brown craft paper cyanotypes

greetings

any siderotypists use brown craft paper
( long roll ) for making cyanotypes ?
need to sub it with gel ? 2 coats or 1 ?
lots of fun !

thanks

I dont believe you really have to sub it. Can't say i have tried the brown paper. But i have used a lot of a4 printing paper, the kind you buy in 500 sheet packages. i think its about as fragile as that crafting paper, and i haven't had real issues with it falling apart in (cold)water. So far my experience with cyanotypes has been that sizing only degrades the image.

I'd like to hear what your experiences with that paper are. It sounds kind of interesting!

thanks RowanBloemhof :

my first impression is that i have to double coat the paper.
o had some old coated white drawing paper that was old enough that
it turned a funky shade of darkish green. it worked like it was new.
the brown craft paper seemed to work a tiny bit.
i just re-coated a bunch of paper, its drying on the line,
so i will let you know how it works
its so cheap and somehow i have a roll of it so i figured i'd try it

oh i'm using the classic formula
100 cc water / 24g of ferric ammonium citrate
100cc water 10 g ferri

mixed equal parts...

should be dry soon

....

Ah, so you did already tried it without. Well indeed i am curious to hear how it works with a size.

Interestingly this week i have a seminar at school about handmade paper from an experienced artisan. So I'm becoming more and more interested in making my own paper. Its better and cheaper then bought paper. But it sure is a lot of work.

Yeah, i also use the classical formula. Though I'm tempted to give Mike Ware's recipe a try, from what i understand contrast control is a lot easier. And its less sensitive to contaminants.