“Cyanotypes and Waterwomen…”

Let me start off by saying that on my screen at least, this scan looks way to magenta and ‘harsh’ – pretty lousy in fact. When I have it open in Photoshop it looks pretty good – so what you see on the screen is just an approximation……

I just replaced the scan with a photo and it sure looks better. Still not quite as good as the print, but…..

Finally I have managed to make a decent Cyanotype print. I used to do them all the time, with ‘no sweat’ and for some reason, on this ‘go around’ I have had loads of difficulties. Here is what the negative looks like:

So I coated another two sheets of 8.5×11 inch Arches hot press watercolor paper this morning, gave it a couple of hours to dry and then exposed it on the Arts Center porch. One for 4.30 minutes, that came out a bit too dark, and the next one for 3.30 minutes that came out fine. Here it is washing in the sink. I developed it first for a minute or so in vinegar, the bottle on the left, and then followed that with a water development/wash for about five minutes. The print

in this photo looks a lot more like the original than the scan photo above. What I confirmed today was that I simply have to expose the paper within about a couple of hours of coating it or it oxidizes, or whatever it does, and is no good. That’s what happened to me the day before yesterday when I coated the other two sheets, and yesterday morning they looked like this:

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