U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Taming Fabriano Artistico (Trad. White) for Cyanotype

Re: Taming Fabriano Artistico (Trad. White) for Cyanotype



Loris,
I'll answer a couple of your questions from my experience.

Fab does not like cyanotype. However, it is my paper of choice for gum and there is no problem using it as a tricolor underlayer. If it were to be a plain cyanotype I would never use the paper. I do no pretreatment of the paper.

Also, I noticed an interesting difference when sizing it with formalin vs. glut. I do not know the acidity of either but when I use formalin size, my guess is it is more acid because the cyano layer is much more normal and dark on top, whereas with glut the cyano layer is paler. So your size of choice will have some effect. But I do size with glut.

The reason I don't mind a paler cyano layer for tricolor is because if you are not careful the cyano layer can dominate and be too punchy and dark.

In a convo with Mike Ware, in discussing trad vs. Ware's cyanotype, I said that the Ware's was too navy for tricolor. He suggested to dilute it 2x or more to get a less intense blue because it is 2x stronger than traditional cyanotype. Is it possible you could try that, and add some citric acid to your cyanotype solution to make it like the Fab paper? Ware had not done the dilution thing and was just speculating with me about tricolor, and it is on my list of literally 52 things to try. Gee, one a week.

And Henry Rattle suggested diluting traditional even up to 6 or 7 times! I also know that if I am not mistaken, Sam says that diluting it does NOT change the lightness/darkness of it but increases contrast.

I found that in order to change the color I had to go to a 6x dilution and it was slower in speed. But in practice I now use 1A:1B on Fab and it is pale enough by far for a tricolor, given the fact that the paper does not like cyano.

Or switch papers to Rives BFK which cyanotype likes, or Platine, or Aquarelle. But it seems papers change their sizing occasionally so I never know if this continues to be true.

Colors: the ones I use are listed on the color swatches on my website by name and number on the Miscellaneous page.

Off to work,
Chris

__________________

Christina Z. Anderson
http://christinaZanderson.com/
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Loris Medici" <mail@loris.medici.name>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 5:51 AM
Subject: Taming Fabriano Artistico (Trad. White) for Cyanotype


I have few questions about Fabriano Artistico Trad. White & Trad. Cyanotype:

Is there anyone using this paper for Trad. Cyanotype? Do you pre-treat the
paper before printing Cyanotype?

I had a bad experience with Fabriano Artistico and New Cyanotype,
therefore plan to acidify (or neutralize) the paper before printing Trad.
Cyanotype. I remember someone's nice Cyanotype prints on Artistico but I'm
not sure if it was the Trad. White or Extra White variant.

I want a paper which is good for both Cyanotype and Gum -> I want for more
dmax / punch with my color prints, therefore want to use Cyanotype as the
Cyan layer.

BTW, any non staining / transparent M and Y primary pigment suggestions
would be highly appreciated. As far as I can see, Schmincke PV19 is nice
as Magenta but PY151 of the same brand has too much filler and kills the
underlying layers by seriosly clouding them (despite being marketed as
semi-transparent)...

I plan to:
1. mix 0.5M (~50ml 35% HCl into water givin a final volume of 1000ml) HCl and
2. put the paper into it for not more than 10 minutes and
3. transfer the paper into salted water (to suck the HCl out of the paper
by osmosis) few minutes
4. rinse it (flushing several times) in pH neutral tap water

Do you think the above procedure is fine to get rid of the calcium
carbonate buffer in the paper w/o disturbing it's integrity?

Should I lightly size the paper after acid treatment in order to get a
decent (contrasty and sharp) Cyanotype layer of will it work OK?

Thanks in advance!
Loris.

P.S. I know I can try this and see for myself but I'm sure there are
people already tried this before, so I'm trying to save time by not
pursuing an lenghty but equally ineffective(?) procedure...