Thea and Mandy were leading an art workshop at the same time, and they got interested in cyanotypes. So after our morning workshops were over, we did some experimenting. In the evenings, after it got dark, we coated several different kinds of paper with cyanotype emulsion. During the day, we experimented with different compositions using natural object to make photograms. We even took a field trip to the Portland Museum of Art, where there’s a special exhibit of Jo Sandman’s large photograms on platinum-palladium paper.
We didn’t wind up with much in the way of finished art works. But we learned a great deal. As Thea kept reminding us, often the process is more important than the product.
The past couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with cyanotype as a way to get people to look more closely at plants. This post is some notes to myself about cyanotype resources. (Updated 30 May 2025 with additional links and more info. Further updated 12 July 2025 with more info. Further updated 17 July 2025 with more info.)
Cyanotype of grasses and rushes (actual size 4 inches square)
Cyanotype in the classroom
Lawrence Hall of Science sells “Sunprint Kits” with 12 pieces of 4 inch square cyanotype paper and a clear acrylic overlay sheet. Cost buying direct from them is US$5.99 per kit (do not buy from Amazon where the price is higher). This cyanotype paper develops quickly and requires little water to develop — perfect for classroom use.
Lawrence Hall of Science also sells refill packs of 12 sheets of cyanotype paper for US$3.99. The kits and refills are ideal for class use — inexpensive enough to allow people to experiment. You can also purchase kits and refills with 8-1/2 by 11 inch cyanotype paper from them. The larger sheets are more expensive (about US$1 per sheet), but if your class gets serious about cyanotypes the larger size allows for more possibilities.
Bostick and Sullivan is the major supplier of alternative photographic processes. I haven’t purchased from them, but they stock cyanotype printing kits and cyanotype toning kits (which include bleach and tannic acid). You can also purchase the two constituent chemicals, ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, separately.
Other sources for cyanotype chemistry include Photographer’s Formulary and several European suppliers.
The Cyanotype Store sells a cyanotype kit which includes chemicals as well as a light-safe bag, which could be useful. But this kit doesn’t seem as high quality as the Jacquard kit (see above).
Finding paper that’s good for cyanotype can be a challenge, since not only must the paper stand up well to repeated wetting, but the pH of the paper is also important. Christina’s Anderson’s 2018 article on paper choices is dated by now (some of the papers are no longer made, as paper companies change things over time), but still worth reading.
One of the paper Anderson recommends highly is Canson Bristol Recycled. This appears to be the same as what is now sold under the name Canson XL Bristol Recycled. This paper is inexpensive and readily available from stores like Michael’s and Dick Blick.
Although I haven’t used Canson XL Bristol, I have used Canson XL Watercolor paper with good results — I’d recommend it for a relatively inexpensive paper. Widely available at places like Michael’s and Dick Blick.
I’ve also used Yasutomo “Sketch,” another inexpensive paper, with good results. This is an unsized Hosho-type paper. It’s inexpensive and produces lovely results. However, it’s very fragile in water and tears easily during the developing process. It also soaks up a lot of the emulsion, so it requires longer developing times. If you’re patient, this could be fun to try — but the effort might not be worth the final results.
My top choice for paper: At a week-long summer art workshop, three of us decided that Fabriano Medievalis paper gave the best results. Plus the paper is slightly cream-colored, which nicely sets off the Prussian blue of the cyanotype. Perhaps serious cyanotype afficionados would sneer at it, but we liked it best for the images we were creating.
Cyanotype books
Be warned: many of the books on cyanotype available online are self-published; I doubt whether they’re worth buying. The following two books come from reputable publishers.
Many of the cyanotype websites appear to be “AI”-generated slime. Others are too basic (“Expose the cyanotype paper, put it water, look at the result!”). But I found the following websites to be well worth a look.
Cyanotypes with plants
Cyanotype by Angela Chalmers, a PDF, gives instructions on making cyanotype photograms using plants. Great ideas, and the author’s photograms are gorgeous.
Using artificial light to expose cyanotypes should lead to more consistent and predictable results. Photographer Steph Coffman has a page on her website detailing how she made cyanotypes indoors using a UV light box. She uses the Everbeam 50W 365nm wavelength UV flood light for a light source, and reports exposure times of 30-60 minutes. (Everbeam also makes the same light in a 100W version, which should result in shortened exposure times.) However, people on the cyanotype subreddit have gotten much shorter exposure times — one difference might be distance of light source from the paper (inverse square law), which also affects the size of paper you can use.
The “Koraks Tinkers” blog has a post pointing out the difference between collimated vs. diffuse light when exposing cyanotypes. The post points out that direct sunlight provides collimated light, while an overcast day provides diffuse light. When exposing with artificial light, there will be a different between a point source and a bank of lights. This difference is less important when making contact prints from a negative, but will produce quite different results with 3-D objects. Cloudy skies = diffuse light, and blurred edges. Clear skies = collimated light, and sharp edges. (For UV light boxes: an array of point sources, e.g. LEDs, about 16 inches from the paper will produce fairly sharp edges; a greater distance will make it sharper, but with longer exposure times.)
