Judy,
Mike's description of his New Cyanotype process recommends air-drying,
and considering his scientific thoroughness I can only assume he used the
same parameter when comparing results his new formula and the traditional
one. This is only my speculation, though. He's no longer a member of the
list, so I'll contact him off-list to verify.
As to my methods, with both traditional and new, my habit is to coat,
air-dry for anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple of hours, dry with a
hair dryer set to low and print. I've seen no difference between the ones
initially dried for twenty minutes or the ones dried for two hours. For
the purposes of the article, though, I followed a consistent regimen of a
one hour air-drying for both. I still had the "gurgling down the drain"
problem with the traditional formula. This could be a local water
condition, but it's one I don't have with the new cyanotype. I know of
one printer in S.Carolina who simply splashes a little 28% acetic acid
into her wash water to prevent the problem. I didn't have the same
success when I tried it, however.
I should also point out that the new formula's advantages are not just
the quality of its Dmax, but that it's achieved with far less chemistry,
with less exposure time, on more papers. I would like to hear of other
people's experiences in those areas. And BTW, as I stated in the article,
some people do--and will continue to have--perfectly good results with
the old formula. Great! It's all about making art, isn't it?
Thanks, Judy, for the rundown of your experiences. I'm off to see how my
Zia's will respond.
John
John Barnier
12560 Morris Trail North
Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota 55047
USA
jb@dgi.net
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