I’ve being working with Cyanotype for just a couple of years on and off usually during the summer months. Nothing too serious, it’s more about discovery and understanding the medium. Learning how to fine tune the exposure and getting the paper to play along with the chemicals can be daunting.
World Cyanotype Day
I found out about WCD on Alternative Photography’s website Malin had interview the organisers. To take part one simply creates a flag with motif that celebrates our beautiful planet.
Cyanotype print on cotton
Pretty much a first for me to print on cotton. Now I thought I needed quite an amount of chemicals to achieve this. Well, not really. A 30 x 30 cm cotton material will happily absorb two caps of A and B solutions so about 20 ml. Being my first attempt of using cotton, I’m quite delighted with the results. (Tip: next time I’ll need to trim the frayed edges a bit better. So the white swiggles don’t appear around the image.)It’s important to use a natural material – in my case 100% cotton. The sensitizer can also work on silk, wool, hemp, linen, canvas, leather and wood. It’s best to avoid manmade materials such as polyester.https://www.instagram.com/p/B1jV88LIV-E/
Make the negative
I had printed out my negative with a contrast curve, horizontally flipped, orange tone filter in Photoshop. If you wish to know how to print negatives for alternative process check out my previous post on tips for VDB and Salt Paper.
Make a border
To decorate or make a kind of framing I drew with a permanent black marker on top of the negative to make the border and the title below.