Over the past few months, I decided to start making cyanotype prints. These are the classic blueprint pictures that are fairly easy to make at home. I have always had a love of black and white prints on silver-gelatin, but to make them generally requires a bit of equipment and space, which goes against my general principles (at least for now. I like to keep things simple and be ready to move without bringing along truckloads of stuff. As I searched for a new creative outlet, I stumbled upon cyanotype and found some simple kits online.
To make a cyanotype print, one just needs the sun. This seems like an easy concept, unless you live in the Netherlands and the winter solstice is quickly approaching. I made a few attempts with the sun shining into my apartment, but it was nearly impossible to make a nice exposure. After deciding that a soldering iron is a good tool to have, even if it is donated after my next move, I decided to make an LED array for exposing the prints. The last piece of the puzzle, making negatives, was also a bit of an adventure, as I had to figure out where in the Netherlands to print a few images on transparencies (and the Dutch word for them).
I was so pleased with my first few attempts on my new setup that I decided to make my Christmas cards this year using the technique. I only made a few for close friends and family, but I think they generally turned out well. I can highly recommend cyanotype as a way to start exploring with printmaking for those of us who are not so great at drawing.
