Printmaking: Cyanotype

Cyanotype is a process developed in the 20th century originally used to produce blue prints. It's similar to the photograms I created during my foundation course at college (http://amberatlantis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/skills-rotation-photography.html) except the result is blue and white.

Since our project is based around identity, we were asked to bring in objects that have significant relevance to ourselves. I bought in a CD case and ear phones because I love music, as well as some ocean animal figures to signify my relation to the ocean. I also produced a shoe print onto a sheet of acetate by painting acrylic onto a pair of boots that have the anarchy symbol moulded into the sole. We put them on paper that had been coated in light sensitive paint and put them under UV lamps / in direct sunlight to expose them.

After the exposure the green / yellow paint turns a dark green. The print is then washed them in a tray of water with a tiny amount of peroxide in, and then rinsed them in pure water. This removes any of the paint in unexposed areas and develop the paint into it's blue colour. We left them to dry and then the process was complete!

I was really happy with my shoe print because it's quite detailed and you can see the lines from where the acetate was - I like how ghostly and x-ray like it appears. The print that I used 3D objects with didn't come out as I expected because I left it in the sun as the UV lamp was unavailable, and this created shadows at an angle, where as if I put it directly under a lamp this wouldn't have happened. I tried to create an ocean scene where the ear phones formed the sea and waves then the dolphin and shark would be characters in the scene, but again the angle of the light makes it hard to tell, but I'll keep that in mind for next time!