Cyanotypes on glass...

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here and thought I would share an experiment Bence and myself undertook last year exploring cyanotype and glass. As I couldn't find a great deal of information on this process anywhere we had to just experiment with trail and error. The first couple of attempts failed dramticaly, it was a method I had found online consisting of coating glass plates with pure gelatine and cyanotype solution, this all melted off and ended up making rather a lot of mess. We then moved onto using subbing solution to bond the cyanotype solution to the glass.

Plate No. 1

After a lot of failed attempts these are the first plates with the beginning of an image, plate no.1 is subbing solution mixed with normal strength cyanotype solution.

Cyanotype solution (part A & B mixed in equal parts)

Part A
Ferric Ammonium Citrate                              16g
Distilled Water                                               100ml
Part B
Potassium Ferricyanide                                  8g
Distilled Water                                               100ml

The subbing solution wasn't fresh and as you can see ended up leaving lumps of crystallised gelatine on the plate. 

Plate No. 2

Subbing solution (even when old) seemed promising as there was a vague image on plate no.1, so we started experimenting with different ratios of subbing solution and cyanotype solution, with varied results. Plate no.2 is fresh subbing solution mixed with cyanotype solution which is then poured onto the glass plate. This was then left to dry in the black and white darkroom for about four hours before exposing with a UV lamp. There is a more prominent image but the cyanotype chemicals became too diluted once mixed with the subbing solution thus creating a rather patchy photograph.

Plate No. 3

Plate no.3 is the same technique as plate no.2, mixing subbing and cyanotype solution together but this time we only added half the water (50ml instead of the normal 100ml) when mixing the cyanotype solution making it double strength as it would then be added to 100ml of subbing solution. This was an improvement but the cyanotype solution was still finding it hard to stick to the glass.

Plate No. 4

It was suggested we could try using albumen as this is used in the wet plate collodion process. The whole plate was first coated in albumen and left to dry. After completely dried three solutions were applied in order help adhere the cyanotype to the glass. Split into thirds from left to right, cyanotype double strength solution mixed with albumen, cyanotype double strength solution mixed subbing solution, cyanotype double solution alone.

By coating the whole plate first the second solution had something to stick to creating a more even and detailed result. The albumen has created small bubbles all over the surface of the plate, making the final image very grainy, so we decided to try subbing solution for the initial coating before applying the subbing-cyanotype solution.

Plate No. 5

This plate has been coated with a layer of subbing solution that we let dry, then coated with the cyanotype double strength solution mixed with subbing solution and poured onto the surface to create a thin, even layer.

Plate No. 6

Plate no.6 was to test the exposure times for the solution, starting from the right hand-side in 5 minute intervals. 10-15 minutes seems to be the best exposure bracket for this image. 

Plate No. 7

At 12 minutes this exposure was a little over, the detailing on the face and ears are lost due to being overexposed.

Plate No. 8

The final process - coat the plate in a thin layer of subbing solution, once dry pour a thin coating of subbing/cyanotype double strength solution and allow to fully dry in the dark for around 12 hours.

Exposure was 8 minutes under a UV lamp.

The right hand-side of the plate was propped up on a piece of kitchen towel while drying which absorbed most of the solution resulting in lost of image. I actual think this "happy accident" adds to the final photograph, highlighting the process involved to create it.