Re: haunted VDB
Hi Judy,
Gold chloride as in grams are still sold and is a very good price when
you consider that one mixes it with thiosulfate or thiorea
etc ....depending which formula you like.
Best,
Susan
On 2009-10-01, at 7:07 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:
I'm wondering if that plastic sleeve the print was stored in was
something you'd used before... There are plastics that simply
destroy photographs. I remember many years ago my mother put all her
family photographs in an album with pages in plastic sleeves, for
her grandchildren... by the time we actually inherited it, just a
few years later, the degradation of the prints was striking -- tho
these were color photos and the chemistry is obviously different.
However, I had some of the same photographs, stored in paper or
under glass, so I could measure how much hers had faded in that
relatively brief time. (If I'd been trying to fade them I couldn't
have done better.)
As for as selenium toner is concerned, if you can get your hands on
some selenium, that is, the plain chemical itself, you can mix up a
selenium toner without the fixer. I don't remember where I got my
selenium (about 28 years ago), tho of course in those days sale of
chemicals was much more loosey goosey than today... it was also
expensive -- but ounce for ounce of the working solution not all
that terrible.. and MUCH more flexible than KRS. (I never did
understand why they put it in fixer-- tho that's not this e-mail.)
The old photo books or formularies should have the formula for
selenium toner, or I could probably dig up that old one. However,
I'm wondering what's wrong with just plain gold toner?? (Is this a
good or bad time to buy gold chloride ? -- I don't follow that
nowadays, since gum bi just shrugs off gold. But if memory serves,
when the market is down, so is gold? Whichever, per print toned it's
not so horrendous. (You only tone the successes.) Also, as I recall
(tho I haven't used it lately) the color is lovely.
Not to mention -- have you noticed galleries stressing the "gold" in
"gold-toned prints"? (Sounds so much better than "selenium toned.")
Judy
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