RE: palladium bleeding once again
Chris, I prefer a line with PLASTIC cloths pins to a rack system. I have a drying box and a humidifying box. Each box has additional fans to circulate the air. My humidifying box has a 2 1/2 gallon capacity humidifier with a three speed fan and a rheostat to adjust the RH. There is a big difference between completely air drying and those coatings using a hair dryer or drying box. The goal is to get it into the paper while not allowing it to get too deep. Hope your water heater holds out! When we planned our daughter's arrival into the world for a home birth, my wife used the tub many times. Did you try sheets from the middle of the pack? Or from the top or bottom? Eric Neilsen Photography 4101 Commerce Street Suite 9 Dallas, TX 75226 http://e.neilsen.home.att.net http://ericneilsenphotography.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Christina Z. Anderson [mailto:zphoto@montana.net] > Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 12:11 AM > To: Alt, List > Subject: palladium bleeding once again > > Well, > > Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! It may be a true "labor" weekend for > this > household after all, because my daughter is having her baby in my bathtub > any day (or hour) now. Hmmm...that sounds strange....we do have hospitals > in MT....ohhhh, never mind... > > At least I got somewhere today with the bleeding issue. My Platine > shipment > came in and I was ever so excited to see if the new batch would be > different > and not bleed. Alas...it still bled like crazy. > > SO, it helped that Mark Nelson said that at the Formulary (also in > MT--similar humidity) they had to do two things to get good prints on Cot > 320 this summer: humidify 30 minutes before coating and 30 minutes after. > > I've watched the humidity all summer and it has hovered around 30%. > > I messed around with the humidity and Everclear variables--using Everclear > or not, humidifying before and not after coating, humidifying after and > not > before coating, humidifying both before and after. I built myself a > makeshift humidity box with a couple of trays and stuck a gauge in there, > too. > > (Of course in the meantime throughout these tests I am racing first to the > hardware store for screening and then to the liquor store for my flask of > Everclear...I thought of downing the bottle on my way home.) > > What I found was it was most important to humidify after coating, more > important than Everclear or having the paper humidified before. If I > humidified before coating, the paper tone was greyer and duller. If I > humidified after coating, for 30 minutes (70% humidity) while the paper > was > drying, there was no bleeding. So it must be as Clay suggested--the stuff > is > drying too quickly on the paper surface and not sinking in enough. It was > so bad on a couple of my test sheets tonight that I could literally take > my > finger, wipe the wet surface of the print, and have black stains on my > fingertip. I was losing quite a bit of density in the print all over, > including highlights, and even had serious staining/bleeding into the > highlight area, too. > > So tomorrow I am going to have to develop a new set of curves with this > after-coating humidity factor, and will continue this procedure to see if, > in fact, the bleeding completely stops. I just have to find someone to > build me a drying/humidity rack, now.... > > I'm still puzzled, though, why during the last couple years I never > experienced this, and now I do. If someone has a friend at Arches, could > you ask if their paper sizing has changed in the last year? > > BTW, that green ink on the Epson 2400 is sure as heck dense. > > The end. > Chris
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