Re: flax paper and palladium
thanks, Keith
On Dec 15, 2006, at 9:42 AM, Keith Gerling wrote:
Very nice, Anne. Thanks for sharing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne van Leeuwen & Peter Hoffman
[mailto:anne_peter@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 8:59 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: flax paper and palladium
Camden,
Here are 3 images, all photograms. Kinda different.
http://annesvl.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php
Anne
On Dec 14, 2006, at 4:48 PM, Camden Hardy wrote:
Anne,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'd love to see some samples, if
you've got any digitized...
Camden Hardy
camden[at]hardyphotography[dot]net
http://www.hardyphotography.net
On Thu, December 14, 2006 2:03 pm, Anne van Leeuwen & Peter Hoffman
wrote:
Chris, (and Camden)
I am a papermaker so I'm happy to be able to contribute something to
the list. I will be teaching some of these combined processes
probably next year at the Brimingham Bloomfield Art Center just
outside Detroit. I was just hired to be on their faculty.
I'll mention sources for paper and info at the end of this email.
Paper made from flax and abaca (a wonderful fiber from the banana
family) are much, much stronger than any cotton, whether it's rag or
cotton linters. In the sheet formation process they (flax and
abaca)
have higher shrinkage so must be restrain dryed otherwise they
shrivel up. (That is great for some purposes, such as paper
sculpture.)
I've been using combinations of flax, cotton and abaca for some time
with my alternative processes and am very happy with these fibers.
The weight varies depending on the papermakers desires. But both
flax and abaca have wonderful wet strength for very thin sheets.
The
paper will withstand repeated rinsing, I've never had any of my own
paper fall apart on me. (Until recently when I tried thinner sheets
of !00% Rag, I didn't like it and won't do that again).
An occasional project I'll do is make larger sheets (22X30 or
larger)
of flax paper, walnut dyed (soaked walnut hulls, you get a great
dye). Using cyanotype I get a navy blue that is attractive on the
walnut colored paper. Frequently I'll get oversized negatives made
from Kinkos or a blueprint company and make images. On the walnut
dyed paper, the navy blue color and with the "unsharp" oversized
negative I get interesting textural pieces.
Also, I have toned cyanotype paper with the tannic acid rinse, then
washing soda. Depending on the length of time I can get an almost
black color to the cyanotype portion. The paper itself can be a bit
stained but what I have done is to draw with watercolor pencils or
watercolors on the images (usually floral photograms) and get a very
unique image.
I have a type of Hollander beater so can make the pulp myself.
It is
expensive otherwise. Making the paper cuts the expense way down but
it is work and time consuming.
Camden mentioned U of Iowa as a good source for the paper. They
are,
in fact they restored the US Bill of Rights (I believe). Great
facilities.
Also here are two other sources for those interested:
Twinrocker
www.twinrocker.com (excellent source for information about paper and
a place to purchase paper)
And here is a book written in about 1984 called:
THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY
by Catharine Reeve & Marilyn Sward
Excellent papermakers who experimented quite a bit with alt
processes.
Chris, fun to hear of your experiments.
Anne
On Dec 14, 2006, at 10:21 AM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
Good morning,
Yesterday I had the fun experience of collaborating with an art
grad student who makes her own flax paper. She wanted to put
photographs on her flax sculptures, so I told her to come over to
my house and we'd see if it worked. I thought those on the list who
are paper makers might like to know this.
I guess she buys the flax pulp from a paper supply house, which is
somewhat expensive--she said $100 a bucket (it comes liquid). I
know NOTHING about paper making, but the flax paper is dark
parchment tannish, and quite textural, and very long fibered, but
the paper is flat and very thin. It irons well (flax being same as
linen, of course) and lays flat, in other words, after wet baths it
doesn't shrink and pucker.
I thought it would disintegrate immediately in the development
bath, or whatnot. It didn't . We were doing small prints for
testing and not large though, but they held together perfectly,
even when I held them up by one edge. Very strong.
I tested one with just regular pt/pd, one on top of gelatin size,
and one with the pt/pd cut in half with water. The paper is very
absorbent so that 26 drops were sucked up into an area of, let's
say, 4x6. On the gelatin size it did not soak up right away so
that was a good thing, so sizing could be the way to go, but the
print we agreed looked best was the one with pt/pd cut in half with
water. It was warmer in tone (redder) than the others.
Then after we completed this test it occurred to me that cyanotype
toned with tannic acid would be the cheapest and easiest way to go
(no development or clear baths) but what amazed me is the beautiful
tonal range of pt/pd on this paper.
I also felt it would be great paper to give a final soak in wax to
transparentize.
I think Camden is going to test VDB and liquid emulsion for her,
right Camden? For archival purposes, I wonder if the toned cyano
would be best, so you don't have to mess with silver left in the
paper? Nevertheless, this paper has great possibilities. I told
her she should sell it, but each sheet just to make (small sheets)
is about $10 so selling them, she'd have to probably charge $25 for
say, a foot and a half square sheet?
I wish I was a paper maker...I wonder if there is a commercial
source for homemade flax paper? Someone google it for me, I have
to go gum print :)
This is definitely the benefit of teaching in an art environment--
collaboration. The other grad student who came over to watch does
large charcoal drawings, erases and redraws and erases and redraws
while she films the drawings over an 8 hour day, and then ends up
with a movie, dark and charcoaly--really beautiful.
Chris
CZAphotography.com
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