Cyanotypes
I’ve had cyanotype solution for ages, but never used it. I finally got my act together and made a print on a white t shirt.
I chose a maple leaf as the subject, and put the print slightly off centre on my chest. The entire process was eyeballed and done without much planning, and with that in mind it turned out pretty well.
I ran two test prints to figure out the right exposure time, which I don’t actually remember, but here’s the test pieces:
In the end I just went with my gut and exposed the final piece much longer than either of these, since I thought both were much too light. I think the final print ended up being exposed for around 20 minutes in mid-day sun? But I don’t really know.
There was some spillage of the chemicals from underneath the plexiglass, which created that ugly looking border effect seen above.
Thankfully, I was able to wash the border away with some bleach, which left me with a clean look:
This came out a lot better than I expected! Though the print eventually turned a greenish colour after a couple of wears and washes, which I think was due to my washing powder or something.
Ah well, better luck next time.
As a bonus, here’s a clip of the cyanotype on the test piece developing.