The 9 keys wet & dry cyanotype experiment

I got the idea into my head to make 9 small square cyanotypes, using watercolour paper and some gems from my antique key collection. What if (my favourite questions all begin with what if) I used a different technique and materials for each square, I wondered.

I’ve been playing with cyanotype for about 3 months, but only started experimenting with wet cyanotype this past week or so. I figured I’d split the squares – 5 dry cyanotypes and 4 wet. I started making a list of the different treatments and techniques I could apply and got to nine pretty quickly.

For the sake of the photos, I do regret the choice to reuse a busy green milk bag as my bottom plastic – sorry about the visual clutter! But I am trying to be mindful of my environmental impacts, in art and the rest of my life.

Here’s how they looked when I put them out in the sun, after adding the wet materials and clamping on my glass sheet.

Once the wet cyanotypes were baking out in the sun, I started processing the traditional cyanotypes in small groups. I tried an assortment of treatments to get different effects. In the first one (left side) I moved the key on the left half way through the exposure to the space on the right, leaving the middle key in the same spot. I wanted to see if there would be a difference between exposing the paper first and then covering it, versus covering it and then exposing it. (Spoiler: not really. I think maybe if I had made a shorter exposure on such a bright day, there would be a more noticeable difference. Next experiment!) And I used another Queen Anne’s Lace head, divested of some of it’s petals, for another exposure.

The next group I processed all together: a simple one with a key and a sprig of cedar, a key with a sprinkling of salt, and on the one that had supposed to be the diagonal mix of a full and diluted solution but ended up a squishy mess, I just plunked in another handful of keys because I wasn’t sure how well it was going to turn out anyway.

All of the dry cyanotypes had exposures of about 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, LOOK at how crazy the wet cyanotype was going! I kept going over to check on it and oohing and aahing at the crazy colours and patterns developing (pun intended). This is at about 40 minutes.

Is that not so cool?

I wanted to give the wet cyanotype about an hour to bake, so I finished rinsing the dry cyanotypes and hung them up to dry. In the photo below, down the left side the images are: sprinkled with salt, with Queen Anne’s Lace and with a sprig of cedar. Right side: weird splotchy application of solution, and moving a key from the left side to the right side half way through the exposure.

At the one hour mark, I decided to bring my wet cyanotype in even though it was still very wet. I’ve read that some folks prefer to leave their wet cyanotypes out until they are completely dry, but it was very hot to the touch and I was impatient and wanted to see what happened if the print wasn’t totally dry when I rinsed it. I was SO intrigued by the results! It was so hot that my plastic milk bag was lightly melted to the glass under the clamp. I gently lifted the glass and peeled up the papers, moving aside the keys and botanicals. This is what it looked like before the first rinse.

How cool is that? The keys have all been removed and most of the excess liquid drained away, and all you’re seeing above is the sediments and artifacts from what I added to the prints. The turmeric (bottom left) is practically burnt onto the page, but as soon as the water hit it, it mostly rinsed away. The prints on the right have delicious rust impressions from the rusty keys – top right had salt added, bottom right was the one with the Queen Anne’s Lace flower head.) And I love the squiggles from the soap bubbles on the top left!

You can see in the video embedded below that a lot of the debris washed away leaving the most amazing swirls of colour. (The music covers me exclaiming “whoa – holy shit!” as the water hits some of the prints!) I’m just over the moon at how interesting these wet cyanotypes with vintage keys turned out! I love how each phase of development is a surprise. Here they are drying on the line:

One last thing I wanted to try was to add some toning to one of the squares. I used tea because that’s what I had on hand and I’ve used it before to dye wool and yarn. I soaked four tea bags (of a brand I no longer favour) for about 15 minutes, then left one of the dry cyanotype squares in the steeped tea to soak – for about twice as long as I should have, it turns out. It was far darker than I intended after a 20 minute soak in the tea bath. Oh well, now the tones compliment the orange and rust tones in the wet cyanotypes, right? And orange is the complement of blue. Let’s go with it – another happy little accident.

Here is a collage of all nine experiments. I’d originally envisioned a final art piece with all nine in a grid, but I lost patience trying to align all the edges. This works for now!

And last but not least, here is a quick video I put together of the process.

If you’d like a closer look, you can also see each of the above images individually on my Instagram account @curious.crone.

Personally, I’m most enamoured with the random and unexpected results of the wet cyanotype. Which one is your favourite?