14 Botanical Treasures – Special Edition 1 Series 2

Description

A beautiful series of 14 cyanotype prints to decorate your life, or to be gifted as a nature poetry.
They have been toned reaching an extraordinary split-color, using natural laurel bay leaves.

This is a very Special Edition of my Botanical Treasures, where all the photos were printed and toned in order to obtain the most even hue among them so that they could be finely displayed together. Although it might seem a simple statement, being able to obtain such a result on a large number of prints needs experience and mastering all the steps and variables in the process.
Of course, being all different photos printed by hand, a slight variation in color is still there but it is what adds a nice identity of a work of art made by hand. The images shown here are the actual photos of the prints you will receive, please understand that some color inaccuracy is unavoidable from real life object to the vision on your monitor.

The back of each print is signed using a pencil and marked as Special Edition 1 – Series 2, also reporting the scientific name of the plant.
For this Special Edition 1 only 3 Series (of 14 photos) have been printed, being the Series 1 already sold.
Each item I sell is an original, different from the others. To be collected.

– prints dimension: 13,5 x 22,7 cm (5.3″x9″ approx.). You reach the Golden Ratio when mounted in a frame of 15,5×25 cm (1 cm wide on each side).
– process: classic cyanotype formula from 1842.
– toning: laurel bay leaves.
– paper: Arches Platine, 100% cotton, no alkaline reserve, 310g/mq, museum grade.
– framing: unmounted and unframed.
– shipping: anti humidity/scratch/bending package. Certified mail with tracking number.

Cyanotype is a very unique process where the photographic emulsion is prepared with two different iron salts. You need a black and white negative as large as the image to contact-print a photograph. The emulsion is UV sensitive (like with many other alternative photographic processes) so the exposure can be made with the help of the sun. Developing a cyanotype is very eco-friendly because you need only water, no chemical developer or fixer is used in the process.
I had each of these prints undergo a second process called toning, where the original prussian blue color, typical of cyanotype, changes to a different color.

I have started taking photos of what was coming in front of me, in random wandering inside gardens and by the roads. Apparently I was attracted by plants with a certain structure to reach a perfect composition. All this work is an homage to Karl Blossfeldt.

I am an artisan living in Lanzarote and I work making prints in cyanotype and educational courses. The blue sky and the ocean have been the reason for me to change from my black and white photography to the wonderful prussian blue of cyanotype. The power of hundreds volcanoes and the ocean treasures of Lanzarote always inspire me.
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Note, only for who lives inside the European Union:
I post the item from the Canary Islands which are part of Spain but not part of the Community territory for the purposes of VAT. Etsy will charges you the VAT of your EU Country while you pay. In very rare occasions, for a bureaucratic problem, your postal service may ask you to pay VAT and some other taxes again. Please, pay it to get your purchase since those undue taxes will be reimbursed to you.