How to Make Cyanotypes

If you’ve come here, I am guessing you have an interest in how to make cyanotypes or sun prints. I love the entire process of making cyanotypes. Some creative processes have steps you don’t like or are hard. But this is one thing, that I enjoy the whole way through. I make botanical cyanotypes. And collecting the plants, pressing them, and seeing how the sun interprets their shapes is pretty magical.

I will start by walking you through the basics and give you some tips. Then I'll go over the steps of how I make a cyanotype. This process is not limited to the steps I’ve laid out or even the tips given. It’s made for experimentation and exploration. So take what I’ve shared here as a starting point and see where creativity takes you.

Materials

Obviously, we’ll start with the tools we need. We’ll need some cyanotype chemicals, paper, and something to print with such as plants. I like to use Jacquard brand for the chemicals. They come in powder form. You add water to the bottle and shake. Then mixing equal parts of each, we have our solution.

Design

Next up, we’ll paint the mixture onto the paper and add our plants. Laying them out in interesting designs is lots of fun. I originally began with painting either one big area or the entire page. Recently, I’ve been switching it up and doing several panels across the page and getting glimpses of large plants across each of just small ones within the panel.

Time for the sun

Now the prints need to lay out in the sun. I find that in the Oregon summer, 5 minutes is a great amount of time to get the kinds of prints I like. Some papers or plants will require longer.

Voila!

And with a little water rinsing and some time to dry, you’ll have some fantastic cyanotypes.

Tips & Experimentation

I have the best luck with cheap paper. Watercolor paper works best for this kind of process because it needs to get wet several times and hold up to that kind of soaking. Canson makes an XL 9” x 12” watercolor pad that runs about $10. It has 30 tear off sheets in it. Because I like to work small, these pads last forever. I have tried Arches paper as well. That paper works great too, but it absorbs the chemicals differently and would require a longer period out in the sun and more rinsing perhaps. The shade of cyan is also a bit different with this higher quality paper. The Canson paper works so well for me and I am partial to the blue I get with it.

There are many techniques with making cyanotypes. I primarily work with the dry method as shown above. I let the paper dry before I put it out in the sun. But there is also the wet method, by which you skip the drying step and move straight to the sun. This provides a slightly different outcome. You can also add in other elements while it’s wet like turmeric, diluted vinegar, salt, or walnut ink. Even the rinsing process can be altered by adding a little peroxide.

The whole process of cyanotypes is customizable. So experiment and find the way that speaks deeply to you.

instructions

  1. Gather materials for printing (plants or stencil, frame with glass larger than your coated paper, timer/clock, container with cool water, towels, optional: tweezers, hydrogen peroxide, spring clamps) 

  2. Prepare a container larger than your paper with cool water. You will only need enough water to dip your paper and move it around in. Adding a smidge of hydrogen peroxide to the water quickens the development process, but is not necessary.

  3. Lay frame backing on your workspace and place one of the coated cyanotype papers on top.

  4. Place your printing materials (plants/stencil) on the paper in a design/layout you like. Using a pair of tweezers can help with placing tiny or delicate objects.

  5. Lay the glass from the frame on top of backing, paper, and your objects to hold them all together like a sandwich.

  6. Place the frame over the glass, flip it over, and secure the backing. Note: This step is optional as you can just use the weight of the glass to hold down your items. It might be helpful to put some tape over the edges of the glass to prevent any injuries. Some frames come with plexiglass. This can work just fine as long as it’s heavy enough to hold everything down. Otherwise, I’d suggest definitely using the frame to hold it together. Spring clamps are also handy if you don’t want to use the frame.

  7. Take your frame sandwich outside and lay it in direct sunlight.

  8. The amount of time to leave it out in the sun depends on many factors such as the time of day and intensity of the UV light. When fully exposed, the paper will turn a silvery color. 10 minutes is a great place to start on sunny day or 20 minutes for a cloudy day. You can adjust for other prints if it’s not the desired blue. In my experience, overexposing doesn’t change the outcome too much depending on the types of plants used. But underexposure will result in a lighter or even much lighter blue. (Making a test strip can help you nail down the timing if you want to be more precise. Mark off a piece of coated paper with sections for minute increments up to about 15. Cover up the strip with something dark like black paper. Expose 1 minute at a time pulling the dark paper over after each minute. Then develop as instructed in step 9. The intensity of the blue will change over each minute and you can choose the length of time that matches your desired blue.)

  9. Once the timer has elapsed, remove your print and take off your items. Take your print over to the container of water and place it inside. Swish the paper around side to side for a few minutes. The part of the paper that was covered by your objects will have the solution wash away. It will be yellowish at first and then change to white. You will know you are done when it changes to white.

  10. Lay your finished print on a towel. Blot the paper with another towel to remove any excess water.

  11. Leave print to dry. 

  12. Over the next 24 hours, the blue of the paper will deepen and be finished. If you used peroxide in your water bath, the blue will have been set immediately after rinsing.