Lumin printing Jan 2026
Decided to create some lumen prints in my studio with my UV lights after realising this could be done without sunshine which there isn’t much of in January 2026. I will I love the colours and the luminescence to the lumen prints which I’ve been creating for many years however with butterflies being so delicate I didn’t think that they would survive. If I tried doing this in the real sunshine outside which would take from 20 minutes to an hour so this was ideal. I discovered that before I fix them the colours were so much deeper and richer that I haven’t fixed them as yet and plan to scan them in to keep them as they are. And the timings were between five minutes and 30 minutes with the UV lamp. I will I have a standard UV bulb and an adaptalux uv light and pod system which is much better as I tried both and the adapter looks was a lot quicker with developing the print. an idea I have is to possibly exhibit them later in the year with my other work. However, I think I will not fix them and might have them fade during the exhibition; because this is what’s happening to our UK wildlife and insects habitat, butterfly habitats and butterflies in the UK. The prints would probably disappear within 24 hours if they were not fixed but it would be interesting and I feel irrelevant to add to the story I am trying to covey.
Studio set upat home/Making a sun print using my 2 uv lights and a light box
Making a sun print using my 2 uv lights and a light box
Making a sun print using my 2 uv lights / I found it was better with just the uv light s and not the light box.
Un fixed sun prints small white and pressed flower
Unfixed lumin prints
Fixed lumin print has less colours and less depth far left/ Unfixed lumin prints
1 fixed rest Unfixed lumin prints
1 fixed rest Unfixed lumin prints
Studio set up
Looking into lumin printing with specimens butterflies using a glass box canvas so as to keep them in flattened. Lovely final pics but still a bit ethically not sure. Even though they are specimens I still feel strange confining them to a small box. I was please to put them back in their cool dark case again.
