cyanotype ferns by ingrid2101

cyanotype ferns

Last of college work - hand in is on Thursday, just need to get all work mounted and an evaluation written for my mixed media work and an essay on photographers I chose. One photographer I chose was Anna Atkins as she was a woman doing this in the 19th century, I love alternative processes and wish I had more time to do them. The other photographer I chose was Wolfgang Tillmans simply because my reaction to the first image I saw of his was "WOW". I love his diversity and experimentation, I cannot even begin to emulate anything he does however I think about his work a lot. I also like that he isn't typecast as a certain kind of photographer.Thank you for all the lovely comments on the pinhole for yesterday.:)

Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate solutions
exposed for 30 mins in UV unit
washed for 30 mins
Such a beautiful shot - all good wishes for Thursday
May 20th, 2013  
Mac
This is beautiful! Would love it as a silkscreen, too!
May 20th, 2013  
Mel
Such a cool process, and such an awesome image! It's beautiful.
May 20th, 2013  
Lovely -- you must be taking a class using film. It sounds very challenging.
May 20th, 2013  
Rik
I love these cyanotype shots of yours. Love the ghostly look of this.
May 20th, 2013  
This s lovely Ingrid
May 20th, 2013  
beautiful
May 21st, 2013  
Beautiful. Great image and I love that colour
May 21st, 2013  
Outstanding creativity
May 21st, 2013  
ooh love this! I love the cyanotype you do too.
May 21st, 2013  
Wow that is crazy cool. What is the process for this? Is it anything like silk screening with negative emulsions?
May 21st, 2013  
Gorgeous! Love the forms and color. Good luck for final stretch!
May 21st, 2013  
JH
This is my fave one of these yet.

How is it that you are doing them, pliz to be informing us?!
May 21st, 2013  
beautiful as always
May 21st, 2013  
It's actually a really simple process - one of the easiest alternative photographic methods. You can buy the 2 chemicals - Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate- from a company called Silverprint (UK). They come in a powdered form and you mix up small quantities of each with water. You then combine the two liquids - this makes a light sensitive solution. Best to keep this dark, I just shove it in a drawer in my darkroom. You coat fairly strong paper ( lots of washing later) - I use Fabriano hot pressed as I don't want lots of texture. Leave this to dry or use a hairdryer if you're impatient. This doesn't need to be done in complete darkness as the chems are not highly sensitive. I do it in the darkroom with the door slightly open. When your paper is dry you put the object on top and either expose it in sunlight or if you have access to a UV unit all the better. As our weather is crap I bought a small unit. It's also more controllable . I exposed this for 30 mins then washed it for another 30 mins. What happens is the UV hardens the chemicals, however where light is blocked the chemicals remain unhardened and wash away. Hope this helps, if you ever want to try just ask for more details. It can also be done with digital negatives ( printed out on inkjet transparency). It's fun , simple and a great intro into alternative processes
Paul - it is kind of the same way - I did a photo stencil silkscreen last week and very similar principle :)

@jewelsandbinoculars @pfassett
May 21st, 2013  
JH
Thank you!! I'm definitely up for giving it a go, so am likely to be back with stupid Qs anon.
May 21st, 2013  
Another great image Ingrid, and thank you for the description of how it's done, very interesting
May 21st, 2013  
"It's actually a really simple process - one of the easiest alternative photographic methods. You can buy the 2 chemicals - Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate- from a company called Silverprint (UK). They come in a powdered form and you mix up small quantities of each with water. You then combine the two liquids - this makes a light sensitive solution. Best to keep this dark, I just shove it in a drawer in my darkroom. You coat fairly strong paper ( lots of washing later) - I use Fabriano hot pressed as I don't want lots of texture. Leave this to dry or use a hairdryer if you're impatient. This doesn't need to be done in complete darkness as the chems are not highly sensitive. I do it in the darkroom with the door slightly open. When your paper is dry you put the object on top and either expose it in sunlight or if you have access to a UV unit all the better. As our weather is crap I bought a small unit. It's also more controllable . I exposed this for 30 mins then washed it for another 30 mins. What happens is the UV hardens the chemicals, however where light is blocked the chemicals remain unhardened and wash away. Hope this helps, if you ever want to try just ask for more details. It can also be done with digital negatives ( printed out on inkjet transparency). It's fun , simple and a great intro into alternative processes"

And this is why you are awesome
May 21st, 2013  
@jase_again Haha! Thank you Jase :)
May 21st, 2013  
Actually sounds wonderfully do-able. Good luck with your hand-in. I am sure you'll do well.
May 21st, 2013  
Another gorgeous image. Way over my head thow lol! ;)
May 23rd, 2013  
This seems quite delicate
May 25th, 2013  
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