A Different Kind Of Souvenir

Old school

Have you ever thought of bringing home a different kind of souvenir? Something that will fit in your luggage more easily than that 10 piece copper pot set or the 12-foot long Persian rug? I’m talking about cyanotype. What’s that you ask…well…

Cyanotypes are those pretty blue images you may have seen in old photography textbooks. It’s an old school printing process discovered by Sir John Herschel (English scientist and astronomer) in 1842. Herschel used it mostly for blueprints but it was Anna Atkins who was the first to use it for photographic purposes.

What you’ll need

You can always buy a kit to make life easier but if you decide to do it yourself this is what you’ll need:

• a small container (to mix your chemicals)
• a wide paint brush or sponge
• watercolour paper
• a light protective envelope
• ferric ammonium citrate (green)
• potassium ferricyanide (20%)
• distilled water
• 2 light protective bottles
• snap frame to fit your paper (dollar store’s sell all sizes)
• a syringe from a drug store (works well for mixing)
• hydrogen peroxide
• negatives, objects, flora
• Tungsten light (optional)

It’s an easy enough process, first, you’ll need to mix the powdered chemicals with water. Take one of your bottles and put in 25g of ferric ammonium citrate and mix with 100mL of water. In the other bottle mix 10g of potassium ferricyanide (20%) and 100mL of water. Make sure to mix until everything is dissolved. Now set up a work area and mix equal parts of the chemicals in a small container, mix only what you will need because you’ll be throwing out what you don’t use.

Using your paintbrush or sponge, coat the paper. You don’t need to cover the whole paper, only the area where you will be placing your negatives/leaves/objects.

Let the papers dry in a dark area and then place them in a lightproof envelope until you’re ready to use.

Caution:
– You should always be careful when dealing with chemicals.
– Do not breathe in the powder.
– Make sure to properly label your bottles and keep out of range of children and people who drink kool-aid (once mixed it looks a lot like kool-aid).

Gifts and souvenirs

Make sure to mark your envelope “photo paper, open in complete darkness” so that customs officers don’t expose your coated paper. I have brought this envelope through to the US and Europe with no problem. They may swab it but they have never insisted on opening it.

When you get to your destination, find things from that area, it can be a plant or an object (flat objects work the best).

When you’re ready, find a dark place ( a closet or windowless bathroom works well, you can also do this using  (tungsten lighting) take your dollar store clip frame and place one of the coated papers on it, place your leaves etc on the paper, put the glass over it and clip it into place. Expose it to sunlight for 15 to 45 minutes depending on the amount of cloud coverage, the iron in the exposed areas will be reduced and turn the paper a blue colour. After exposing, wash your paper in cold tap water for 10-20 minutes or until there is no more yellow stain coming off. Add a capful of hydrogen peroxide to clean rinse water and swish around for about 2 minutes. Rinse under cold water and let dry. You’ll be left with a beautiful image to take home or leave for your hosts.

Film photography – film is cool!

If you’re still shooting film, you can use the negatives to create cyanotypes by following the same procedure as above.

So if you’re looking for an original souvenir to bring back from your travels or to make a gift while travelling, think old school and try cyanotype!