[Alt-photo] Re: Sulfamic Acid for Paper Acidification

[Loris Medici]

Hi Christina,

Really, Argyrotype is so nicer when you make it work. Currently, I'm doing
gold-thiourea toned Argyrotypes, and the Dmax I can get (with just one coat
unlike Vandyke) is equal to pop Pd (Ziatype), and the toned images have a
quite complex and pleasing hue / split tone. BTW, I'm using Masa for
Argyrotypes: 0.25ml per 10 sq. in. + 1 drop 5% Tween 20 per ml of
sensitizer hit the nail for this paper; easy application, no bleeding, no
staining, and a very strong image...

It's nice to hear that acetic acid also worked well for you guys, could be
useful when you don't have sulfamic on hands. (I happen to not like its
odour too...)

Wow! Thanks for the hot water tip, that's a nice one. Noted... Thanks! (You
can be sure I'll pass this information if I ever encounter someone who
wants to do Vandykes in the future...)

Regards,
Loris.


2013/5/5 Christina Anderson <christinazanderson at gmail.com>
>
> Loris,
> I hear you, about VDB and argyrotype.
> I switch back and forth between the two processes every semester. Last
year
> I had a bunch of papers that I distributed to the students that were
"good for alt"
> and they were not good for argyrotype. Very disappointing.
> On a side note, this year I went to mix argyrotype for the next day's lab
and did
> not have a key ingredient on hand so the morning of the lab I mixed up a
batch
> of VDB, praying that there would be no problem since it was a fresh
solution.
> There was no problem. Excellent prints, no paper troubles with no aging
of solution.
> And no acidfying of paper. I also had to mix it rapidly (and you know how
that
> goes with VDB, it'll go milky on you with the last additions of silver)
but I was using
> hot distilled water to mix because the lab was imminent and lo and
behold, no
> milky solution either. One of those good days where all things worked out
well
> in a pinch.
> Chris
>
> On May 5, 2013, at 4:51 AM, Loris Medici wrote:
>
> > Hi Serdar,
> >
> > The evaluation depends on the process too; for instance, pt/pd is more
> > forgiving about the acit pre-treatment operation but new cyanotype and
> > argyrotype aren't. A paper treated in HCl would work OK with pt/pd but
not
> > OK witj new cyanotype or argyrotype. I'm personally more interested in
the
> > latter right now, I wasn't printing argyrotype much because it was more
> > demanding (than vandyke) about paper, now that I make it work with many
> > papers, I'm about to dump vandyke forever in favour of  argyrotype...
> > Sulfamic acid pre-treatment made quite difference for me, because when
it
> > works (or you make it work with sulfamic acid), I find argyrotype being
a
> > lot better than vandyke in every aspect. (Dmax, tonal range and
smoothness,
> > hue...)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Loris.