From: Christina Z. Anderson (zphoto@montana.net)
Date: 04/29/02-06:11:05 PM Z
I can't believe Kremer sells it!!
Well, I found a source online already, today. It was someplace in
Maine that sold basketweaving stuff, and I ordered a pound of hulls for
$3.50 (big purchase, huh) and will test it out in the coming week.
Now, go figure this one out for me Laszlo et al: the tea print I left
outside for 2 days in hot mt sun is DARKER where the sun hit it. For a
moment I thought it was just the heat that made it darker and it would fade,
but I switched the positioning of the print 2 times so there ends up being
one square that is not sun touched, one square only sun touched 1 day, and 1
2 days, and the lightest of all is the unsunned square. It must be that the
sun tans the tea further, and not that this is totally scientific by any
means, but it does make me less cautious about the lack of archivalness of
tea toning as far as UV fading is concerned. So, I guess if you want to
hasten the aging look of a print by staining highlights and shadows, tea
wouldn't be a bad choice--unless you have walnuts in your back yard.
I have also since found out other nuts work, like pecans.
Now, about acidity as per below: the walnut stain is so acidic that
one source says to not store it in plastic because it'll eat thru it--so
store it in glass! So maybe the archival worries are not about fading of
the toning but the eating away of the print. Hmmm. (sometimes I wonder why
the heck I get off on these weird tangents that I just can't lay to rest
until I've tried it--if my time were money, this black walnut goose chase
would make the toning cost about $350, not $3.50. And to think Terry has
them in his/her back yard...)
chris
>
>
> Here's another source for your black walnut dye. Good 'ol Kremer
> Pigments in New York City sells Walnut Hulls (cut pieces) for $4.50 for
> 100 grams.
>
> There is a water-based ink sold by Daniel Smith called WALNUT DRAWING
> INK that, from the product description, has the look of traditional
> walnut ink, but is made with (unnamed) modern pigment. Their catalog
> description reads, "It's rich color resembles traditional walnut-based
> inks, but will not fade and, at 7.9 PH, is far less acidic." So it
> seems that Daniel Smith is suggesting that walnut hull dye does fade,
> and apparently, is acidic. Sounds like you'll need to do some testing!
> Be sure to let us know your results.
>
> Laszlo
>
>
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