Cyanotype Kit by Par

Last updated: 16 October 2026

How a cyanotype works

Two iron salts are mixed and brushed onto paper in dim light. The paper dries and becomes sensitive to ultraviolet. Anything you place on it blocks the light, so the covered areas stay pale and the exposed areas turn deep blue as the iron reduces. Rinse the paper in water, the unexposed chemistry washes away, and the image fixes itself.

There is no darkroom, no enlarger, no developer and no stop bath. The sun is the light source and tap water is the fix. That is the entire process, and it is why the technique has survived for nearly two centuries as the way people are introduced to photographic printing.

What comes in the box

Two bottles of chemistry marked A and B, watercolour paper postcards to print on, a brush and a foam applicator, a measuring cup, and printed instructions. Labour and Wait rate it for age 12 and up, which is about right: the chemistry is not dangerous in normal use but it does stain, and the timing takes a little judgement.

Postcards are a deliberate choice of format. They are small enough to expose quickly, cheap enough to waste while you learn, and they can be posted, which turns a first attempt into something that leaves the house.

Anna Atkins, and why this is not a craft-shop technique

Sir John Herschel devised the cyanotype in 1842. Within a year Anna Atkins, a botanist and a friend of the Herschel family, began using it to record British seaweeds, laying specimens directly onto sensitised paper rather than drawing them.

The result, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, was issued in parts from 1843 and is generally described as the first book illustrated with photographic images. Atkins made every print by hand and wrote the text in her own hand on the same paper, because the process could not print type.

So the kit is not a novelty version of a real technique. It is the technique, and a child laying a fern on paper in a garden is doing exactly what Atkins did with seaweed on a table in Kent.

What to expect on a British afternoon

Exposure time depends on the light, and that is the part instructions cannot pin down for you. Bright summer sun does it in minutes. Thin winter light takes considerably longer, and a heavy overcast day may not get there at all, because it is the ultraviolet that counts rather than the brightness your eye registers.

The practical version: start in spring or summer, expose until the coated area turns a bronze-grey rather than blue, and rinse. The blue deepens over the following day as the print dries and oxidises, so a result that looks weak straight out of the water often is not.

Flat objects work best. Ferns, feathers, lace, keys, scissors, cut paper shapes. Anything with depth casts a soft edge, which is sometimes what you want and usually is not.

Who to give it to

It lands in three places at once. Photographers who have never printed anything by hand. Gardeners, because the obvious subject is whatever is growing outside. And anyone with children old enough to be trusted with a bottle, because the delay between doing the thing and seeing the result is the part that holds attention.

It is also a good present for somebody who says they are not creative, since the technique does most of the work and the failures are cheap. For a print to keep rather than make, our page on the Anthony Burrill blue and orange print covers the finished article.

Where to buy it

Labour and Wait in Shoreditch sell it for £25 and stock it online. We checked whether Buy Me Once carried it as an alternative and they do not: a search of their site returns nothing for cyanotype. So Labour and Wait is the route.

Buy the cyanotype kit at Labour and Wait, £25

Cyanotype kit FAQs

What is a cyanotype?

A photographic printing process that uses two iron salts and ultraviolet light to make a Prussian blue image, with anything placed on the paper left as a white silhouette. Sir John Herschel devised it in 1842.

How much is the kit?

£25 at Labour and Wait, including the chemistry, the paper postcards, applicators and instructions.

Do you need a darkroom?

No. You coat the paper somewhere dim, expose it in sunlight and rinse it in water. There is no developer, no fixer and no enlarger.

How long does an exposure take?

It depends entirely on the ultraviolet in the light. Bright summer sun works in minutes, winter light takes much longer, and heavy cloud may not be enough. The coated area turning bronze-grey is the signal to rinse.

What age is it suitable for?

Labour and Wait rate it from 12 upwards. The chemistry stains, and judging the exposure takes some patience, so younger children will want an adult alongside.

What can you print?

Anything flat and opaque enough to block light. Ferns, feathers, grasses, lace, keys, cut paper. Objects with depth give a softer edge because light creeps underneath them.

Who was Anna Atkins?

A British botanist who used the cyanotype process from 1843 to record seaweed specimens. Her Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions is generally called the first book illustrated with photographic images.

More from CoolCuration

• Gifts for photo lovers: the full guide, from film to the things that develop it.
• Polaroid Lab: the other way to turn something you already have into a physical print.
• Gifts for green fingers: for the person whose garden supplies the subject matter.
• FYTA Beam review: for the gardener supplying the ferns.
• Anthony Burrill print: for the wall, if making one is not the point.

Prices and stock change. Everything here was checked on 6 September 2026 against Labour and Wait's own product page. The New York Public Library has digitised its copy of Atkins's Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, and every plate can be read there.

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