Just before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off, Bangkok Darkroom was invited to run a cyanotype workshop for Nike Goal-Dang, a branding pop-up built around a collaboration between Nike and Ladderice, (a local clothing brand known for customizing football jerseys with Thai fabrics). It turned into quite an unusual cyanotype workshop that Bangkok Darkroom has hosted this year, mostly because we decided not to print on paper at all.
How the Workshop Came Together
The pop-up ran for a week inside PLAY Art House on Song Wat Road, with several breakout workshops open to the public. Bangkok Darkroom hosted the cyanotype sessions, bringing in the chemistry and UV exposure boxes needed to run them on site, with our team guiding participants throughout the process, from mixing and coating to exposing and rinsing their own prints.
Why We Swapped Paper for Terracotta Tiles
Cyanotype is one of the oldest ways to make a photographic print, and it works a bit like sun printing. You coat a surface with a light-sensitive solution, lay something on top to block the light, then let the sun do the rest. Once rinsed, the parts that caught light turn a deep blue, and the parts that were blocked stay pale, leaving a clean silhouette behind.
Cyanotype is usually done on watercolor paper, but for this workshop we wanted something a bit more unique, so we coated terracotta tiles instead. Terracotta gives a completely different look than watercolor paper, warmer and more textured, and it changes the tone of the finished blue print too.
Designing With Nike and World Cup Graphics
Participants used Nike graphics and World Cup-themed images to build their own designs, cutting shapes and stencils to lay directly onto the coated tiles. Instead of relying on the sun, we built a UV exposure box so each tile could be exposed under consistent light regardless of the weather. And good thing we did, because it rained all three days that we did the workshops.
Once rinsed, the area that had been covering the tile stayed pale, and everything else came up in that signature cyanotype blue. It was a simple but satisfying reveal, and the World Cup theme made it relatable to everyone, even for those who tried it for the first time.
Try It Yourself
If you are looking for a cyanotype workshop in Bangkok without waiting for another brand collaboration to roll through town, Bangkok Darkroom runs regular Cyanotype Printing workshops covering the same fundamentals: mixing and coating the solution, building a composition, exposing it under UV, and getting your own prints.
Check our cyanotype class schedule for the next available session.
