First, let me say that I am not a expert Bromoil worker, although I have
been fighting with this process for about a year and a half, motivated
by the wondrous images of Misonne, with varying success.
So I will readily defer to the Bromoil "grown up's" on this list, such
as Luis Nadeau, Gene Laughter and Terry King.
Now let me give you my 10c worth.
I am not surprised that soft ink worked given the temperature and length
of the soak. If I am not mistaken you used the soft ink technique - see
Luis excellent book History and Practice of Oil and Bromoil.
So if you want a harder ink to work lower the soaking temperature.
I wonder if we are in danger of using techniques developed to overcome
the inadequacy of the materials that we have been using, because we, or
at least I, have not had access to purpose made Bromoil material? What I
am getting at is that some of our existing technique are not required on
purpose made Bromoil paper. If so then we need to modify our technique
to fit the paper used.
If these changes result in getting closer to those used by the "masters"
then that's good news.
I realised this when I first made my own Oil paper, again following the
directions in Luis book, it was very very different that what I need to
do on Kentmere Doc Art.
It was so easy to ink that I almost screwed up the first print by over
inking!
As I understand it, indeed, if I understand it, the major issues with
Kentmere Doc Art is that a/ the thickness of gelatin layer makes it
marginal for Bromoil, b/ its single weight so dries out quickly and
needs frequent resoaks. On the plus side it does not have a supercoat
which helps.
I have not had the opportunity to try Eric's product yet, would love to
by the way, but I imagine that if its a purpose made Bromoil paper it
will not be on single weight and it will have a thicker coating. So will
not require resoak and optimal soak for marginal material.
If you are consistently making good Bromoils using Kentmere Doc Art,
which I am not - I maybe get one success out of three attempts, then
maybe you need to try some modifications. Like, lower temperature soak
20c. This should allow you to use harder ink, i.e. the hard ink
technique documented in Luis book.
I wonder what you are inking with brush brayer? Maybe this will also
effect the required technique. What ink are you using - we all talk of
hard and soft, but I am often not sure what these terms mean in a
quantitative sense.
I have only used 2 inks, Graphic Chemicals 1796 Lithographic ink - which
I think is a "medium ink" and Charbonnel etching ink. I have tried to
both hardening and softening with the 1796, and found that the hard soft
soaking techniques do work to a extent.
With Charbonnel its very different, with Kentmere Doc Art, you get a
very even flat dull print - what I do is to get to this stage then ink
with a wet brush to jump the contrast, as described on Norman Gryspeerts
video on Bromoil. This ink is very soft, I think, maybe too soft for
"normal" (whatever that means) Bromoils.
I have also done some experiments with supercoated papers - AGFA
Multicontrast Classic - following Gene's techniques. They work! Basic
approach is to print much heavier when you make the bromide print, then
use a 20c soak, think I did it for about 10mins. Then ink with 1796 out
of the can hardened with some chalk and wax added. I have only made one
print using this technique, not much time recently. But it inked very
easy and very even, contrast not too good, but I would need to do some
more work on this.
My position is that since trying the AGFA I have had very little time.
When I get some more not sure what I will try, but if I can get hold of
some purpose made material then will try that next.
So try to ring the technique changes starting with a lower soaking
temperature would be my best guess.
Also, keep trying! If the material is sold by Eric Caswell, who I have
always found to be a very knowledgeable and trustworthy supplier, and
recommended by Maija McDougal who's Bromoils and Transfers are just
wonderful - saw Maija's work at APIS last year.
Then your efforts will not be in vain.
Finally, its good to start a new year with the potential for 2 new
purpose made Bromoil materials coming onto the market for all of us who
are interested in this wonderful process.
Also good that we have this wonderful medium to learn how to improve our
work and make the best of available materials.
Let's make it work for everybody - Bromoilists of the world unite!
Happy New Year to All
Mel
Wolfgang Maus wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm a german bromoil worker, member in the GESELLSCHAFT FUER
> PHOTOGRAPHISCHE
> EDELDRUCKVERFAHREN, Cologne (german assosiation of
> alt-photo-process-workers), up
> to now I used Kentmere Art Document to produce bromoil-prints although
> it isn't a
> real bromoil paper.
> Looking for a usefull bromoil-paper I tested yesterday Caswell &
> Caswell new
> bromoil-paper, which was offered me.
> But I was very disappointed by the results: the matrix of the bleached
> paper
> doesn't swell. No relief could be realized although the temperature of
> the
> swelling bath came to 40, 45 and 52 degrees C. and a soacking time
> between 10 and
> 15 minutes. The inking process after was very difficult because the
> matrix
> refuged the pigment. Only a soft etching ink mixed with the Ivory Soft
> Black ink
> (produced by David W. Lewis) was in the position to build up a slack
> picture with
> a low contrast and
> a greasy looking.
> I'm shure that there was no source of error in developing, fixing or
> bleaching.
> Tests, made by a colleague, wellknown german bromoil worker, produced
> the same
> results.
>
> Can somebody help?
>
> Wolfgang Maus