cyanotype on wood

Falkenberg · May 22, 2008

I am planning on doing some cyanotype pictures on wood. I was just wondering if I need to give the wood some kind of treatment before the cyanotype coating.

Ian Grant · May 22, 2008

Over the years I've put a lot of images on wood, I always lacquered and fully sealed the wood first, using a 3 pack acrylic lacquer. I still have a couple of images left in my possession and they are still perfect after about 25 years.

Ian

Falkenberg · May 23, 2008

What would happen if the wood is not sealed with lacquer ? Is this true for all the different techniques or just cyanotype.

Ian Grant · May 23, 2008

Doesn't matter what technique, it's the damage due to the chemicals & wash water. It will also depend on what type of wood it is.

Ian

Willie Jan · May 23, 2008

The problem is that the liquids will be absorbed by the wood before it can dry out.
I tried this with liquid light emulsion and also had to predraw the wood with gelatine.

htmlguru4242 · May 23, 2008

Cyanotype on wood is an interesting idea ... good luck with it and let us all know how it turns out.

I might have to give this a try after I figure it out with paper.

Falkenberg · May 23, 2008

The wood I am using is elm-wood. I am at the moment making the surface smooth, and will end the process with a 500 grit sanding. The wood is very dry. It has been stored for almost 3 years. Emwood is quite hard and since the surface will be very smooth it might not absorb very much of the cyanotype mixture. Will gelatine work with cyanotype ? Is there anything else I could pre treat the wood with ?

DBP · May 23, 2008

I would try it straight. I regularly print cyanotypes on to untreated canvas. I just paint it on, let it dry, and print. Wood should absorb enough to work similarly. Now I think I will have to try it.

Ian Grant · May 23, 2008

You could possibly use some type of wood oil and let it soak in well, then clean the surface you want to use with alcohol, or acetone to remove as much oil as possible, then rub it down as well with the 500 grit.

Try the gelatin layer, do some tests on something else first.

Ian

Willie Jan · May 24, 2008

The only problem you may have is that the wood has some iron parts which will interact directly with the cyanotype mixture.

the faster the complete process takes place, the less problem with iron parts you will have.

example of liquid light emulsion on wood.
5 layers of thin gelatine painted.

Falkenberg · May 24, 2008

Very nice pictures. Love the way the grain of the wood works with the pictures. How did You do the exposure - contact print in the sun ? Can You elaborate. How did you develop it ?

Will treating the wood with linseedoil work for cyanotype ?

Falkenberg · May 24, 2008

It is almost time for doing some test. I have smoothed the surface of the wood and it has been treated with linseed oil. It has soaked. Tomorrow I will sand it down and clean it with alcohol. Monday I will do some test with cyanotype.

TracyStorer · May 24, 2008

For cyanotype, I would suggest trying it on plain untreated wood first. Unlike liquid emulsions which sit on top, cyanotype is a solution that soaks in a bit.

Willie Jan · May 25, 2008

Falkenberg said:
Very nice pictures. Love the way the grain of the wood works with the pictures. How did You do the exposure - contact print in the sun ? Can You elaborate. How did you develop it ?

Will treating the wood with linseedoil work for cyanotype ?

Liquid light is just a 'normal' emulsion. So I printed it under my enlarger and developed the normal way.

honeydo · May 25, 2008

The person I know coats it with a few coats of gelatin first. works well.

Falkenberg · Jun 6, 2008

Now I have tested on several peaces of wood. I have tried wood coated with linseed oil and without any kind of treatment. The finished product looks very much like a normal cyanotype, but without the picture. I have tried different exposure times. I can see the edges of the negative and on one occasion there was part of an image. It was on a test with several other pictures on the same piece of wood.

Please help me - what can I do to make it work ?

Willie Jan · Jun 6, 2008

If you coat paper and do the same exposure, is the image than visible? If not your negative is the problem.

If you only see part of the image, the contrast may be to high or the neg to dense.

Falkenberg · Jun 6, 2008

When exposing the same images on paper using the same chemical solution the pictures turn out perfect. But using the same exposure time and all, just with coated wood it does not work. I think I will try with gelatin as a base.

Any other ideas or ways to make it work?

Willie Jan · Jun 6, 2008

Falkenberg said:
When exposing the same images on paper using the same chemical solution the pictures turn out perfect. But using the same exposure time and all, just with coated wood it does not work. I think I will try with gelatin as a base.

Any other ideas or ways to make it work?

I guess the emulsion is still absorbed by your wood.

Akki14 · Jun 7, 2008

The wood might be too alkaline? Try brushing a coat of vinegar on the wood, let it dry totally, then coat with cyanotype solution, expose, wash (with added acid/vinegar to lower pH slightly to help with the washing process). Sounds like it might be developing out due to reaction with product. If it's washing out okay, you may need to up your expose time dramatically. I was trying cyanotype over one of my physautotype plates(which is a fine coating of violin rosin on glass basically) and i only got a faint image probably somewhat due to single coating and under exposure.

Bandicoot · Jul 14, 2008

Akki14 said:
The wood might be too alkaline?

I would expect that most woods are more likely to be acid, which is good for cyanotypes, due largely to the lignin content. On the other hand, hardwoods also contain tannin, which will act as a toner. It would be interesting to try a very tannic wood like oak, maybe bleaching the image slightly to let the toning effect then come through.

Hmmm, I can see myself wanting to try this...

Peter

Doug K · Jul 14, 2008

Iron will react with tannin in wood. One treatment for oak that I like is soaking rusty metal in a vinegar solution, then applying the solution to the wood. Turns it a nice deep black color, but you can still see the grain. Oak is very high in tannin, so it gets quite dark. Maple doesn't react as much, and basically turns a gray color. I'd be interested to see how the cyanotype solution would react.

cyanotype on wood

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