Someone (not on this list) who shall be nameless owes me a steak dinner
(sorry animal lovers) for insisting that hydrogen peroxide intensifies
cyanotype.
Everybody! Read your Crawford. And win a tofu dinner. Make the same bet
with someone else not on this list: Tear a print in half. "Intensify" one
half. Let the other half dry au naturel for a few days, and then compare
the two halves. They will be identical.
The hydrogen peroxide only does instantly what the oxygen in the air does
more slowly as the print dries -- oxidize the color into deep deep blue.
I also tested the aforementioned dichromate "intensifier" on several
samples. One of them looked like it might possibly have some very very very
very slight intensification, but there are so many other ways of getting
rich cyanotype (especially on absorbent fabric) and it is always hard to
be perfectly sure when the difference is so slight with a hand-applied
emulsion and the original color with cyanotype is always so beautiful, my
advice is forget it.
The peroxide trick, however, is a great class demo -- as the print turns
instant deep royal blue everyone goes "aaaaahhhh!" That of course is the
high point, because when it dries, it dulls a bit, and shadow
separation diminishes.......as with all prints. (I fantasize an
exhibition of prints under water. Doesn't everybody?)
Intensely,
Judy