Making Cyanotype Snowdrops

Well, February’s here would you believe?! Already on my walks around Rayleigh Mount, our lovely local green space, there are signs of new growth breaking through the ground beneath the trees, with the first flowers of 2024 shyly showing their beautiful faces. Snowdrops are one of my favourite flowers, filling me with hope for the new life and growth promised by spring – although winter is by no means over yet of course…

I took a photograph of snowdrops on a recent walk and decided to use the image to create a little A6 (postcard size) cyanotype print. I know that many of my followers over on instagram love this process for making prints and I get many questions from people whenever I post on this topic – so I thought a run-through of how I made this print would be a good blog theme for February! I’m often asked what products I use for making my prints – and I really can’t recommend the cyanotype kit from Jacquard Products highly enough – it’s so easy to use! Jacquard products also make a lot of super informative tips and resources available – do visit their WEBSITE for more information!

The vast majority of my cyanotype prints are created from photographs I’ve taken around my local area where I live. Once I’ve decided on a photograph I want to develop as a print, the first thing I do is to make a digital negative of the image onto clear film, which I will then use to create the cyanotype image. This may sound all rather technical – but it’s actually really easy. If you have a computer with an image manipulation software package like Adobe Photoshop, follow these simple steps to create a negative from your photograph:

• Launch Photoshop
• Open your image
• Convert to grayscale (image-mode-grayscale)
• Invert the image to make a negative (image-adjustments-invert)
• You have your negative!

Once I’ve created my negative, I will need to print it onto clear film in order to be able to use it. I use sheets of A4 transparent OHP film to print my negatives with my inkjet printer – it’s important to make sure that the film you purchase is compatible with either an inkjet or laser printer, depending on which one you have.

When I have a negative I’m happy with, I can go ahead and make my cyanotype prints! The paper choice is important – I always use a thick (at least 300gsm) watercolour paper, as this is robust enough to withstand being repeatedly washed in water without disintegrating! I tend to choose a cold-pressed paper as I prefer the smoother surfaces, although this is down to personal taste. My current favourites are Bockingford 300gsm cold-pressed and Fabriano Smooth S, which is slightly whiter in colour than the Bockingford.

Once I’ve cut or torn my paper to size, I will then go ahead and coat each sheet with the light-sensitive cyanotype emulsion. This can take practice, but a better result is achieved with as even a coating as you can manage. I don’t worry about the rough edges though, as in my opinion they add to the handmade charm of the finished piece 🙂

Coated paper must be stored in a dark cupboard or drawer until it is completely dry and used within 24 hours – then it’s simply a case of laying the negative over each sheet and exposing to UV light for a set time. I’m lucky to have a small UV light box for this, but arguably the nicest results are achieved by exposing to natural sunlight. I’m often asked about optimum exposure times, but in reality the saying “how long is a piece of string?” comes to mind… Honestly, exposure times vary so much according to UV strength and even the type of emulsion you’ve used to coat the paper with – the only fool proof way of finding optimum exposure times is through trial and error. My exposure time for these snowdrop prints was 5 minutes. I tried one with 6 minutes to see if I could get greater depth with the blue, but I was starting to lose some of the details and definitions I loved so much about the original image, so I reverted to 5 minutes for the rest of the prints.

Once the print has been exposed, I wash it thoroughly in cold water until all of the sensitiser has been removed and the print appears as a clear blue, with no yellowish deposits anywhere. You don’t necessarily need to wash under running water – use a suitably sized container 3 quarters full of cold water to wash and agitate the print, changing the water several times until it is completely clear of the yellow sensitiser – less wasteful than a constantly running tap! When I’m happy that the print is completely clean, I will usually submerge it in a hydrogen peroxide solution. This has the “magical” effect of instantly increasing the depth of the Prussian blue – something I’m frequently asked about in my Instagram posts! The hydrogen peroxide is a relatively weak (3%) strength and you don’t need to add a lot to the bath for it to be effective – but do make sure you avoid any contact with skin/eyes if you are going to perform this stage in the process. It’s technically not necessary to use hydrogen peroxide as the print will oxidise naturally over the next 24 hours into the familiar deep blue we all love and associate with cyanotype prints.

Once I’ve made the prints, I leave them to dry on my flat laminated table top and then flatten them further if necessary under my press, when they’re dry.

So there you have it – I’m really happy with my snowdrop prints and I hope you love them too! I realise I’ve probably skated through the process and I know that some people are ocasionally a little frustrated at the brevity and lack of detailed steps in the videos I post on Instagram… Do please comment below and ask me any questions and I will do my best to answer. I also have a downloadable tutorial available in my shop for creating tiny cyanotype prints on teabags, if you’re interested! Any suggestions for future blog topics or tutorial downloads would be very welcome!

I’ll be back here with another blog next month – enjoy your February!