Sue Reno Studio: Experiments in wet cyanotype

June 16, 2026

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 103

Welcome to part 103 of my experiments in wet cyanotype printmaking. I had an steamy hot day to work with, so rather than venture far I picked what was readily at hand-- some horribly invasive Japanese knotweed leaves and some lovely native boxelder twigs. This time of year the leaves are fresh and vibrant, but there are already a few bits of insect damage apparent. These are the print layouts, on cotton, after treating with cyanotype and Solarfast chemicals and before exposure.

I'm also back at it with the experimental prints on mineral paper. These are incredibly unpredictable and often spectacular. Here I'm using some cutleaf elderberry leaves and boxelder twigs.

Here's all the prints after exposure and before rinse out.

Those rusty brown colors on the mineral paper always rinse out, so it's fun to get a photographic record at this stage.

Here are the two finished cotton panels. There's lots of good stuff going on in these prints. At some point they will make their way into an art quilt or some other form of fiber art.