In essentially the same climate as Judy, less than 100 miles inland, I
find that simple air drying of any Pt/Pd variation is likely to be a
disaster, but that heat is never essential. "Forced air"--a good fan or
a hairdryer that has a genuine 'no heat' setting (not all do!) seems to
be a good compromise that urges things along enough without moving them
too fast. Just the right amount of surface absorbtion without simply
lying on top, and without penetrating so far as to go through the paper,
or cause grittiness. This seems to work up to a room rh of 70% or so
(but 50% - 60% is the ideal range). If the rh gets above that, I think a
dehumidifier or air conditioner becomes mandatory.
The question I have in this discussion, as someone who has not yet
explored the delights of VDB, is this: is the "bronzing" of VDB under
discussion identical with, similar too, or a completely different
phenomenon from, the "solarization" of Pt/Pd prints, most commonly seen
in pure palladium develop-out prints, and associated with the deepest
image tones, which not only go brown but "reverse out" in tonality?
---Carl