Whenever I’m doing a multi layer cyanotype I’m going through an inner struggle. Should I stop here or should I go forward as each next layer presents a risk of destroying a whole cyanotype

This is the Kazakh beauty. I took this picture during World Nomad Games in Astana at the beginning of this year. The picture was simple, taken at random, in the ethnoaul – space designed to present Kazakstan regions, as well as traditional games and traditional art. I started to play with this picture in order to achieve close to vector image consisting of tri colours – brown, black and blue. Then you have to divide this picture into three pictures – where you have only the brown elements, next only with the yellow elements and the last one only with black elements. Then you export the negatives as pdf files and print.

You have to remember that after the bath paper shrinks. Sometimes the difference between the original size and the size after the cyanotype process which includes bathing sometimes is even 1 cm. When it happenes it is impossible to register dhe second and the third layer. To prevent that i bath my papers in a hot water for at least 30 minutes. After they dry, I coat them with the first layer of cyanotype.

In my case the print size is 50×65 cm, so it was a bit difficult to bathe the papers. I took the risk and I coated the paper that was not prebathed. It worked out 🙂

Step 2

Step 3

My favourite toner for cyanotype is a black tea. It gives kind of lavendish brown colour on bleached cyanotypes and Lavendish black on blue cyanotypes.
The sequence of colours was: brown, black and blue.
So after I coated the paper, I exposed it, and bleached. I got a yellow image.

After bleaching my picture got yellow all over. When it dried, I coated it once again and exposed with the nagative prepeared for the black colour.

You can expose your cyanotypes on the sun. As I live in Poland, where the weather is totally unpredictable, I expose my works on a table for offset. It has quite powerful lamps – my regular times of exposure vary from 5 to 10 minutes.

Anyway it is impossible to say if the just -exposed image is good or not until you develope it. But I noticed, that there is quite high level of propability that i will like it 🙂 The final effect got far beyond my expectations. Isn’t it the moment I should stop? So far these two layers are registered, who knows if the next layer doesn’t spoil the image. After a while, I decided to go on, whatever it costs me.

So I bathed the picture in a black tea toner as long as the border of the flower got black. By that time the yellow parts had turned brown. I still liked the image, but it lost some of its beauty, so the decision if to go on was not difficult to take.
When the paper dried, I coated it for the last time and exposed with cyan negative on.

After the third exposure, the image was ready to develop. yo cant imagine how anxious I was to see the last layer on my image. I took a deep breath… here it is! How do you like it? 🙂

Step 4

Once upon a time, Aqnar touched the strings of the kobyz. Like in ancient times, a melody flowed from the kingdom of darkness, through the earth, to the heavens—a mystical route of the shamanic journey to Tengri, the god of the skies worshipped by the people of the Great Steppe.

…it is the kobyz that chooses you.”
Aqnar had been chosen. The spirits had revealed this to her a few days earlier when she was climbing toward the underground mosque. A raven followed her, saying:
“You were born into a family whose ancestors played the kobyz for the Khans of the Kazakhs.”
Indeed, the Kazakh Khans believed that Tengri spoke to them through the music of the kobyz. The shape of the instrument reflects the shape of the sacred tree. The base, like roots, anchors itself in the spirit world of the underground. The round body represents the earth, while the neck symbolizes the branches of the sacred tree reaching into the heavens.
“Raven, you know that my father didn’t have time to teach me to play.”
“Death is not the end of life. Your father chose you. We chose you. When you return home, close your eyes and surrender to the spirits. They are already waiting for you…”

…Aqnar performed a concert for me. To let me truly feel the music, she turned off the lights and covered my eyes with a silk scarf. From the very first touch of the strings, faces began to flash before my eyes. One merged into the next. They stared at me from beyond time. Tangible yet surreal. The impression and their gaze are most faithfully reflected in cyanotype. It is a place where two worlds meet: the digital and the analog, where the present engages in dialogue with the past.

…from the OUT OF TIME MELODY series digitally during my two trips to Kazakhstan. After processing them, I made negatives for each one—distinct for every color. And then, the magic begins. I apply the first layer of cyanotype, which I tone after exposure and development to achieve shades ranging from beige to brown to black. Then, I add another cyanotype layer and expose another negative. I must align them perfectly to ensure the image doesn’t distort. Each subsequent exposure is preceded by an internal struggle: whether to see the result and risk ruining the work, or to stop. In the end, some force always compels me to take the risk.

…like a meeting with the unknown—a one-way journey. Mistakes cannot be corrected, but mistakes also give birth to new ideas. This is what fascinates me most about cyanotype. I mainly create toned cyanotypes with at least two to three layers.
Through alchemical transformation, cyanotype brings digital photography into an analog world full of shades of brown and Prussian blue. Surreal—like the figures I saw during Aqnar’s concert.