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Old 6th February 2021, 02:16 PM
Paul Walding Paul Walding is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: West Cumbria
Posts: 12
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Seeing Ian's excellent set of images reminded me of my efforts over some time to produce a toned cyanotype that appealed to me. What I wanted was to change the tone of the Prussian Blue but not stain the paper and so retain the crisp appearance of a good plain cyanotype. I never really succeeded.
Bleaching, however carefully, at any stage of the toning always seemed to degrade the eventual image. It is certainly recommended by a number of authorities on the subject but I never found it useful.
Black tea and coffee of various sorts tended to stain the paper too heavily for my liking.
Green tea (Morrisons own brand) produced a half decent effect with a blue/black tone and minimal staining of the paper while an infusion of camellia (Camellia japonica) shoots could sometimes produce even better results but was rather variable. This is not really surprising as the tea pant (Camellia sinensis) belongs to the same family but you need plenty of young shoots from the plant and Mrs W was less than impressed by my explanation that our camellia plant would benefit from extensive pruning.
I did produce a few prints that I quite liked but none that were exactly what I wanted. Tannins of some sort seem to be the only way to tone cyanotypes unless anyone has a suggestion.

Yes, Terry, I saw that ITV ident with what looked like a cyanotype.

Happy toning, Paul
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