[alt-photo] Re: COT320

[Christina Anderson]

Clay, 

All is not lost.

Isn't Platinotype Cranes 90lb Cover? And isn't that still available? It's on Crane's website...

Weston is still available through Butler Dearden: http://www.butlerdearden.com/weston-diploma-platinum-palladium/

I've found the Canson Opalux Vellum a good and thick vellum substitute.

Now, as far as manufacturer changes, that is the bane of my existence, especially when I recommend a paper for students to buy and it doesn't work. I have ended up out of my own pocket substituting good paper for their bad on the fly so they won't be turned off to alt and think that pt/pd or argyrotype or VDB prints pale, blah, silvered out brown.

That was why the Canson U Sketch was such a great, and cheap, find at 12¢ a sheet. I have a huge batch of Weston I have cut in half and they buy it from me. That paper works for everything, even tho it abrades easily. Platine and Cot320 are my favorites (and FAEW) that I use exclusively, but the prices are a bit high for students. 

Harlan, glad to know about muriatic acid. I have had that experience (and in my garage, Paul) with two chemicals, iodine and ammonium carbonate. I had stored them in a large plastic lidded Rubbermaid container in my garage, and over the years the ammonium carbonate corroded all the metal tops in the container and the iodine migrated brown everywhere. Hopefully it was contained in the lidded plastic container and did not migrate to my cars. And I have had both phosphoric and nitric acid for years in glass bottles/plastic lids that have done nothing.

Chris


Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com

On Feb 16, 2013, at 6:47 AM, clay harmon's personal website email account wrote:

> This discussion about paper variability brings up a subject that can be a little touchy in my household. 
> 
> I believe my spouse views me as having some hoarder tendencies, but if I find a paper that really works well, I will buy a fair quantity of it and store it in my flat files. Over the last dozen years or so, we have lost so many good papers, and others have had manufacturing changes that render them anywhere from difficult to useless for our purposes.  
> 
> Platinotype: gone
> Weston Diploma Parchment - wild batch variation in later years - I think it may be totally gone now
> Platine :  lots of batch-to-batch variation
> Fabriano Artistico EW - more and more buffer being added it seems - newer batches have required some serious acidification
> Whatman's Watercolor and Printmaking paper - gone
> Atlantis Silversafe : gone
> Staedtler-Mars drafting vellum: tremendous batch variation
> Swiss Opaline - gone
> 
> And now we are seeing these reports that COT320,  which heretofore has been a model of consistency may not be...
> 
> And the list is much larger than that. These are just ones I know about. It seems that when it comes to paper that just because it works well or is available today is absolutely no guarantee that it will be tomorrow.
> 
> Let's keep our fingers crossed that Revere both will be around for a while and will be more consistent that it has to date.
> 
> 
> So how is that for some Saturday morning hoarder rationalization?
> 
> -Clay
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 16, 2013, at 8:18 AM, Diana Bloomfield <dlhbloomfield at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey Keith,
>> 
>> You know, when John told me that in all the (one thousand+) years Bergger has been making that paper, that no one (NO ONE) has ever lodged a complaint, I was totally flabbergasted..  While it is true that I do tend to complain an inordinate amount-- about every little thing--  I still found that very hard to believe-- and, yes-- transparently disingenuous.  Additionally, shouldn't I win a prize or something (at least a new pack of paper all tied up with a red ribbon) for being the very first?  And, seriously, if I had a dollar for every time a company rep has said that to me . . . 
>> 
>> I did write back and very nicely explained the first rule of business to him (the customer is always right).  Well, I probably didn't say it all that nicely. There's really no nice way to say that to someone.  But, for heaven's sake.  He wrote me back a second time and said he was sorry to lose me as a customer, but offered to send me a new pack of paper (and, again, to send my bad prints to France for a professional evaluation).   
>> 
>> Yes-- I really like the Revere very much.  
>> 
>> Thanks, Keith.
>> 
>> -Diana
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 16, 2013, at 1:23 AM, Keith Schreiber wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Diana,
>>> 
>>> So I guess that means he won't count Bob's & your complaints as "recorded issues", eh? Don't acknowledge the problem therefore it doesn't exist. Lovely logic. Actually, I think he is being a bit disingenuous since I remember discussion, here or on one of the other forums, about variable quality of COT320 in the past complete with batch numbers and I think he was a participant in that discussion.
>>> 
>>> Some time ago I think I mentioned here about the 22x30 COT320 that I special ordered thru B&S. It had cut edges like all COT320 and looked like every other sheet of that paper that I have ever used or seen, but it also had the Arches Platine watermark on every sheet. (I suppose Horowy would deny too!) Unfortunately, it didn't print as well as I needed and it was to complete a portfolio project so I returned it to B&S. 
>>> 
>>> Looking forward to trying Revere again.
>>> 
>>> ~ Keith
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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