Floating Chalk

Floating chalk is a fun printmaking technique. The results are similar to suminagashi (Japanese for floating ink) prints. 

Materials: 

• A shallow container for water. I used a Pyrex baking dish. A plastic container will work, too. 
• Paper (copy paper works great). Be sure to cut the paper to be slightly smaller than the container.
• Water
• A cheese grater or sandpaper (Note: the sandpaper was not as effective but it does work if you tap the back of the sandpaper to shake the chalk particles on to the water)
• Chalk (we used sidewalk chalk)

1. Put about 1 inch of water in the container. Then grate the chalk right on top of the water.  Be very careful not to get your fingers close to the sharp blades.

2. Move the grater around as you are grating chalk above the water.

3. Use as many colors as you want.

4. Lay paper on top of the water and chalk.

5. Gently press anywhere that looks like it has an air bubble.

6. Peel the paper off the water. The chalk will stick right away.

7. Let your paper dry.

 Here is another example of the chalk on the water.

Here is the dry print.  You might notice that the paper was slightly smaller than the dish so some of the color on the edges did not print.

Another example.

My daughter put a small piece of paper at the bottom underwater (once a lot of chalk had settled) and rubbed this on to the settled chalk.  Then she just pulled it out of the water and let it dry. I think the result is beautiful!