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3 ways of conserving
It warms my heart to hear that Judy and Rod do not use clothes dryers. I
thought that Harry and I were the only people left who hung our clothes
indoors (in the winter and outdoors in the summer). The humidity provided
cuts down on winter colds, in my opinion, and I actually like the homely
look of our garments and towels and sheets hanging from the lines where at
other times my washed cyanotypes and gum prints dry.
And speaking of washing prints, I can't bear the thought of washing a
vandyke print for an hour or so. After hypoclear 20 minutes at a slow flow
would be the max for me. I hear that paper simply coated with cyanotoype or
vandyke is porous and clears much faster than silver gelatin paper.
Exceptions could be thick unsized papers that absorb the chemical solutions.
Finally, regarding the vandyke formula given by Peter Marshall, for over 20
years I have mixed 90gr of ferric ammonium, 15gr of tartaric acid and only 1
ounce or 28.3gr of silver nitrate for my students and they have always had
rich prints. Back in the 70's Bea Nettle's pioneering book 'Breaking the
Rules' contained an error in which 1 ounce or 35 grams of silver nitrate is
recommended in the vandyke formula. I remember that an artist friend ordered
two ounces of silver nitrate to obtain the extra 6 or 7 grams she thought
she needed when a simple mistake as to how many grams were in an ounce was
causing her to pay more and stockpile silver nitrate which I imagine
requires quite a bit of fossil fuel to mine and process. It did trouble me
when a 'new' edition of Breaking the Rules still contained the error.
Sarah