A couple of years ago, when everybody on the course was practising the
techniques from the first half of the term, I did an experiment in the class to
demonstrate Herschel's method of making a gold print.
I coated a piece of Saunders Waterford with ferric ammonium citrate, exposed it
until I got a green printed out image and then placed it in a small bath of gold
chloride 1 % solution, ( hydrogen tetrachloroaurate III).
The result was a glorious print in warm blue blacks with a stunning range of
tone. I still have it.
Surprise, surprise. I have never been able to repeat it.
I have sized paper. I have tried everything that might have 'contaminated' the
paper. Whatever I do it eludes me. I want to be the guy who found the lost chord
!
Subsequently I repeated the process with brush development because gold chloride
aint cheap to throw down the sink and it would seem that you can't use the
developer twice as the ferric ammonium citrate neutralises the developer
photographically.
Brush development works but with a more restricted range of tone than my
serendipitous ( not a word for manuals) print. One gold print has gone to
Australia for Joyce Peck's exhibition You have to use a well loaded brush for
each stroke and have a separate brush for each stroke.
I am not trying to emulate Mike Ware's process but I wondered if anyone had had
any experience of gold printing in this way.
Sitting here in the misery of flu
Terry King