SQUEAKY BINDERS
BluePrint
Who doesn’t love the sun and a bit of magic?
Well that’s what making cyanotypes feels like!
6 Designs
Blue Forest Fern, Fern Trio 2, Blue Forest Fern 2, Fantasy Fern, Deconstructed Fern, Painted Fern.
Available as
Illustrated Notebook
A handy sized wire bound notebook containing 6 ‘BluePrint’ illustrations with interesting cyanotype facts with blank, line and squared pages for all your notes - makes a great gift too.
Squeaky’s Special Edition Illustrated Notebook
Our Special Edition handmade Notebook has a truly distinctive hard case cover containing all the ‘BluePrint’ illustrations and pages inside ready to be filled with all your lovely words.
Mini Journal, Art Card and Pencil Set
Our ‘Fantasy Fern design made into a delightful mini journal and put together with an Art Card and dinky Squeaky Binders pencil
Mini Journal, Art Card and Pencil Set
Our ‘Blue Forest Fern’ design made into a delightful mini journal and put together with an Art Card and dinky Squeaky Binders pencil
Art Cards and Postcards
6 ‘BluePrint’ designs available as individual Art Cards with envelopes. Postcards available too.
Art Cards Wallet Gift Set
Complete set of all 6 Art Cards presented in a striking folding wallet for storing and display
Special Edition Illustrated Notebook and Slipcase Set
Micro Journal Set
Complete set of 6 BluePrint micro journals
Squeaky’s First Choice Edition Illustrated Notebook
Our First Choice Edition handmade notebook contains all the ‘BluePrint’ illustrations with plenty of room inside for all your creative writings - makes a great gift too.
Ferric ammonium citrate +
Potassium ferricyanide
— Squarespace
Inspiration and technique
There’s a bit of simple chemistry, camera-less photography and history too, its such an intriguing and appealing mix involved to create beautiful abstract artworks - what’s not to love?
I like the idea that I follow in the footsteps of Anna Atkins (1799-1871) who created the first photo-illustrated book.
I started where she did using British seaweeds and ferns as my subjects producing the classic Prussian blue photograms. But then the artist in me began to experiment a bit with the original technique. By introducing wet substances, mainly household items, the effects were exciting, quite unexpected, totally unique and not to mention a little addictive!
‘BluePrint’ is my first Wet Cyanotype collection of work. I’m anticipating the return of the sun for my next. Lynn
The Process
Each one of my wet cyanotype photograms needs up to half an hour for the sun to do its magic - depending on the time of the year and the strength of the sun. Watching the colour change as the chemistry happens before your eyes is fascinating. It ends with a distinctive bronze hue which indicates that it’s the optimum time to end the exposure and then I take the photogram out of the sun.
Following are a series of time lapse photographs I took to document these intriguing colour changes - by the way, this cyanotype is one of the ‘BluePrint’ range called Fern Trio 2.
Next comes the magic! Before your very eyes…
Once the exposure has been ended, the final stage needs to stop the process and fix the image - this requires a dip in a water bath. Watching the wonderful Prussian blue emerge in the developing tray and seeing the fern forms revealed with all the intricate colourful patterns is just so exciting and amazing every time. However many times I’ve worked with this technique the results are always mesmerising and totally unique. Love it!
Hope you enjoy my ‘BluePrint’ range - a little touch of magic.
For more details about the ‘BluePrint’ range please visit our shop.