Botanical Cyanotypes

You will learn how to bleach cyanotype with oak bark and/or soda crystals. In addition to this, you will find out how to tone cyanotypes with tannin-based substances such as green tea, coffee, and red wine.

Join Melanie King to discover how to alter the colour of cyanotypes with sustainable botanical toners.

2 Hour Live Session with Melanie King

£40

See upcoming dates and book

All sessions are recorded and made available for a week following the course.

This also includes times for any feedback questions.

IN A 2 HOUR LIVE SESSION:

  • Pressed wildflowers and grasses arranged on a blue paper background.

    Learn

    You will make cyanotypes during the workshop, which will provide a base for bleaching and toning.

    The cyanotype is an environmentally friendly iron-based photographic process which is known for its strong blue colour.

    It is possible to alter the blue colour with bleaches and tannins to achieve yellow, purple, brown and tones that are close to black

  • Silhouette of five flowers with long stems against a dark blue background.

    Cyanotype Kit List

    Pottassium Ferricyanide

    Ammonium Ferric Citrate

    Foam or Goat Hair brush.

    Paper (Fabriano Accademia 200GSM+, Arches Platine, Somerset Satin, Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag work well)

    Transparencies, Negatives or objects to make shadows with.

    Access to water

    Jugs / Trays / Gloves

    Contact printing frame or clip frame

    Pegs

    Sunlight or UV light if Autumn/Winter

    You can also bring along cyanotype prints that have “failed” to experiment with.

  • Sunlight shining through tree leaves with a rainbow circular lens flare.

    Toning

    Kettle or method of boiling water

    Bleaching material (Bicarbonate of Soda, Oak Bark)

    Tannin material (Green tea, coffee, red wine, oak gall, acorns etc).

    Trays and Jugs

    Access to water

    Ventilation (near window or in darkroom)

Book Here

Series Feedback

  • A close-up of a single white feather floating against a dark background, with other blurred feathers surrounding it.

    ‘Mind blowing and heart opening workshop … dense with practical and poetic inspiration’

    Camo

  • Single white feather floating against a dark background.

    'Full of inspiration and magic.'

    Kathryn

  • A single white feather floating on dark water with other blurred feathers in the background.

    'Thank you so much. Two hours very well spent with plenty to think about and do.'

    Liz

  • A single white feather floating against a dark background.

    'Thank you all for an amazing and inspirational Session! I'm just starting a new project and so this has all been really helpful!'

    Naomi

  • A single white feather floating amidst other faintly visible feathers in a dark background.

    'Thank you everyone. Really inspiring and nice to feel that connection with others.'

    Jess

  • A single white feather floating in a dark space with blurred other feathers around it.

    'Thank you all so much! It's been one of the best sessions I've done in ages. x'

    Elder

Workshop
Host

Melanie King

Melanie King is a visual artist and practice-based researcher at the Royal College of Art. She is interested in the relationship between starlight, photography and materiality. Her PhD practice-based research "Ancient Light" considers how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor. Her main body of photographs “Ancient Light” comprises of a series of analogue photographic negatives and prints of star-scapes, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world. Alongside this body of work, Melanie has produced 16mm films of the Moon and photographic etchings created using meteorite-imbued ink, milled at the Royal School of Mines. Melanie has produced daguerreotypes and world-record sized cyanotypes exploring the relationship with the Sun and photosensitive material. The purpose of her research is to demonstrate the intimate connection between celestial objects (sun, moon, stars), photographic material and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice.