Artin' and Cryin': Cyanotypes and Onion Skins

Every once and a while I go on art book buying binges. These are usually spurred on by obsessively researching something and then I end up spending too much money and wind up with a lot of really weird stuff in my purchase history on sites like E-bay or Amazon. The last time this happened I was researching cyanotypes and the various ways one can tone their prints. I stumbled upon a book of alternative processing techniques in photography and then came upon a process using plant based emulsions called anthotypes. Naturally this lead to me buying another book that was more detailed about the process and this led me down the rabbit hole of--if I smash this flower can I make art out of it? Timing is everything and of course I had to discover this process in the fall as everything loses its pigment.

Day late and a dollar short is the story of my life.

One process outlined in the book involved onion skins. I remember my grandparents reminiscing about using onion skins and beets to dye Easter eggs during the great depression and the war years. These pigments are also good for dying natural fibers and for toning paper as well. I've been doing quite a bit of cooking lately and part of the motivation was to collect enough onion skins to make art. Now, anthotypes are a process that uses plant based emulsions. I'm still working on this process. So far I've experimented with zucchini skins, carrot skins, and onion skins. In the process of figuring out the process I came to realize that I can treat the dye from the onions almost like watercolor.

To be clear, cyanotypes are a blue print, that's the blue you are seeing in these prints. Hence the "cyan." A little bit of cyanide is also part of it but it's bonded with an iron molecule so it's essentially a kinder gentler cyanide. That still doesn't mean you should ingest it in any way like any of your art supplies...even pigment from onion skins.

I had a few cyanotype prints that didn't quite meet the cut to exhibit due to some level of imperfection so I figured I'd play and see how the colors would interact. I layered the dye to see the darkest value I could get out of it. My first cyanotype prints were considerably lighter than the prints I wound up doing later. Mainly because I didn't want to screw up the whole batch and I was being a cheapskate--imagine that from the girl making art out of discarded onion skins!

Regardless, whether it's whiskey or a light sensitive photo chemical the more you water it down the weaker it gets but it also stretches farther--which isn't too bad when you're learning. In fact, it's good to give yourself elbow room otherwise you don't have room to grow.

Part of the reason cyanotypes appeal to me is because you can transform your bathroom into a DIY darkroom, where all you need is sunlight and water to develop your pieces. Plus anything can be your canvas like fabric, glass... I choose to use watercolor paper. I used mixed media paper for some of my earlier pieces and I was cursing past Sabrina for doing so. Watercolor paper tolerates the layering of wet media better. I noticed the mixed media paper had started to pill and look terrible. Rookie mistake Hornung.

Another reason I like cyanotypes is because it brings me back to my darkroom days at MSUM. I was always that kid that had to do everything I wasn't supposed to do--which could also explain why I'm an art school dropout. I'm really fascinated by the imperfections that come out with cyanotypes and dark room photography... the scratches, drips, and blemishes. It's something so uncharacteristic of digital photography--which I do too. In fact I use digital photos to create my negatives. Sometimes a girl needs to use whatever tools are available onion skins and all.