the late cyanotype

Here's the cyanotype picture that I created at the beginning of the semester. The objects I used are part of the dozens of little treasures that I have exposed all over my bedroom. The most visible are two little toy guns. It was a good experience to learn this process that was previously totally unknown to me. I just wished that there was other color possible since blue is my least favorite color.

What we did was pretty simple. Dave mixed the substance that we were going to use (Ferric Amonium Citrate and Potassium Ferrycyanide), I remember that he had to be real careful since some of the elements were highly toxic. Once the sunlight sensitive substance was mixed, we coated one side of the paper with a thick equal layer, making sure not to put any around the edges of the paper, to give it some kind of frame. Once the substance dried up it looked yellow\ green. Now it was time to take it outside to have it exposed to the sun's ultra-violet rays.

When the sunlight hit the paper, the areas that were not covered by the objects turned into more of a gray color. Everywhere you could see the green vanish. This took around 8 minutes. As soon as the exposure was done, we took the paper back inside and washed it in water to remove the active part of the substance. The areas that were not covered by objects turned into a blue color, and the ares of the paper that were under the objects took a very light blue color, almost white.

I am quite happy with the result, it is amazing how the most beautiful things can be so simple sometimes. I would like to do this on my own in the future, maybe try with bigger surfaces or even on clothes, but the fact that some of this stuff is highly poisonous is kind of holding me back.