My assistant, working here today on a project of her own, has run into
trouble & I offered to ask The List for advice, in case others have found
& solved these problems.
The project is to make large (24 by 30 inches) Liquid Light
photographs on plexiglas. Tests on smaller supports (8x10 inch plexi) were
fine. The plexi had a coat of gloss polyurethane brushed on as undercoat;
when that dried the warmed Liquid Light emulsion was spread on by pouring
and tilting, as for collodion.
These techniques did not work with the larger piece of plexi, however. She
had to dilute the polyurethane (about 15%) with mineral spirits to be able
to coat the larger area, otherwise it dried in some sections, leaving
brush strokes. The emulsion also had to be diluted (with about 20% hot tap
water) so that it would flow over the larger area.
She'd gotten good strong prints on the tests, but working larger
in this way got only the faintest foggy tones -- on top of which, the poly
tended to peel off.
She has some instructions from a book that say you can dilute Liquid
Light: Should she have used two coats? Should she dilute with distilled
water? Given two coats of the poly?
Any other suggestions? It's hard to see why those relatively minor
dilutions gummed up the works, but they did.
Any clues would be most gratefully received.
Judy