How I discovered Cyanotypes

From Autumn 2017 to Christmas 2019, Mr M and I were adventuring on the high seas. A bucket list item well and truly ticked off, we sailed from France across the Atlantic through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to New Zealand - but not all in one go! There were lots of stops along the way! We got used to a life of never knowing what was going to happen next, who we were going to meet and seeing so many exciting places and cultures.

And then we arrived home, totally overstimulated and so looking forward to catching up with friends and family but barely able to say hello to the next door neighbours as the Pandemic struck. 
What a shock to the system - going from the freedom of the sea and far flung places to a micro-existence in the back garden, Netflix and online shopping! In between the bouts of DIY, daily walk and experimental cocktails I did some browsing for cushions and bits to brighten up the nest (as we all did) and discovered these beautiful pictures. Here’s an example.....

You’re probably thinking, and you’re dead right, the amount of Blue I had experienced at sea for weeks on end had gone to my head! But whether consciously or subliminally I was really drawn to these pictures - the wonderful Prussian blue and the contrasting almost photographic white image of a flower, leaf, feather ... whatever the subject may be.

I discovered they are called Blue Prints or to use the technical term Cyanoprints - it’s the same process that engineers used well into the 20th century as a simple way to produce copies of their drawings, referred to as blue-prints. The process uses 2 chemicals which when mixed together create a photo- sensitive  liquid that you paint onto paper. When exposed to light it turns blue whilst any areas shielded from the light by the subject eg a poppy go white.

So I had to give it a go as part of the repertoire of lockdown activities and became obsessed! Love mixing a potion of chemicals, love a bit of painting papers in the dark, can’t get enough of foraging for plants, flowers, leaves - snipping from other peoples front gardens gives me such a rush!
All in all it has been a perfect creative storm of lots of things that I love - botanical art, painting and drawing, flower arranging combined with some adventure, unpredictability, alchemy and surprise  - the results of making a Cyanoprint can never be taken for granted - it takes a lot of experimentation and fiddling about to create a picture worthy of a wall but I’m getting there. I’ve set a workshop up .......

And a website...

And developed my own style and technique of work - natural, loose compositions of flowers, leaves and plants in season at the time, using Indian cotton rag Khadi paper which is rough edged and rough textured and. the best bit of all............. prints with a fabulous spectrum of blues from indigo and navy to China blue and teal and everything in between.

Here’s one of my favourites - CowParsley

So if it’s not blue much, I thought I’d start a blog to occasionally share my adventures into the wild blue yonder. This is where I’m at...... the Cow Parsley has sold! And so have a few others so there is some interest in these etchings! 

It’s a small step for Cyan, a giant leap for bluemanity!! Ha ha!

Follow along by signing up to the email list on the website if you can bear it! Plenty more where that came from I promise you! X

https://katemullock.co.uk