Use fibre-based silver gelatine paper that has been fixed for the receiver.
I have never seen that to fail. This wil give you the confidence that your
methodology is correct, and you can continue from there.
My own experience with art paper is using gelatine hardened with formalin
or glyoxil.
Hope this helps
Al.
PS I have a number of Luis Nadeau's books and I consider his carbon book
among the best. Following it to the letter should give you at least
passable
results on your first attempt..
----------
> From: HawTomkins <jcmjohn@ix.netcom.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <alt-photo-process@cse.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: a big (carbon) mess
> Date: Mon, 13 January 1997 12:25 PM
>
> After a lot of Archive reading, thread following, and text scrutinizing,
I
> made a first attempt at carbon printing this weekend. The results were
> un-Sudek like. Actually, it had the taint of Fluxus, but that's a
semantic
> discussion ...
>
> I'm sure there are plenty of corrections to be made to my procedure, but
I
> hope someone may be able to help with the most pressing problem: shortly
> (30 seconds to 1 minute) after the tissue and support paper are brought
> into contact in the warm (110F) water bath, the coating on the support
> begins to bubble and soon the entire mass slides off the support paper. I
> peel the tissue off after two minutes, but the bubbling and sliding are
> well under way by then. I suspect the support paper is improperly
> prepared. The prodedure was as follows:
>
> Strathmore 70lb. drawing paper pre-wetted and sized in a mix of 75gm
bloom
> deionized ossein, 4cc glycerin, and 500 ml distilled water. Allowed to
dry
> on a screen about 4hrs. The paper was thoroughly dry (the RH is so low
in
> my house right now that the dog crackles when he trots down the hall).
The
> paper was then soaked in a mix of 4gms potassium alum and 1000 ml
> distilled water. It was allowed to dry again before being placed in the
> warm water bath and becoming limp and adding the exposed tissue. Then
> everything falls apart.
>
> What have I overlooked? This technique is an amalgam of the 30 or so
> methods I've read about. My suspicion is the potassium alum is a problem.
> Thought I had some chrome alum on hand, but didn't, so I tried the
> potassium alum anyway, since I was well into the process. Or have I
missed
> some other obvious fact?
>
> The support, by the way, is larger than the sensitized tissue so there
was
> not a "safe edge" problem. We won't talk about the tissue preparation
> right now.
>
> Hope some one can help and thanks in advance. While waiting , I will be
> cleaning black pigment from every surface in my home.
>
> Tom Hawkins
>
----------quryhous@midcoast.com Mon 13 Jan 8:06 1997
From: quryhous@midcoast.com (Jonathan Bailey)
Date: Mon, 13 January 1997 8:06 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Thiocarbamide
Dear friends-
I recently saw some traditional silver photographs which were
"thiocarbamide" toned or alternately, "selenium and thiocarbamide" toned.
Quite a beautiful split-toned effect....I've never heard of thiocarbamide
toning. Could someone give me some background (and perhaps even some how
to)? Thanks alot!
Jon Bailey
----------