Rainbow Reverie: Blue

Blue was not a color I expected to be able to get from anthotypes. I've found one really good dye and two that are alright, but definitely not as good as I had originally hoped.

Indigo Dye Test

Indigo: An extremely ancient and well-known natural blue dye, indigo has a complex chemistry and needs a whole lot of additives to function properly. Still, the indigo powder itself is a bright blue and I had hoped that it would stain the paper pretty well. It did produce a strong color, but it's just barely blue at all. The actual color is a dirty blue-grey with a strong yellow undertone. No data on exposure times yet.

Red Cabbage Anthotype

Red Cabbage: A very simple and easy dye, if a little deceptive. Red Cabbage produces a bright violet liquid after you run the leaves through a blender with some alcohol. If you boil the leaves in water, then you'll get a much paler purple. Despite the liquid being purple, the stain is a bright blue. As usual, the stain created from alcohol is much brighter and stronger. Possibly because of the poor autumn sunlight, my exposures are averaging around 1 week, but the contrast is very nice.

Woad Dye Test

Woad: Like indigo, Woad is a long-standing textile (and skin) dye. Also like indigo, Woad requires some work to function properly. It does best in an anerobic environment, which was not something I had any intention of trying to create. Fermentation vats are fine for fibers, but not for anthotypes. Still, the powder was a nice color and I tried it just mixed with alcohol. The resulting color is a gunmetal blue-grey kind of like old jeans. There's a lot of grainularity in the color. I tried filtering the mixture, but that didn't work. The resulting liquid was thin and violet, leaving little color behind. Still waiting on exposure data for woad, but the base color is interesting.