What are cyanotypes ? Cyanotypes were invented by a man named John Herschel in 1842. You make cyanotypes by mixing Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric ammonium citrate separately with water. These two solutions get mixed together, then painted all over paper. The paper gets exposed to sunlight, and objects of your choice get placed on it. The paper is exposed to sunlight, then washed in water.
Anna Atkins, a botanist and photographer, was the first person to publish a book using cyanotypes. There are only 17 copies of her book, Photographs Of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, known to exist. Before using photography, the only way authors could show the reader what they were describing was to have artists illustrate them, however, different artists had different styles of drawing, which made the pictures that they drew unreliable, so when photography was invented, it was a very good thing for authors.
After we had learnt a bit about cyanotypes and Anna Atkins, we got given some cyanotype paper and a variety of object, and we made our own cyanotypes.
My Cyanotypes:
This was my first cyanotype. I used some leafs and a bit of wire, and at first the way they were laid out looked good, but as soon as I put them on the paper, they blew away. It didn't work too well, as the objects let the light through as well as being too light and blowing away, meaning that the sun light reacted to the paper without having anything on it.
This was my second cyanotype, and I think it turned out better than my first, mainly because the objects were heavier, therefor they stayed on the paper. These objects also didn't allow as much light through as the previous ones, making the picture clearer. They were also bolder, leaving a bigger imprint.