Anybody who's been in a dark room knows how insullubrious the abominably odiferous chemicals are for those with constitutions prone to sensitive noses and headaches. So, here's a wonderful method that takes no caustic chemicals and can have near no impact on the environment.
What you'll need:
Printer and transperancy paper or Ortho paper and dark-room.
Flowers or blackberries.
Paper (all sorts, notebook and construction paper not suggested, unless construction paper is white).
Mortar and Pestyl (sp?) or spoon and bowl.
Mason Jar or equivalent container.
Time.
Foremost, this is a contact printing method. That means you either need ortho-film or you need a printer that can handle transperency paper. So, to begin the process you need to have a transparent POSITIVE printed. The contrast should be fairly high, but don't push it so high that you're losing detail. Remember, POSITIVE, if you print a negative you're final photo will be a negative.
Now that you have your positive for contact printing you need to start making the paper you print on.
First, take a plant that is photosensitive, that is, a plant that has pigmentation of some sort. Flowers, in general, will work for this process, however, I've found the best plant to work with is actually a fruit. Blackberries work wonderfully well with this process. Go out and buy a small amount of them (20-30). Next, you need either Ethyl Alcohol (NOT ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL) or you can use plain water. Now, next you either need a mortar and pestyl (sp?) or you need a bowl and some sort of squishing implement (a spoon with the spoony part bent perpindicular to the shaft works really well). Now, if you haven't guess yet, you now start squishing all your blackberries. You really want to squish them and get as much of the liquid out of them as you possibly can. Occassionally add small amounts of ethyl alcohol or water. For every 20-30 blackberries, I would not add more than 3-4 teaspoons of water or ethyl alcohol, as you'll be diluting it too greatly otherwise. Now, at this point you're looking at a wonderfully dark purple liquid substance with squished up bits around it. At this point take the cheesecloth or any other fine cloth (even an old sock works) and place it over the bowl. Secure it in place with a rubberband. Next, take a mason jar, or some sort of container, and CAREFULLY pour the liquid into the container. Once you've succesfully done this, place the palm of your hand over the cheesecloth, flip the bowl over (you should feel all the squishiness fall onto your hand), and slowly remove the cheesecloth so that the blackberry matter stays where it is. Once you've done this wrap up the sides of the cheesecloth and secure the top. Wring the cheesecloth over the mason jar/ container to get as much emulsion as possible.
Now, at this point, you're ready to make your photo paper!
Take a piece of paper. Printer paper, fancy paper, even notebook paper (not suggested). Take a paintbrush and brush your anthotype fluid on the paper and keep the coating as uniform as possible. One coat is all you need, but you can do as many as you want. Now, all you do is let your paper dry. Place it emulsion up wherever you're drying it. If you perform multiple coats allow it to dry in between coats.
Once it's dry, take a contact printing frame and place the paper emulsion up with the POSITIVE over the paper.
Let it sit in the sun for upwards to a week.
WHABAM-OH!
anthotype print.
If this confused you, got to
http://www.alternativephotography.com for alternate instructions.
NOTE: This process stains like you wouldn't believe. If you get the emulsion on a counter or similar area, wash it quickly. If it dries it gets sticky and difficult to remove. If it gets on your clothes, get them of quickly and throw them in the wash. It will get your hands messy, but it washes off your hands fairly easily after 3-4 washes.
It's like your eco-nerd way of printing and I LOVE it!
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