U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Hand collotype in process

Re: Hand collotype in process



Hi,

I am not sure what it takes to condition the plate before final prints, but Berindo does run to make 1 or 2 final prints.

They are often commissioned by Japanese government to reproduce historical paintings. For this kind of job, they "just" need to reproduce 1 or 2 final prints. In fact, when I was there in December, they were in the middle of making reproduction of a portrait painting of a Buddhist monk from 8th century. This job was commissioned by a templ. I asked them how many they need to produce: two final prints.

Again, some are running on a commercial basis thus producing a lot. But I am sure James or other small studios would do a small run from a plate.

This is how I understand. I have seen two completely different versions of Collotypes on two ends of spectrum. Berido perfected the process over 100 years to produce beautiful reproductions on a commercial basis. Their main objective has always been and will always be how truthfully they can reproduce the originals.

The other is end is prints by James. They are done in a much smaller scale and he may not be interested in truthful reproductions at all. I think that he is interested in creating "his work" with Collotype, not reproduction.

I can ask Benrido about specifics of the condoning and will let you know.

Warmly,
Tsuyoshi



On Jun 17, 2009, at 9:08 AM, Loris Medici wrote:

Thanks! If so it isn't a process for me. Will research... OTOH, as a first
impression, to me, it's similar to Bromoil transfer, and AFAIK you don't
have to condition the matrix in Bromoil. ??? The images / site provided by
Tsuyoshi doesn't mention about conditioning too; that would be a real PITA,
especially when making hand impressions - which presumably takes
considerable time.

Regards,
Loris.


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Newcomb [mailto:newcombr@uga.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:39 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Hand collotype in process

Its my understanding that for the Collotype process many impressions are
required to condition the plate before a finished print can be pulled. This
conditioning is to match up the water level in the plate and the ink
thickness and condition the receiving and release of the ink in a fashion
that produces a clean image. May not be the best if one is expecting a
short run of prints.
Robert Newcomb


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