This year so far a lot of factors have combined to keep me close to home most days. The sky has been heavy with rain and fog more often that not; it makes this Texan long for the light, but it also makes a Texas heart happy knowing that February showers bring many, many beautiful March wildflowers!

When the sun does show its face, I am ready with my cyanotype materials. The slightest hint of strong UV sends me running for my contact frames. I prowl the garden for whatever I can scrounge up among the wet & decay; I pull up fresh weeds, straight from the root. I unearth my hoard of dried botanical treasures from last year, and feathers. I become an art scavenger.

What comes from this sun-salvaging is a whole new crop; I rarely make just one or two. On this particular day, I even made some new wing'd women.

The Valentine's Day flowers my daughter received faded too quickly, but their life can be graciously preserved by the sun and a little cyano-magic. Some of these will be painted and inked when the time is right.

And of course after all of this joyful work comes another part of the process: starting over. A few minutes in the darkroom with my brush & chemicals means that every spare surface is covered in fresh paper waiting with me in eager anticipation of the next sunny day!

All of these images are from the "stories" portion of my dedicated cyanotype Instagram account. Want to see more? Please follow me there and on my dedicated cyanotype Facebook page. All of the work is for sale, usually even the originals; if you would like to visit my sales site, it's on Society 6 (but you can also email me with inquiries).