blue print paper?
January 1, 2022 5:21 PM Subscribe
Can you buy blue print paper these days?
My friend's 8 year old has requested real blue print paper for designing a tree house. He suggested that she try an "architect store" when she said she didn't know where to buy some.
It's frustratingly difficult to google and I'm wondering if the digital revolution has killed off paper drafting. :(
Can you purchase blue print paper as a lay person? Does it still exist? Where would one find it?
They are in Canada if there's a good local option there!
My friend's 8 year old has requested real blue print paper for designing a tree house. He suggested that she try an "architect store" when she said she didn't know where to buy some.
It's frustratingly difficult to google and I'm wondering if the digital revolution has killed off paper drafting. :(
Can you purchase blue print paper as a lay person? Does it still exist? Where would one find it?
They are in Canada if there's a good local option there!
Blueprints were cyanotypes. Cyanotype paper and formulas are still available today (although overwhelmingly used for art not blueprints). I've used Jacquard before, it's pretty forgiving just mix the two components (no need to be ultra precise), let dry in a room/box away from UV light, then expose until you see the print turn from green to a bronze colour and then wash in water, and then wash in a bath with a bit of hydrogen peroxide (to speed up the oxidising).
You can also get the paper pre-made on etsy.
You can use tracing paper and a sharpie for the "negative blueprint", or draw straight onto a film transparency in sharpie.
posted by hotcoroner at 5:41 PM on January 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
You can also get the paper pre-made on etsy.
You can use tracing paper and a sharpie for the "negative blueprint", or draw straight onto a film transparency in sharpie.
posted by hotcoroner at 5:41 PM on January 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
My Canadian-trained and professional architect father in Ottawa says the best tracing paper for architecutural design is found at Wallack’s which also ships online. He was disappointed in the tracing paper he bought from DeSerre’s and his local architectural friends agree on that statement.
posted by carabiner at 6:01 PM on January 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by carabiner at 6:01 PM on January 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Wow! Thank you everyone, I've learned something today!
posted by freethefeet at 6:09 PM on January 1, 2022
posted by freethefeet at 6:09 PM on January 1, 2022
I bet he might also enjoy an architect's scale ruler.
posted by sepviva at 6:52 PM on January 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by sepviva at 6:52 PM on January 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Architects don't (or, didn't) really draw on blueprint paper. Blueprint paper is basically photographic paper with a different chemical process than regular photos printed from negatives. You draw on a transparent-ish medium, like vellum or mylar (both should still be readily available!), then lay that drawing on a sheet of blueprint paper and run it through a machine that exposes the paper to light and has an ammonia-based process to develop it. Blueprints are notoriously smelly and were mostly just a way to make a lot of cheap copies in a large format. Old-school blueprints where the drawn elements are white while the background is blue haven't been around for about 80 years. Up until the 2000s, blueprints with dark blue lines on a lighter background were pretty common. Since about 2005, architectural printing has mostly been regular toner prints on white paper of pdfs sent to a print shop over the internet. There are still architects who do hand drawings, but they send their vellum/mylar sheets to the print shop, where the drawings are scanned and then printed.
posted by LionIndex at 8:13 PM on January 1, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by LionIndex at 8:13 PM on January 1, 2022 [13 favorites]
Ditto LionIndex. He probably got it from cartoons or TV because it's so iconic but I've never actually seen one.
If the question becomes designing a treehouse with plans and such... Dad was an engineer and there was a drafting table in the basement.... There are other minor ways to up the drawing up things game.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:21 AM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
If the question becomes designing a treehouse with plans and such... Dad was an engineer and there was a drafting table in the basement.... There are other minor ways to up the drawing up things game.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:21 AM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I bet he might also enjoy an architect's scale ruler.
Also suggesting a pair of triangles and a French Curve -- fascinating to me, when I was that age.
posted by Rash at 9:36 AM on January 2, 2022
Also suggesting a pair of triangles and a French Curve -- fascinating to me, when I was that age.
posted by Rash at 9:36 AM on January 2, 2022
French curves are cool, but I suspect he'd be especially into a flexible curve, which you can bend into any curve you want. Useful, and also just physically fun to fiddle with.
Also maybe some architectural drawing templates? They make them for all different sorts of things, so you can get anything from basic shapes to ones with templates for plumbing fixtures.
posted by zachlipton at 8:05 PM on January 2, 2022
Also maybe some architectural drawing templates? They make them for all different sorts of things, so you can get anything from basic shapes to ones with templates for plumbing fixtures.
posted by zachlipton at 8:05 PM on January 2, 2022
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This site tells you how to make your own blueprint paper.
posted by cooker girl at 5:37 PM on January 1, 2022