Glithero’s first experimentations with photographic processes applied to ceramics was with cyanotypes. Blueware are a collection of vases with cyanotype photograms of foraged weeds collected from the streets of London and then pressed in a herbarium before being captured onto the vases. ⁠
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A photo-sensitive emulsion is brushed on the vases and then dried plants and weeds are placed onto the vessel. The vase is then rotated under a beam of light to expose the entire surface, capturing the shadow image of the weed against the vivid blue background of the cyanotype. Shorter exposure times result in lighter-blue vases, while a longer exposure will give a more intense, darker blue.⁠
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What brought everything together for the duo was discovering Anna Atkins’ famous book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843-53). “We realised we could merge all these different pathways in history together by creating a ‘vessel’ where the plant species was not so much put into the vase but on top of it”.⁠
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Several Blueware Vessels are held in the permanent collections of the Israel Museum, the Design Museum Den Bosch and the Manchester Metropolitan University Collections. ⁠