Sue Reno Studio: Experiments in wet cyanotype

June 20, 2022

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 76

Hello, welcome to part 76 of my experiments in wet cyanotype. I've been at this since June of 2017, and show no signs of stopping. Each and every time I have a printmaking session I am enchanted by the process. I share my experiments, the good, the bad, and the indifferent (although it's mostly been good) simply because it brings me pleasure to do so, and in the hopes that you enjoy following along.

This time out I started with some common mullein leaves, Verbascum thapsus. It's originally a European species, but it's been here since the 1700's. As far as I know it's not causing any serious problems in the way some non-native invasives do. I usually encounter it as solitary plants that are integrated into the wild landscape. It's a biennial, so its first year it grows a rosette of leaves, and the next summer it sends up a truly impressive flower stalk.

I love the leaves because they are huge, and they are fuzzy. They are very dramatic in a print, and the thick furry leaves can manage a long exposure in the sun without collapsing. For scale, these prints are cotton sateen panels about 24" x 48". In the first panel I used just mullein, and in the second added a huge leaf (I have a thing about huge leaves, obviously) from a cultivated Ligularia 'Desdemona', and a quartet of oakleaf hydrangea leaves.

I mixed the cyanotype chemicals with a slug of Solarfast green, and watered them down just a bit because I was at the end of my ready mixed supply and needed to stretch it.

Here are the panels after a nice long exposure. The weather was in the mid-70s F and the sun peeked in and out of the clouds.

Here they are after rinsing and finishing. They are a bit paler than my usual but the seemed to suit the day and the weather and the general ambiance of early June very well.