove excess dye and prevent color migration (which happened to me!). Hand washing might have been a better option for me!
Overall, I really enjoyed the process and I'm looking forward to experiment more with different colours!
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