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> >The thinking behind my course has been to keep alive those processes that have
> >aesthetic qualities that cannot be obtained with currently available commercial
> >products.
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> >Floating for both sensitising and coating is only feasible in terms of large
> >amounts of the finished paper. If one is thinking in terms of one or two, it is
> >far easier and far less extravagant to use a brush to coat and to sensitise
> >using the formulation in 'The Albumen and Salted Paper Book' as the basis for
> >further exploration. The albumen from one egg can be used to coat a number of
> >large prints.
>
> >> For a higher gloss,
> >
> >In my practice I try to avoid the gloss.
>
> Terry, If you are attempting to keep alive the aesthetic qualities of
> historic processes, it seems odd to me that you would teach albumen
> printing as you have described. The gloss of albumen paper is one of its
> most important aesthetic characteristics. The search for a printing
> process that could render the same fine detail as the daguerrotype is what
> lead to the development of the wet-plate / glossy albumen combination.
>
> It takes about 500 mL of solution to succesfully float a 9 X 12 sheet of
> paper in a 10 X 15 inch glass tray. One dozen eggs will make this much. I
> can double coat at least 50 sheets of paper with this amount and the
> albumen will last many months if refrigerated. You can sensitize the paper
> on as little as 100 mL of silver nitrate in the tray and less if you float
> it on a sheet of glass. I wouldn't call these amounts extravagant.
Mike, what do you mean, "float it on a sheet of glass"?
>
> I believe it when you say your brush coated matte finish paper works fine
> with a negative DR of 2.00. Double coated glossy paper however can print
> with much deeper "blacks" and require a little longer scale negative.
>
> I realize that brush coating is easier, but if you want to give your
> students a real *feel* for the process, with practice and patience,
> floating is still the best method for making albumen prints.
>
> Mike Robinson
> Toronto, Canada
>
> robkiss@io.org
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