Print: Adventures in Cyanotype 1

Well this was a happy accident - I read an article about Cyanotype printing and fell down a giant rabbit hole of creative possibilities! Cyanotype is a type of sun printing. 

It sounds a bit George’s Marvellous Medicine but essentially you mix two chemicals together and paint onto paper or fabric in the dark. I used this kit on card stock and on some cheap calico that I bought specifically for this purpose. You then prepare your print and move it into the sun to expose for a period of 3 minutes or more. The areas which are blocked then appear white, whilst the remainder turns blue. 

You do then have to develop your prints in cold water which also removes any excess dye.

My first experiment was simple leaves on card stock which I left for 40 minutes. It is quite fascinating watching the dye evolve from a yellow green through to a bronze and finally blue. For a first bash, it was okay but the paper wasn’t the best choice (I will try watercolour paper next time).

My second experiment was on some dye soaked calico which I left to dry in the garage overnight. With a pattern of ferns, I also left this for 40 minutes printing in the sun. Because the fabric was soaked in dye then left to dry, it wasn’t wrinkle free and the wrinkles obviously have cast some shadows. I actually quite like the textural look in this piece.

Although the Cyanotype kit is relatively expensive, it does go quite far. For these two experiments, I used just three capfuls of each chemical.

My original intention was to make some new tea towels using this technique, and I have lots of ideas for these...watch this space!

Love Mrs Jones x