From: Jeff Buckels (jeffbuck@swcp.com)
Date: 02/02/02-10:48:11 AM Z
Clay and All: Stewart Melvin put me onto this kind of inspection of Platine.
So, I'd go to this good local art supply store and tell the clerk to just plop
the top pack of Platine in front of me and let me alone to pick out a few
sheets. Permitted. So, I'd laboriously hold sheet after sheet up to the
ceiling flourescent lights (which Stewart specified) and search for specks.
I'd reject at least half the sheets. In the end I got clean sheets which
pretty much solved the speck problem. BUT that meant I had to go storefront
retail, and the 22/30 sheets of Platine were (are) $6.25 or something like
that a sheet. Unacceptable. And I feel getting Platine through the mail is
unacceptable (can't examine!). I'm trying Lenox this weekend, Platinotype
soon as I can get around to it. -jeff buckels
clay wrote:
> Katherine:
> I was about ready to have a bonfire last week after a bout with the
> speckles. After letting my blood pressure drop, I had a better session
> yesterday by carefully inspecting each sheet by holding it up against a 60
> watt light and carefully looking for any specks. I rejected about 1 in 4
> sheets and had minimal problems this time. Still a few tiny spots
> occasionally, but all fixable.
>
> If this paper didn't make such great prints, I'd have ditched it long ago.
> It appears that bits of something are falling into the paper when it is
> made, because almost all of them appear to be within the paper itself. The
> lesson learned: check very carefully before spreading anything on this
> paper.
>
> It makes a great gum-over paper if only one gum layer is contemplated.
>
> Clay
> ----------
> >From: Katharine Thayer <kthayer@pacifier.com>
> >To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
> >Subject: Re: Arches Platine
> >Date: Sat, Feb 2, 2002, 1:02 AM
> >
>
> >I've been spending a fair amount of time with Arches Platine the last
> >few weeks, evaluating it for a gum printing paper. Some observations:
> >
> >It has two different apparently sizing-related "issues." The first is
> >the blotchiness it develops when wet, which disappears on drying and
> >doesn't appear to affect the image. The second is apparent in some
> >sheets and not in others. It appears immediately on coating; it
> >manifests as very small dark spots or speckles where the coating is
> >absorbed differentially; and once it has made its appearance, the print
> >is not salvageable, (unless of course the printer finds the speckles
> >attractive).
> >
> >I have found that ammonia, which I use as a chemical "dodger" in the
> >development stage of gum printing, is useless with Platine. With other
> >papers, I can float ammonia across an area that I want to be a bit
> >lighter, and the ammonia will gently loosen and lift excess hardened gum
> >and pigment there while leaving the image intact. With Platine, the
> >ammonia blasts right through the image and out the back of the paper.
> >The wet spot it leaves in the back of the paper will disappear on
> >drying, but the white spot in the print where the gum and pigment were
> >stripped off the paper is there forever.
> >
> >kt
> >
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