Playing with poison

What I really meant to say on the eve of our Women’s Day Revolting Women event was: we have been experimenting with blue-prints to put in the show. Its irresistable to me as It allows the use of sketches and photographs together.

Sometimes referred to as cyanotypes, they are created using a controlled amount of deadly cyanide. The first person to create a book illustrated with cyanotypes in 1843 was a woman called Anne Atkins (see her fern llustration below):

 She was also the first person to use a photographic process in a book, preceeding Fox Talbot’s Pencil of Nature by a year!

Its a fiendishly unpredictable process, but Rose and me managed a few successful pieces:

Come along to Cinema & Co tomorrow to see more!