Re: cyanotype failure to clear

[Shannon Stoney <shannonstoney@earthlink.net>]

Judy wrote:

> Is your workspace air conditioned? In hot weather cyanotype can fog
> rapidly before exposure.... does the emulsion start to look blue or anyway
> quite green when you put it under the negative?  How long are you waiting
> from coating to exposure?  If it's sitting more than 15 minutes in really
> hot humid environment, that could be the problem. Are you coating a bunch
> of papers & leaving them to sit?

None of this has changed much in the last month:  I coat the night before,
store the coated paper in a box in the refrigerator, and remove it about
half an hour before starting to print.  The emulsion looked ok before
printing.  It was actually hotter and more humid about a month ago than it
is now.

>
> If everything above is negative -- are you washing the print face down,
> flipping it over from time to time?  Has anything in the lighting
> conditions -- either over the sink or in the drying cabinet -- changed?
> Or maybe in summer the water coming in is warm enough to cause problems ?

I don't always wash the print face down, but I wasn't doing this before,
either, and never had a problem.  Lights are the same.  Water temperature
probably about the same.  The only thing I can think of is that we had a
huge amount of rain recently, and a lot of sediment washed into creeks and
lakes, and I wonder if the ph of the water has changed perhaps?  Would that
affect the clearing time?

--shannon