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Black and Blue: Salt prints and Cyanotype in the 21st Century


  • Mountain Intaglio 96 Weaverville Road Asheville, NC, 28804 United States (map)

After two years of Covid-19, we all feel a little black and blue.

Salt printing and cyanotype are two alternative photographic printing processes that date from the 19th Century and the very beginnings of the art and science of photography.

This workshop will introduce the participant to the similarities, differences and unique attributes of these two hand-coated printmaking processes.

The workshop will cover the material requirements and procedures needed to produce hand-coated photographic prints using both of these techniques. Digitally produced negatives appropriate for each process will be created from digital images supplied by the participant.

The first day of the workshop we will print in blue, using both the traditional and new cyanotype formulas. We will tone a few of these blue prints to change their color! At the end of the day, we will prepare our paper for making salt prints on day two.

The second day of the class will be devoted to salt printing using the paper prepared the previous afternoon. The procedures to expose, clear, tone and fix these prints will occupy our day. A range of print tones can be achieved through the decision to gold tone or not and how any toning is done.

Subjects covered:

  1. Traditional cyanotype

  2. New cyanotype

  3. Salt Prints

  4. Processing steps needed for maximum permanence

  5. Chemistry for each process

  6. Paper requirements for each process

  7. Cyanotype toning

  8. Gold toning of salt prints

  9. Print care and conservation

  10. Digital negatives appropriate for each process

What to bring

This class requires nothing more than digital image files to be printed. Even camera phone images can make beautiful prints.

Sign up information

Sign up here: Mountain Intaglio

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April 23

Direct-to-plate techniques for artists using polymer plates