Re: Tween 20, mottling and grain

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Thu, 20 Feb 1997 01:59:45 -0500 (EST)


On Wed, 19 Feb 1997, Richard Sullivan wrote:
>
> Terry says:
>
>
> >Whether you are using cyanotype, kallitype or platinum too much solution
>
> >leads to puddling and uneven finishes. The simple solution is to size the
>
> >paper first. That way a single coat will give you good gradation, even
>
> >covering and HGOD through effective and safe self masking..
>
>
> Why is sizing the paper simpler than using Tween and letting it sit for a minute before drying? With the Tween we are getting good Dmaxes even on Martin's paper on which he recommends double coating. And resizing Platine? Yikes!
>

At one time I did a lot of VDB and kallitype. I didn't size paper or add
Tween or Fotoflo, and I didn't have puddling or uneven finishes. Nor, as
previously noted, have my students, even the most hebetudinous. It occurs
to me that such troubles may arise from trying to coat in the dark -- or
by bug light. You can't see what you're doing. Another possible source of
trouble could be using those platinum papers which may *need* to be coated
by rod. I find a good hard paper (esp. Strathmore bristol drawing 1-ply)
excellent for VDB. In any event, if you're going to go to the trouble of
sizing paper you might as well print gum.

I'll add that in several instances sized paper for VDB has printed worse.
On the couple of papers I tried it with, one coat of 3% knox gelatine was
lousy. I concluded from this that VDB doesn't like a gelatine size, tho
maybe it likes 1% deionized. (However, see last sentence in paragraph
above.)

In this context, I mention that I recently went through an old "teaching"
folder of vandyke browns. Every print and test made on a sizing of spray
starch (as used to be advocated in so many of the books, and as I was
taught to do) had seriously if not fatally deteriorated. Every print in
the folder made by a student was seriously faded. My own sample prints
hadn't faded -- yet.

Why did the students' prints fade? Either the paper, the rinse, the
fixing, or the clearing, n'est-ce pas? I don't know if Mike Ware is going
to prove right about cyanotype, but he starts to look right about VDB. I'm
planning to try argyrotype for the fall semester.

Judy