There is no mystery to any of the alternative processes (outside of the
Holy Grail of Fresson coating). If one has expertise in a thing, correct
execution is not a problem. I recall that on my first try I too made a
fairly decent carbon print (with my own hand-made tissue), but it was quite
some time before I made a really nice one, and longer still until I could
do so consistenly.
Luis has listed a long list of potential pitfalls with carbon, all quite
real. Each one can be overcome with experience but it takes a lot of time
and practice to master the process, much more than is the case for most of
the other alternative processes.
No doubt carbon was easier back in the Victorian days when "the boy" could
do it. One could obtain manufactured tissues in a wide range of colors,
along with all of the support papers. Nowdays all these materials must be
handmade and this takes a lot of time. It would be easier to use the
tissue still made by Autotype, which you use, but limiting myself to one
color would take away a great part of the creative potential of the
process.
Also, your comments understate the problem of temperature/humidity. A
combination of high temperature with high humidity, which characterizes
much of the States in the summer months, makes it virtually impossible to
work without climate control. I did a workshop some years back in the
Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina during the month of July, with
temperature and humidity both in the upper 80s. Did you every make carbon
tissue in those kind of conditions? How long do you think it took
sensitized tissue to dry?
But enough. Take the Luis test. Go make some good carbons in several
different colors with your own hand-made tissue. And add to this the
following. Make sure there is a lot of clear sky in your prints because
this will provide a good test of your ability to produce a tissue with no
uneveness or streaking. Also, for technical reasons make sure that the Dmin
of the print in the areas where the highlights are paper base is no greater
tha .06, because greater than this would indicate too much fog density.
Now Terry, I suspect with your experience you might well be capable of
doing this. But how long do you really think it will take someone to get to
that point after "one demonstration"?
Sandy King
I have had groups of students make single coat carbons after one
demonstration. It is not just a matter of Klaus doing it well. There is no
great mystery to the single coat carbon. Victorian photographers used to
get ' the boy ' to make them.
As to heat all you need is some ice to make a water bath ! I have even
had classes make carbon resists for gravure successfully with the ambient
temperature in the nineties.