Cyanotype

I went on a fantastic 1 day course in Hebden Bridge run by the lovely Moira from Hunt and Gather design. It was a 3 mile walk from the train station, through some beautiful woodlands to the venue at Gibson Mill, Hardcastle Crags.

Cyanotype is a form of photography where you use sunlight to 'make' the image, and place objects onto the paper to create the shapes on the photo. The places covered from the sun stay the colour of the paper, and the sections exposed become a blue colour.

We painted a concoctions of chemicals onto thick watercolour paper... and put the sheets in a dark cupboard to dry for a couple of hours. After practising on some that the tutor had made earlier, we were let loose with our own light sensitive paper.

We used leaves and ferns from the surrounding woodlands, as well as lace, keys and other objects - I even used lots of forks on one of mine! The leaf in the middle is mine, and I'm pleased with how crisp the image came out on it.

It was a really inspiring day, and great to get outside for some creative input. I met lots of lovely new people, and came home full of ideas for future cyanotype projects.

There's another course running in the Summer if anyone fancies giving it a go and is local to the area...