Sun Prints - First Attempt

Following on my research of Anna Atkins, I decided I wanted to experiment with cyanotypes. The closest way to do this according to my research was to use sun print paper. I got a hold of some on eBay for about £3. I experimented using dried flowers I had collected and many of them were flowers amongst patches of overgrowing wildlife. I followed the instructions and left out in the sun for 20 minutes. The light intensity would of not been as strong through the window so i thought this would be an appropriate amount of time. I wanted to use a variety of shaped plants to create texture and dimension. I rinsed with water like instructed and much to my disappointment it didn't turn out very well. There was only a very faint outline but it did work slightly.

I then tried again, but this time in direct sunlight for longer, about and hour, since I didn't think I'd let it expose for long enough, I used pins and cardboard to keep the flowers in place in the wind. This time turned out worse that I had expected with less outlines or changes in tone of where the objects were placed. I had maybe overexposed it, but it didn't look like I had, as the paper wasn't completely darker blue as it should of been.

I turned to Google, and had a little look on youtube to see if anyone had used this method. I then came to the conclusion that my paper had possibly been exposed to light in the packaging. My best bet was probably to buy the chemicals online and make the prints from scratch for guaranteed results. I looked at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-Yj0aypJM on Youtube and found it super helpful, and helped me come to the conclusion about my paper sun prints. I also liked the idea of being able to paint with the chemicals and use them in a more mixed media based way, along with other mediums. And also using them chemicals will allow me to work on different scales, as I was limited to a5 sizes of paper.