Classic formula, prepared from powder chemicals. Developed in tap water made slightly acidic (citric acid).

Toned for 1min in mate (3 spoonful of yerba mate in .5l water) and 30s in black tea (4bags in .5l water).

Paper is Fabriano Elle Erre 220gsm. Because the paper is acid buffered the print should be toned immediately after the development is over.

Actually my very first cyanotype is this one. Toned in black tea (unrecorded time).

The same negative, print toned in garlic:

I liked #1 and #3 very much. (#2 doesn't appeal much because of the overall stain.) Congratulations. These are very nice first attempts; I'm almost feeling dubious...

Can you please elaborate about yerba mate? What is it? Is it a crop of tea?

Garlic toning looks very very interesting. What exactly have you done and what do you think about how it works that way. (Could it be that garlic have some gallic acid?)

Congrats again and thanks in advance,
Loris.

I really like #1! I never knew that a cyanotype could look so good.
Yerba Mate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_maté) is a kind of tea. Its an acquired taste.

(Could it be that garlic have some gallic acid?)

I really don't know about gallic acid but i know for sure that garlic has large amount of tannic acid. I was just experimenting with whatever came handy as i don't have any tanin at all.

So it has yerba mate but some much lower extent. As Ian said, it's a plant related with coffee and tea that grows in south america, parts of middle east (i heard about siria) and probably spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mat%C3%A9


I'm almost feeling dubious...
About what?


PS: the guy in the marketplace that sold me the garlic said it was from Turkey :)

I really don't know about gallic acid but i know for sure that garlic has large amount of tannic acid. I was just experimenting with whatever came handy as i don't have any tanin at all.


Oh, I see. I never managed that much neutral tones with tannic acid, except for split toning new cyanotype. Have you bleached the print before toning or did you simply put into toning bath with tannin rich garlic? (Maybe no bleaching has given you relatively neutral tones...)



...

About what?


About those prints being your very first toning trials. I mean they're so successful that one feels doubt. (Take it as a compliment...)



PS: the guy in the marketplace that sold me the garlic said it was from Turkey :)


Oh? The best garlic in Turkey is cultivated in a town named Taşköprü (Taskopru in pure latin alphabet) in the city of Kastamonu. They're pretty large and strong...

Congrats again,
Loris.

Due to crappy paper i'm using (crappy from a cyano point of view) — Fabriano Elle Erre — i have to tone the prints immediately after they run clear otherwise they bleach by themself, so i always tone right after they're developed.

I've tried to bleach some prints but obviously i'm doing something wrong, most probably too much carbonate. Anyways i never got pleased with the results. I will try again after the new toner arrives: Moersch's MT1 and MT10.

I'll post tommorow a sample of bleached before toned cyanotype, just to make you a clear ideea about what i'm talking about 'cause it's crapy.

Thank you for your nice words Loris.

As i said, i don't like how the bleached print looks at all.

Yes, but the point of bleaching is to erase cyan color for toning, it's not meant for exhibition purposes. If you tone after bleaching the image will convert according to the toner and reappear.

Regards,
Loris.

Great, the yerba & tea toning seems to be very effective...

Thanks Walter.

Here's another one, same toner:

I have a ton of yerba mate that I bought after going to Argentina and thinking I was going to do nothing but drink it from then on... of course I got sick of the intense caffeine pretty quickly and went back to my old favorite, coffee. Now I've got a good use for that big bag ;)

I don't think that caffeine makes you sick as wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mat%C3%A9) says that

Caffeine content varies between 0.7% and 1.7% of dry weight (compared with 0.3–0.9% for tea leaves, 2.5-7.5% in guarana, and up to 3.2% for ground coffee)
:)

I don't think that caffeine makes you sick as wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mat%C3%A9) says that

:)

Strange. Always seemed that yerba got me really heavily buzzing compared to coffee. Maybe the strength of the brew or the specific chemistry? Imagination?

Anyway, it looks like a fantastic toner. I only recently realized the versatility of cyanotype when I toned a print in really dark coffee and got a nice blue-black print.

As far as i understood, there's no unusual substances in yerba mate but the different mix is unusual for the body, that's why it reacts as it does. I still remember my first cup of mate… :)
If you decide to tone in mate, let the drink cool down a little bit, otherwise the paper base gets damaged.
Thanks for the suggestion, i will try tonight the coffee "toner".