Henrietta Swan Leavitt

This is a first edition lino block print of the woman who was able to set the scale of our Universe. A portrait of Henrietta Swan Leavitt is printed in silvery lavender ink on Japanese kozo (or mulberry paper). Behind her is a line showing stellar luminosity (capital L with subscript sun-symbol, a circle with a dot) as a function of time (t). She is printed over constellations in gold (Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Draco, Ursa Minor and Andromeda). The first edition is a run of 6 prints, each 10" by 12.5" (25.4 cm by 31.8 cm).


Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. In her day, women scientists were regularly hired to do menial chores. She was hired to count images on photographic plates as a "computer".* In studying these plates, in 1908 she was able to deduce a ground-breaking theory, which allowed Hubble's later insight about the age and expansion of the universe**. Her period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars radically changed modern astronomy, an accomplishment for which she received little recognition during her lifetime.

Cepheid variables are a class of pulsating star. They are named for the star Delta Cephei in the Cepheus constellation. The relationship between a Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period is quite precise. It had not been obvious to tell whether a star was dim because it was less luminous, or whether it was merely further away. Swan Leavitt's discovery lets astronomers use Cepheids as "standard candles". They allow astronomers to determine distances to celestial objects and form the foundation of the Extragalactic Distance Scale.



This April, the Mad Scientists of Etsy are celebrating Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who died too young, but accomplished more than most and greatly added to our understanding of our place in the Universe.

Also, she's a serious contender to battle Annie Jump Cannon for "best astronomer middle name".



*These "computers" were quite literally treated like automatons.

**Ejnar Hertzsprung used her discovery to plot the distance of stars; Harlow Shapley used it to measure the size of the Milky Way; and Edwin Hubble used her work to ascertain the age of the Universe.

other printmaking

As promised, here is my first (and only) lithographic print. It is one of four. I forgot to measure it, but it's roughly 6" x 6.5". I just drew free-hand onto the stone. The process is rather involved and based on the antipathy of oil and water. After polishing, I drew on the stone using grease pencils of different hardnesses. These pencils also contain wax, so much like a wax crayon, they can pick up flecks of drawn lines, as well as add new lines. I used this effect purposes, so the lifted flecks could be stars. Our instructor took care of the stone-sensitizing (called 'etching' though this is now known to not be chemically accurate). An acid is applied to the limestone base to 'sensitize' it. There are all sorts of subtleties in the selection of the acidity (or 'etch'), and differ values can and are applied to different regions of the stone. These are selected as a function of media applied, darkness, intensity, line density, and basically experience. Like purposely over-exposing a photographic negative, one can also 'burn' out a region of a drawing for tonal effect. The stone is wet, and because the grease and water are immiscible, when ink is applied, it only covers the greased/drawn areas of the stone. The prints are pulled on a special press, such that weight is applied directly down. It is no mean feat to pull a print. I tried one: it involved another student wetting the stone, followed by me inking the stone, back and forth iteratively, about six times, and then releasing the clutch and lowering the arm (clearly designed for someone taller and stronger than I).

The potential of the method is amazing, but so is the fact that we managed to pull any prints whatsoever within 3 hours.



Yesterday we did etching, something I haven't done in years. This is also something challenging to do within 3 hours, in particular, since we began with industrial quality zinc plates, rather than prepared plates. Though it was good to learn these steps of the process, as they were new to me. So first, we had to polish them and then apply a hard ground (a waxy substance). We had about 45 minutes to draw/scratch into the hard ground. I got a bit caught up in making sure I was scratching hard enough and did not feel I had a flexibility of line. In this amount of time, there was no chance to correct any mistakes. My swans have weird heads. My drawing style is sketchy and this time, my first, imperfect lines had to be preserved. But, knowing the method, I did plan my subject so that I could take advantage of "plate play" (the discretion of the artist in what ink to remove or not from the plate) and built this into my design. Once the hard ground is scratched, the plates are submerged in acid; also, in 3 hours, there was no time for discretion here, and all plates were exposed to acid for the same amount of time (mine could have done with less). We then cleaned off the hard ground and inked the plates. I wanted to have the lines inked (the entire point of intaglio) and also to have a gradient in tone from top to bottom, with highlights of white swans (of course) and various ovals within the water. I think this worked well, though I could have left even more ink on the plate. We only had time for a single print.

home is where the art is

I actually collect prints of soft sea creatures (encephalopods and jellyfish and such)- really specific, but surprisingly easy. This is my woodblook moku hanga "Little Boat, Big Ocean", a 4-colour screenprint by animalsleep, and my jellyfish lino block print in my hallway. The hallway is a bit dark and narrow, so the photograph does not really do these prints justice; I think they look better in person.

The art in the bedroom is supposed to suggest sleep, including the starry kite constellation screenprint of labpartners, Emma Kidd's origami bear, Di's painting of the animals on the duvet and the birch trees at night etching.



I love the particular brand of magic of etsy printmaker animalsleep and so I bought this screenprint of a boy and giant hawk against the night sky. One can imagine the fairy story to go with the image.
I framed it using some printed Chinese paper as a matt. Not a propos but I have been enjoying using patterned patters in framing and the colours are exactly right.

This night time image is also on the bedroom wall.



This was a bonus with the animalsleep prints so I framed it somewhat idiosyncratically in a vintage oval frame with some Japanese washi papers as matts, and added the night scene with crescent moon to the bedroom wall.



By the table, I have the kozyndan photo of bunnyfish and koi, the found giant Indonesian shadow puppet, a plate, a half horse on a plaque, a tiny water colour, a horse paper doll from the PinPals, a Dutch silhouette, a painting by Di and the Yeehaw Industries psychic owl calendar.