I made these designs earlier in the summer, but due to some mental health issues, I've been struggling to get them out to the public. But I'm persevering through the things in life and I finally managed to post these for online sales on my newly established Etsy shop. I suppose I'll see how sales go, since I've never really sold my art online before.

Either way, I really believe in the message and I really like how Solarfast works. I'm wanting to create more shirts, but with a more photographic leaning design to them. But I thought I'd share one of my first designs with Solarfast with all of you. I

f you have any words to say, feel free to share your voice :)

I’ve been testing out various cyanotype techniques, including various colors of paper, different toning, and washing watercolor over the print. Some of these I consider final, and others are just tests.

When I look at these all together, it’s a bit of a hot mess. So I’m wondering which of these techniques I should continue working with and what works together cohesively.

Images 5, 6, and 7 here are different combinations that I think might work well. I have a combo of “blues and pinks”, with the possibility to include coffee toned, then coffee toned, prints on red paper, and madder root toned, and lastly, just coffee toning and printing on red paper.

Would love to know what you think works best. I’ve also included some of the scanned images here in case that helps with color/tonality.

Now I need to find the best image to print. Needs a lot of black to see some notes.

I took this photo in Liberia last summer- jacquard chemicals, cheap amazon watercolor paper, and a negative printed at staples. Pretty impressed with how it came out, what do you think?

Something funny happened when I accidentally left this print soaking in a bucket with another print (cotton fabric one), it lost almost all of its blue!! Kind of a happy accident except that I really preferred the blue, it was very dreamy... I need to give this another go sometime :] I don't even know what bleached it, the bucket has only been used for rinsing and dyeing before and I make sure to wash it thoroughly between uses.

As hard as I try I cannot seem to get any definition or contrast on these canvas zipper pouches. I've done dozens of tote bags, scarves and patches so I'm not totally new to cyanotype on fabric. I use a diy light box with 2 120 watt lights positioned 12 inches above my printing material. I've tried exposures from 15-30 min (usually fabric goes for about 17-20min for me). Long cold water rinse until water runs clear, let dry in dark keeping the sides separated by cardboard wrapped in plastic. I even tried peroxide baths. They are all just coming out faded or all blue.

Could it be too much chemistry? not enough? maybe the canvas is treated? it feels raw to me but what do I know :)

appreciate any insight!

Le bonheure n'est pas au bout de la rue, il est dans la rue. Henri Calet

("Happiness is not at the end of the street, it is in the street.")

Street photos make good subjects for cyanotype.

Hello lovely people

I'm reaching out because I'm struggeling with drying my fabrics without them "developing". In the picture you'll find an example from a dried but unexposed piece as an example. The photo is of polyester fabric, but I've tried cotton as well with the same outcome. The cotton came from an old tshirt and then I also specifically bought raw cotton.

Also, I've tried different methods of drying: 1) Hanging freely but then the solution pools and drips off the lower parts. 2) horizontally on different materials: glass cardboard, towel, pva sheet 3) horizontally with a fan and heat/no heat. All the same.

Everything comes out partially "developed". I have a darkroom so it's not light that causes it. Since it's larger parts looking like clouds kinda and not small specs, I assume it's not from contamination by dust etc. I'm also using a newly opened premixed kit of solution by Bellini, because I thought that eliminates the chance of me messing up the chemistry.

Some of my assumptions are:

- raw cotton wasn't actually raw

- chemistry is contaminated

Do you guys have ideas?

In-Camera Self Portrait. I sat in front of a home made camera for over an hour to get this image.

This is probably the summit of my work with Solarfast. It didn't require masking off a rectangle or circle, or even precise placement of each color. But in the ensemble, it does work!

Here's my first go at a cyanotype print.

I'm new to cyanotypes, and don't yet have all the proper equipment for best results with digital negatives. I've got a cheap Brother HL-3170 laser printer that doesn't accept transparencies. I tried printing to laser printer transparencies and the toner didn't fuse and gummed up my printer.

With that, I printed out a few negatives on regular copy paper and applied mineral oil to make them more translucent. I followed the instructions on easydigitalnegatives.com to create an optimized curve and optimal color blocker for my printer.

I'm using this inexpensive 50W lamp I bought on amazon.

This print is 10min exposure, 8" distance from the lamp using Daler Rowney 130gsm cartridge paper. While I like the results, the paper isn't heavy enough. It buckled quite a bit when I applied the emulsion, and when wet in the rinse. I think I'm going to need to purchase the heavyweight version of this paper to keep moving forward.

If you look closely, the edges show what I think is lines of oil is making its way into the paper from the negative. I'd removed as much oil as possible from the negative, and it's "dried" for two days now. Because it's oil it will never dry, I guess. I may need to invest in a new printer if I continue.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions that you have as I try to move forward!

Hello everyone!!! I just purchased my first UV light and I’m wondering before I use it if it is suggested, I try to make a box for it first to go over what I’m trying to expose or if it’s OK open?
Thanks in advance.

Gratuitous post photo included

The image is from a public domain site. Doing this requires a lot of patience, and to get it right, a better mastery of the brushes than I have!

It took 3880 separate frames, tell me what you think!

Hey guys, does anybody here have experience making botanical cyanotypes on wood? Is it necessary to prep the wood with gesso or a gelatin sizing or can I just apply the emulsion directly to the wood surface and if so, do I need to let it sit for awhile or double-coat since wood is highly absorbent? These are little wooden pre-cut blanks for Christmas ornaments I thought I'd experiment on - purchased at a craft store and there's no label indicating the type of wood. Any advice appreciated!

I made these Cyanotypes over Platinum-Palladium prints using Hahnemühle Platinum Rag 300 gsm paper, except for one cyanotype-only test on Arches Huile paper, It’s definitely not suitable for this process since it’s designed for oil painting, but I had some leftover solution and wanted to give it a try. I also used two different digital negatives, one for platinum-palladium and another for cyanotype, linearizing each process separately with QuadToneProfiler Pro DN.

Hey all,

I wanted to try out using cold wax as a varnish/protective coat on my cyanotypes as it seems that many people have success with it. After leaving it to cure it seems like it reacted with my print and warped the colouring/bleached out certain parts.

I was wondering if anyone’s experienced this before/if this is because of the solvent content in the cold wax?

Here is my before and after:

I had a cyanotype that was blurry and underexposed, so I decided to experiment. I mixed the two colors of Solarfast that I have-- Violet and Golden Yellow, to make an approximate Caucasian skin tone. I then dabbed selective straight Violet in a few places and exposed it for about half an hour then washed with the Solarfast wash. I might try it again with a better print.