Re: salted paper and Arches Platine

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

Lucas and all,

The Fabriano papers are pretty hard and they have a good gelatine size built
in.  The gelatine or starch in the salting solution is not a sizing agent.
There simply too little in solution to do any good. The addition of starch
of gel in the salting solution is simply to prevent the solution from
sucking too deeply into the paper and help the salting chemicals cling to
the paper fibers.  Below is sizing procedure that is pretty common, but
works great.

Joe Portale
Tucson, AZ


Dissolve 30 grams of gelatin in 1 liter of cool water. Allow the gelatine to
swell for 10 minutes.

     1.   Heat the gelatine solution to 100-120 degrees F.

     2.   Pour the warm solution into a clean photo tray.

     3.   Soak the paper in the gelatin solution for 5 - 10 minutes. Flip
the paper over a couple of times to insure complete coverage.
Break any air bubbles that may develop on the paper.

     4.   Pull the soaked paper from the tray and place on a piece of clean
glass. Using a glass or hard acrylic rod, squeegee the
excess sizing off on both sides of the paper.

     5.   Hang to dry. As the paper is drying, wipe any accumulated gelatin
solution that may be collecting along the bottom edge.

     6.   Warm the gelatine solution in a water bath to temperature.  Add 25
ml of a hardener, either 25% Glyoxal or Formalin to                 each
liter of solution.

     7.   Repeat steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The difference is that a hardening
agent is added to the warm solution.

     8.   Discard the solution after the Glyoxal or Formalin has been added.

     9.   Repeat if necessary






> yes, this may be it. I have so far mostly used Fabriano Artistico with no
> additional sizing at all (Fabriano 5 also works).
>
> I do not use Tween with salt prints, but I have first tried to use Platine
> unsized, then with a corn starch sizing. Both did not work. What
percentage
> of gelatine do you use for sizing, and do you size and salt with one
> solution (as, if I remember correctly, described in your manual), of with
> different ones?
>
> Lukas
>