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Cyanoprinting (blueprinting or sun printing)
Cyanoprinting, also known as blueprinting or sun printing, is a very old process that was invented in the mid 1800's to make blueprints on paper. The action of ultraviolet light on exposed iron salt chemicals produces an old-fashioned style Prussian blue-on-white picture on the fabric. Or you can alter the process slightly to mimic the sepia tones of old photographs. Pictures are produced by using half tone negatives or other objects such as leaves, grasses, flowers, lace or doilies on top of the chemically treated fabric to block the sun from some portions of the picture. Where the light hits the chemicals, the blue emerges but the blocked part stays white.
The cyanoprinting process is simple, fun to do and requires very little in the way of equipment. It is possible to buy the chemicals and treat your own fabric, but I prefer to buy it pre-treated. Unless you are planning to do a lot of cyanoprinting, it is cheaper and easier to buy the sun-sensitized fabric and avoid working with the chemicals and having to rig up a darkroom in which to work. Since the fabric used for cyanoprinting is 100% cotton, it is completely washable and the process does not change the hand of the fabric so it does not have a rubbery feel or any stiffness.
The images produced by cyanoprinting are usually sharp and clear as long as you are using a negative with good contrast. If you are careful, you can alter the negative by gently scraping away some of the emulsion with a razor blade or pin or paint some areas with India ink or pens made for writing on acetate. This is only for minor touch ups and will not compensate for a poor quality negative. Since you are working with a negative, you can also flip it to make a reverse image.
If you wish to cyanoprint a photograph, you must have a half tone negative of 85 to 100 dots per inch made at a photography or copy shop. You need a sharp photograph with good contrast and the negative image must be the size that you wish the finished print to be. The shop can enlarge your photo before they make the negative if you wish. If you have a computer and a scanner, you can produce your own negatives if you have the software that will allow you to scan and produce a negative image and print it on a acetate transparency.
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