>When I have tried adding gold to the sensitizer, it seems to precipitate
>out, staining even the unexposed areas of the print. Did you print with
>black borders, which would mask the result I have described?
No straining with the Ziatype John. Did a couple of tests today by masking a
border on the print with a piece of cardboard
and I got clear white border where it was masked and blue/red/lavender
prints. HOWEVER I tried it with a mix of 4 drops lithium chloropalladite, 2
pot. chloroplatinite, and 2 gold chloride 5% and immediately got colloidal
gold in the sensitizer. You could see the purple that had kicked out. The
staining was so obvious that I didn't bother to make the print. Obviously
the platinum is the culprit. I'm cooking up a batch of lithium
chloroplatinate / ite (Li2PtCl6.6 H20 and Li2PtCl4.6H20). I've found a
reference to the VI version and it's supposed to be highly deliquescent,
just the thing I need. The IV should also be highly absorbant, as all the
lithium chloride double salts appear to be. Maybe the lithium platinums
won't kick out the gold though I suspect the pt part is the culprit. If it
doesn't the system will be very flexible, you could substitute any
quantities of gold, pd and pt, otherwise the gold and pt are exclusive to
each other.
Dick S.
`
`
`
Dick Sullivan
Bostick & Sullivan
Santa Fe, New mexico