Coating Paper
1. Place your paper on the plexiglass and tape down the top and bottom.
2. Lightly draw pencil dots at the four corners of the negative image.
3. Have four shots glasses/film containers on hand. Fill one with distilled water. The second is for cleaning the syringe later. Add about 6 to 8 dropper-fulls of cyanotype solution into the third glass. Syringe 6 ccs of this solution into the fourth glass. Add three drops of citric acid to this fourth glass. Use the syringe to mix the citric acid and solution, mixing about three times. Remember to return any remaining cyanotype solution that was not mixed with citric acid to its container.)
4. After mixing, syringe up 1.5 ccs of the cyanotype/citric acid solution. Go a little past the 1.5 cc mark and push the remainder out until it reaches the line.
5. Place your puddle pusher at the bottom 2 dots on your paper
6. Slow syringe out the chemistry following the edge of the puddle pusher.
7. Slide the puddle pusher along the paper surface to spread the chemistry out evenly. Do not put pressure on the puddle pusher, simply guide it loosely with your hand. When you reach the top 2 dots, pass them, lift the puddle pusher and place it on the other side of the line of chemistry. Make 3-4 passes with the puddle pusher, depending on how much chemistry remains on the paper and based on the paper strength.
8. Lift the puddle pusher and set it down on a folded paper towel.
9. Sop up the line of remaining chemistry on your paper with a strip of paper towel.
10. Clean the puddle pusher and syringe with distilled water.
Drying the paper
1. Dry thepaper with a hair dryer on the low setting for approximately 3 minutes or until dry.
2. Gently untape the paper.
Exposing the paper*
1. Open up a contact printing frame
2. Place your coated paper face up and place your negative on top of the paper so that it is faxing the correct way.
3. Hold the negative in place on the paper and flip it so that it is face down on the glass.
4. Put the contact frame backing on the frame and close it.
5. Take the print frame outside into the sun to expose it, making sure not to expose it to fluorescent light or daylight on your trek.
6. Place the contact printing frame face up in a sunny location for a fast exposure or in the shade for a slower exposure.
7. When the print looks blue, inspect it to look for the hightlight in the print to be darker than you want the resulting print to look.
8. Return to sinlight for more exposure or move on to processing the print.
*How to build a UV light source?
Processing the Print
Place the print face down in a tray of running water and leave it there for 20 minutes. The print will darken as it washes
Drying
1. Gently pull the print out of the water using 2 hands on the top corners of the print.
2. Hang on the clothesline by two corners.
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