I have made a few carbon prints in my time nothing spectacular but they are
interesting prints from a process point of view. I can give a bit of advice
that may help.
> What I noticed is that even after several minutes soaking in warm water
(about
100F), I didn't see the pigment oozing out as described in books.<
This could be two things the
water wasn't hot enough, I normally develop at 120F) 104F) is the normal
melting point of a gel, but cooking gel is somewhat lower.The second point
is that you may have agitated then you don't see any oozing, as I found to
my cost in a recent Terry King photogravure workshop !
>The tissue can be peeled off
easily, but it didn't leave much behind. It looks like almost all the
pigment came out with the tissue instead of staying on the
support.<
This sounds like over exposure or fogging of the tissue
>I am starting to feel desperate now,<
Mate you haven't started to feel desperate yet, this can be a very
frustrating process at least you got an image, it took me a number of
goes before I could see anything that resembled an image.
I mix the sensitiser in with emulsion it saves time and is one less hassle,
you make up one solution and coat it, also I prefer amm dichromate, which
is also necessary if you wish to use a spirit sensitiser
Coating the tissue I use a 4 inch quality domestic paint brush.The trick is
to lay down the coat in 30 secs and then don't touch , you may have a few
lines showing from the hairs of the brush, but they are of no matter, as
they will not record in the final print.
>Another question is related to the sensitising of the pigment tissue. How
long should I should the tissue in the sensitiser (I am using Pot.
dichromate). I noticed that after some soaking,> the gelatin of the tissue
starts to dissolve. Is this normal?<
Sounds like you have the sensitiser to hot, try a tray within a tray with
water and ice in the outer tray the sensitiser should not be more than
65)F Immersion 2 mins max
>Also, does anyone know if there is any weekend workshop on carbon printing?<
Fancy coming over to England both Terry King and I run carbon printing workshops