Wheel on fabric in blue, plus corner closeup

by laura

Today I revisited “wheel” on fabric to work out the contrast issues I had with the last print. What I was going for today was a print with a smoother tonal scale, and more detail in the area around the wheel. I prepared panels this morning by removing the sizing from the fabric. I did this over the stove and let the panels simmer for 15 minutes in hot water spiked with a chemical desizing agent. I used a product called “synthrapol”, purchased at my local fabric store. After rinsing, I hung the panels in the sun to dry for a few hours. Later in the day I prepared the sensitizer diluted 1:1 and poured the solution into a large pyrex dish. One by one, I immersed the panels into the solution and then hung them in the darkroom to dry. I ran several tests and the one that worked the best today is shown below. The image was exposed for 3 minutes-38 seconds and was developed in running water. I’m allowing this print to dry down overnight before any more chemical processing such as toning. This will allow the print to oxidize a bit giving me a better idea of its true tonal range. Test print shown below plus a closeup of the right corner to show the texture of the fabric. Sorry about the white lint above the bumper…

Photo #1: “wheel, death valley” printed on 200-count cotton sateen sensitized with the new cyanotype formula. diluted 1:1, exposed for 3min 38sec, developed in H2O.