Experimenting with Sunprint Paper

Today was a sunny fall day here in New Hampshire when the sun isn't very high in the sky for long.  So, at about 11:30 Elizabeth decided to try an experiment using some recently purchased blueprint paper.  She purchased the paper at the science center in Holderness, NH, but it comes from the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA. 

Not really sure why the paper is for a refill kit but it has been treated and although the pieces were quite small, they sufficed for this experimentation.  

First, she decided on two items, one a small piece of fern and the other some wild strawberry leaves.  The tiny size was to be in proportion to the paper which is only 4 inches by 4 inches.  The first test was to use the paper following the directions on the package.  Exposure was 3 minutes under glass, the paper was dry and then rinsed in cool water for 5 minutes.

The second trial or test was exposure of 3 minutes under glass.  First the fern and leaves were lightly sprayed with soda ash using a mister and then rinsed in cool water for 5 minutes with a second rinse following dunking the paper into hydrogen peroxide.  It is amazing how fast the color changes to a deep blue when you use the hydrogen peroxide.  Prior to rinsing the light and dark spaces are reversed.

Trial number three was again 3 minutes of exposure to the sun after the addition of water on the background plastic and another misting of soda ash, the rinse was cool water and hydrogen peroxide.  All the trials used the same leaves.  This would qualify as a #wetcyan print.  The trials are number one on the bottom of the photo below, two in the center and three on the top  What's the red on the tip of the fern in trial three?  Well, the canvas work surface under the papers must have had a few specks of a red dye on it and the dampness of the paper picked it up.  Notice also that since these photos were taken about 2 hours after the experiment, the color of trial one (the bottom) has darkened significantly from what it was right after rinsing.

Trial four was the same as trail three except that instead of a 3 minute exposure it was left in the sun for 3 hours.  Here is how it looked.

Most of the blue cyanotype was washed away from overexposure and or the amount of liquid as it baked under the glass cover.  Prior to the hydrogen peroxide being added you couldn't see any of the blue at all.  Here are the four prints together.  The top row left to right is trial one and two and the bottom row is trial three and four.

This was a fun experiment and I still have four pieces of paper left in the package to play with on the next sunny day.