Every day brings new things, sometimes it’s not what you expected. And this is so true of alternative process when comes to cyanotype.
The story is, after the awesome trip to Rome and Naples. I had some negatives using the Voigtlander Bessa (This is a 6cm x 9cm vintage medium format camera) In my mind I wanted to create a collage on a 30×40 sheet from them. Kind of like a basic contact sheet but like telling a story of the trip to Italy. These are gorgeous and generous size negatives from the 120 roll film. I had developed them using stand development. But at first it wasn’t to be! the cyanotype was all blue…
Cyanotype from what I’ve learned so far isn’t a perfect science especially when using the sun as your UV source. By now after a few goes at it I’m getting a feeling for it. The collage of Rome and Naples was a disaster when I first developed it. Everything came out blue. I had overexpose it, left it too long in the sun. Disappointed with the results I left the print to dry and forgot about it for a day or two. I was about to move on.
Then I thought maybe I could try something to revive the blue stained unusable print. The alternative processes is a lot about failing and trying again. Meaning if you fail it doesn’t necessary mean it’s the end. There’s often a solution to create something out of the mess or on top of the mess too! I had already watched a few videos on toning cyanotypes and using washing soda to bleach the print. So I thought now the print has been dry for the last couple of days, I might as well try bleaching it and try out tea toning too. I had nothing to lose
Before bleaching with washing soda