More Cyanotype Experiments

This week's experiments included some less successful additives to the process and one complete transformation.  Two prints were set up as before.  This time the additives were line juice and dry mustard on one (left), vinegar and turmeric on the other  (right).  

Prints during exposure above.  After exposure but before rinsing below.

These 2 fabric pieces were previously treated with the cyanotype solution - with an excessive amount, which is why they are such a dark blue compared to the pieces shown last week.  Most of which got washed down the drain in the rinse process, so a word of caution if you do this yourself, don't overdo the amount of solution!  Below are the 2 pieces after rinsing and drying.

You'll notice that there is very little effect from the additives used on these 2 prints.  Maybe because of the amount of solution/darkness of the blue?  Just guessing here. So Sue decided to try both a soda ash solution and a washing soda solution on one to see what would happen.  Both of these act like bleach to take color out.  She started by adding drops with a small paint brush, and then also using a fan shaped brush to try to add streaky swirls.  Since it takes a little time to react, it's hard to know if you've added enough, and very easy to add too much.  And of course, the too much is what happened.  

But it's all an experiment, right?  The idea was to try to make a speckled background but the spots where the fan brush was applied turned out more solid than streaky.  So the next option was to take out all the blue by submersing the whole piece in the washing soda solution.  

And this is the result.  What do you think?