Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Pressing Paper Problems

In an earlier post, I talked about substrates that can be used for anthotypes. I stand by the advice given in that post, except for one detail. At the very end, I mention that largely what goes for anthotypes also goes for cyanotypes.

Speckles on Arches 140 lbs
Whelp. That's not quite correct because you don't have to develop anthotypes. They don't get washed or anything, you just paint on the pigment and let 'em expose. That's it. Cyanotypes do have to be developed. They require at the very least a water bath of several minutes to clear the excess chemistry and expose the image. In fact, this should be a fairly extended bath to make sure there's no hidden chemistry lurking in the paper fibers. When you start wanting to tone a cyanotype, you're looking at even more baths. Generally at least four more: a bleaching bath, a rinse to remove the bleaching agent, a toning bath and then a final wash to remove extra toner. All that water is going to be hell on your paper unless you're using the right kind of paper.

If you're just printing a regular cyanotype, you're probably still clear to use most of the types of paper I covered in the anthotype substrate post. The cheapest types of alternative process paper (you want at least 100 pound) is going to be watercolor paper. It can be Canson, Arches or even a store-brand. I've had quite decent results on generic, store-brand 100-pound watercolor paper when printing ordinary, one-coat, one-wash cyanotypes.

Bleeding Edges on Arches 140 lbs
However, if you want to get complex with your cyanotypes and start bleaching or toning them, you need better paper. You're going to want to start looking at heavy-weight (150 lbs+) papers designed for wet media and printmaking. Rives BFK, Copperplate, Stonehenge, Hahnemühle, etc. These are papers intended to be washed and soaked. They feel like cloth, not stiff and hard like a watercolor paper. Printmakers often soak them overnight before printing on them. Water won't hurt them at all. These are the kind of papers you want to use for cyanotypes you intend to tone.

Extreme speckles on Arches 140 lbs
So, why am I saying all this? Well, because I bought a block of Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper (140 lbs) and I had an old block of Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper (also 140 lbs). When I tried using these papers for my cyanotype toning test sheets, the results were sometimes good, but I had numerous difficulties. Bleeding around the edges, strange splotches showing up during extended washing, odd starburst effects. These weird things didn't happen every time, but I'm not happy with them happening any times.  I want predictable, repeatable results each time I make a cyanotype. If I want weird, unpredictable behavior, I'll print my cyanotypes on vellum because, holy crap, vellum never acts predictable or regular. The skin itself is irregular and splotchy, so trying to get a consistent result is automatically futile. Fabric tends to be the same way for me, though if you carefully handle fabric you can get pretty nice prints off it, depending on the fabric itself. It might be that I'm using raw silk for most of my cyanotype prints (I love it soooo much), and raw silk is... uh, raw. Not fully processed, so it's got its own irregularities.

Anyway! To summarize: if you're going to be toning your cyanotypes, you have to splurge a bit on the paper. You want something that is intended to be soaked thoroughly and takes water really well. These are going to be your heavy-weight printmaking papers for the most part. Watercolor paper is designed for wet media, but only on the surface. It isn't designed to be submerged fully in water for extended periods of time and doesn't always react well to that.

You most certainly can use watercolor paper to save money if you're working with anthotypes or regular cyanotypes. You can get awesome results! I am not putting watercolor paper out of the picture. It just won't work in all circumstances. Sometimes, you gotta pay.


Oh! Wait! A last word! See, the expensive paper? It's gunna be what you want to use for archival prints. Part of the process in making a cyanotype truly archival is extended washing during and after development. This becomes triple true for toned cyanotypes. If you're not too concerned about archival properties (I rarely am), then you can get away with short washes for your watercolor paper cyanotypes. If you want the cyanotypes to be around in 2525 so that Cleopatra can be awed by your artistry, get the expensive paper.


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