From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 11/25/00-02:11:25 PM Z
On Sat, 25 Nov 2000, Sarah Van Keuren wrote:
>
> Stephen, if you subscribe to Post-Factory Photography edited by the List's
> own Judy Seigel, you will find in the latest issue, #5, a very helpful page
> on toning cyanotypes. I used to bleach with ammonia or household bleach but
Thanks Sarah! (Of course EVERYBODY should subscribe to P-F !) Although I
too depended on sodium carbonate in the classroom, I insist that (if you
don't stick your head in it) 6 cc household ammonia (which is only 4%) per
8 oz of water isn't all that bad. (It's what the Victorians put in
smelling salts, wakes you up from your swoon.) But when buying it in the
supermarket, be sure NOT to get the sudsy kind. And also NO PERFUME (worse
than you ever dreamed possible).
The cyano toning article in P-F #5 raises possibility that tones from the
different alkali's are different. I never checked that carefully (always
hoping someone else will), but for the record, almost any alkali is
supposed to "work." I've used sodium and potassium hydroxide (VERY
strong, clear your plumbing, but no odor to speak of) successfully, but
wonder about borax -- and assume there are others. (Maybe Fantastic?)
Judy
> didn't like the fumes. Now, using a mere teaspoon of inexpensive odorless
> sodium carbonate in a half gallon of water I can even more effectively
> bleach cyanotypes and then tone in tannic acid. We have switched to this
> method at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to the satisfaction of
> all including a student who has an allergy to chlorine bleach.
>
> Sarah Van Keuren
>
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