Re: lacquer for salt prints

[Joe Portale <jportale@gci-net.com>]

Judy,

I was cleaning my "hold" bin and found this email from you.  It was better
than a month ago, But, as the saying goes, better late than never...

Most of the older varnish recipes call for things like chloroform or other
nasty stuff. And I doubt that you will be able to find varnish flakes, not
the breakfast cereal, anymore. One of the other hats that I wear is one of a
cabinet maker/wood worker. I have spent many hours in stores that handle
specialty wood products. I have never seen varnish in the raw form. Plenty
of shellacs, but that is not what we are talking about.

Here is someything that I have been working with that seems to hold a good
deal of promise. Use regular acrylic gloss medium from the art supply store,
thin this 20-30% with distilled water. Apply to the print with a soft brush
and let dry. There is a print hanging in my office at work that was treated
this way a couple of years ago and it still looks good. No peeling or
cracking.

Personally, I don't care for "varnished" prints. If I want a shiny salted
paper print, I would do albumen.

Joe


> Joe, do you by any chance have a/the formula for that lacquer? I'm trying
> to find a satisfactory way of lacquering or varnishing gums, not for
> archival but for depth. So far experiments have been futile, but .....
> hope springs eternal.
>
> Judy
>