Several people used hibiscus flowers and the conditions and timing were perfect to show off the translucency.
Aside from the paper prints we do little drawstring bags, those ended up neat today as well. Sometimes it’s trickier to get a good exposure on them.
I was put off from ever experimenting on my own because of the poisonous chemicals, stopping at BW film development at home. How did you learn, and would that be something you’d recommend learning on your own from reading materials?
The chemicals used in cyanotype are very safe! Safer than traditional photo development, even B&W. I never wear gloves, even.
You can get started with minimal knowledge–all you really need to read is the directions on the back of the bottle. To lean the intricacies obviously takes a lot longer, mostly just experience and practice. Beyond the basics, when I have a question I’ll Google. Picked up some cool tidbits on Reddit. But mostly I just experiment!
Cool! I must have that mixed with another process - maybe palladium or something. I could swear there was one that used a cyanide compound, and the names probably got crossed in my brain.
Thank you! Time to search for an enlarger.
Ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. Don’t bathe in it but I’ve never had any irritation from splashes on my skin that I wash off, or from rinsing with no gloves (the final rinse is in plain water). Don’t mix it with a lot of acid (not sure why you would) because then it makes cyanide gas, but in the process of making cyanotypes, very very safe!
I’ve never used enlargers for this process. They’re exposed with UV light so you’d have to use a UV bulb with it and from my brief Google, there’s varying success. When I do photos, I print the negatives full size on transparency film and expose in the sun.