Hand-Coated Emulsion
Each sheet is brushed with iron-salt emulsion by lamplight, then dried in the dark. No two coatings ever flow the same — the brushstrokes remain part of the image.
Est. 2015 · Hand-coated · One sun at a time
Sunlight, pressed into Prussian blue.
We lay real botanical specimens on freshly coated cotton rag and let the morning do the printing — in the unbroken tradition of Herschel's 1842 process.
§ I — The Craft
Every plate passes through two hands and one star
No presses, no printers, no shortcuts — only chemistry, patience and daylight.
Exposed by Sunlight
Specimens are composed at dawn and exposed as the sun climbs — every plate read by eye, timed by shadow, never by clockwork.
Archival Botanical Plates
Ferns, seedheads and heirloom specimens from our own beds, catalogued and numbered plate by plate. Properly framed, the blue will outlast the century.
§ II — The Process
Coat, expose, and watch it bloom
From blank paper to deep Prussian blue in a single morning.
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Step 01 — Coat
Brush by lamplight
A glass rod drags fresh emulsion across damp cotton rag; the sheet rests in the darkroom until it turns a faint olive green.
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Step 02 — Expose
Lay the specimen
Leaves and seedheads are arranged directly on the coated paper under glass. In the sun the exposed ground turns steel grey; the silhouettes stay white.
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Step 03 — Rinse & Reveal
Wash and watch
A cold bath carries off the unexposed salts and the print blooms, in about a minute, from grey ghost to deep Prussian blue.
§ III — Letters Received
What they say at the glass
"That blue has a depth no ink can counterfeit — visitors lean in until their noses nearly touch the glass."
"Plate IX has hung in my south-facing study for five years and not faded a shade. The sun made it; the sun cannot unmake it."
"I have illustrated plants for a decade. One of their fern photograms taught me more about negative space than any textbook."
§ IV — Editions
Plates & pressings
Every edition is small by nature — one plant yields only so many true silhouettes.
Single Plate
$140
One hand-coated plate, chosen from the open herbary of seasonal specimens.
- 300gsm cotton rag, deckled edge
- Signed, numbered & dated
- Archival tissue and plate sleeve
- No bespoke specimen
Herbarium Set
$380
Six matched plates in a letterpress clamshell folio — a whole season of the garden in one blue book.
- Six matched plates (A5)
- Letterpress clamshell folio
- Printed specimen notes
- Priority pressing — next sunlight
Master Edition
$1,250
Twelve plates and one specimen grown to order from your own brief.
- Twelve A4 plates, bespoke specimen
- A day at the studio, coating your own
- Private catalogue, letterpress
- Lifetime re-pressing rights
§ V — Enquiries
Questions, answered slowly
Is every print really made by hand?
Coated, composed, exposed and rinsed by hand in our studio — the only machine involved is the sun, and it keeps no copies. Every plate is a unique object.
Will the blue fade over time?
Cyanotype is among the most lightfast of photographic processes. Behind UV glass and away from damp, a plate deepens with age rather than fading — Atkins's 1843 algae are still vivid today.
Do plates come framed?
Plates ship mounted on archival backing, ready for any standard A4 or A5 frame. Add a walnut frame with museum glass at checkout — $65 per plate, $340 for the folio.
How do you ship something so delicate?
Each plate travels between greyboard and waxed blue paper in a rigid mailer, insured worldwide. Anything broken in transit is re-pressed free on the next clear morning.
Do you accept specimen commissions?
Gladly. Send a cutting, a bouquet or the memory of a garden — we press the specimen, expose it, and you receive a plate from the very plant that stood in your hand.
§ VI — The Proof List
Be first to the next pressing
Twice a season we release a small pressing of new plates. Proof-list letters go out two mornings before anything reaches the public shelf.