Cyanotypes on rice paper

[Pete Oakley]

I'm going to try and produce some cyanotypes on rice paper. I have no idea why, I just want to try it.
I have two questions.
1/. If you do this do you size the rice paper? If so what with?
2/. How do you display your prints? Do you mount them on mount board? What colour mount board?
Thanks in advance.
Pete.

[Ironage]

Sounds like a creative idea I haven’t tried before. I wouldn’t size the paper until you see if the paper will hold up in the wash. The paper falling apart would be my first concern.

Color? How about a contrasting complimentary color? Yellow.


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[Pete Oakley]

Hi Ironage, thanks for that. I hot mount my cyanotypes onto white mounting board usually but as the colour of any mounting board would show through the rice paper I would like any other ideas. If I mount them on white board and the colour shows through I might as well print on white paper in the first place.
Pete.

[jprofita]

I have printed cyanotype on rice paper for a number of years and like it very much, my favorite so far is Yasutomo Sketch. It is tricky to coat and process as it is quite fragile. I tape the corners to a sheet of acrylic and dab the coating with a soft brush. I have tried but do not use sizing. Once wet the paper tends to tear very easily so i account for this by making sheets quite a bit larger than the image size. If a print is larger than 4x5 I will use a wooden dowel under the top edge to help remove the print from the wash water. They are dried on window screens.

The image above is a develop out cyanotype toned with wine tannins. The mottling is an artifact of scanning. Have fun and post your results.

[jnantz]

Pete
the best thing about using rice paper is waxing it so it is translucent afterwards. sometimes it's like glass ..

[Pete Oakley]

Thanks jnantz, what type of wax, candle or bees wax. Would wax polish be an idea?
Pete.

[jprofita]

Following the wax recommendation... Along the same line I have put polymer gravures made on thin kozo into frames with glass on both sides and a small light behind. Joe

[jnantz]

Thanks jnantz, what type of wax, candle or bees wax. Would wax polish be an idea?
Pete.

I use paraffin ( which im told is very bad, it is very flammable .. I've never had issues so I'll continue to wing-it until I don't ) ...
I've never used it but bees wax and renaissance wax people swear by ... ( I've got a brick of bees wax AND a tub of renaissance wax too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
if you can find the wax people use to do encaustic painting, that will work well too .. ( it comes in little beads and melts ez-pz )
not sure if it is flammable, but I remember doing a demo with that stuff and the paper looked almost invisible!
have fun!
John