Time for an experiment! This is a cyanotype of a skunk cabbage flower. I used a duotone technique which produces two different colors. Cyanotypes are typically (or should I say naturally) blue. But you can modify the color by treating the print after it dries. The most common is to tone with tannin to give a brown or even black color – I use coffee or tea. You can also bleach the print with sodium carbonate. This gives a more pale color from gold to yellow.

This print was made by first separating the negative into two color layers. The first layer is blue. I did the first printing with this “blue” negative and my typical cyanotype process. I did use a longer exposure to get very dark colors. Then after development, the print was bleached in a dilute solution of sodium carbonate (washing soda) until the color was a yellow gold. The washed and dried print was then printed again using the red/green channel negative. This negative has the rest of the image and produces the blue in the print.

I really like how the image turned out! This was a first experiment so pretty lucky it turned out this well. I will be doing more of these in the future!

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Check out more cyanotypes in my Portfolio