Re: Cyanotypes on glass

Dear Loris,

I have been making cyanotype, van dyke and some other processes on
glass as a final support.
My procedure is described in PFJ by Judy Seigel and by Christopher
James in his book.

There is no technical information on this process on my website.

The secret is to clean the glass properly, there are several methods. I
always use strong alcohol as the last cleaning material.

The glass plate is to be kept warm during the coating procedure just as
the coating solution (3-6% gelatin). I do coat three times in different
directions and dry leveled in between the coats. The last coat is
hardening, I use 5% formaldehyde in several coats. One can not use a
bath, as it lifts the gelatin. One can ultimatly add the hardener
inside the gelatin coatings, but then it has to be thrown away each
time after use.

I also use gelatin inside the emulsion, both to glue the emulsion
better to the gelatin base, and to get a thicker emulsion layer and
give it more physical strength during the developing process.

It is really not difficult if one is careful. Bubbles are the enemy.

Timo Sund from Finland has been wondering if it is possible to use
cyanotypes on glass as negatives. It is certainly possible, especially
if one makes them rather contrast. I have even been using cyanotypes in
a pinhole. But it takes many hours.

The question is why do you want to bother? Why do you want to make
cyanotype negatives on glass, Timo ?

Best regards,

Galina.

www.galina.no

On Wednesday, Dec 3, 2003, at 12:18 Europe/Oslo, Loris Medici wrote:

> Galina Manikova does this kind of work (kallitype on glass) but AFAIK,
> she uses the coated glass as the "paper" - finished print, not as the
> "film". I remember reading somewhere (could be in her site or in "The
> Book of Alternative Processes" or both) that she coats the glass 3
> times
> with gelatine (hardener added) and then the emulsion... Dear Galina, if
> you read us, can you please describe how do your coat the emulsion to
> glass (or other) surface? (list subscribers, please forgive me for
> asking that without searching the achive)
>
> Cyanotype emulsion is very slow and only sensitive to blue - UV portion
> of the spectrum - this mean exposure times will be very long (or
> impossible) unless your subject is under bright daylight. Plus, the
> transmission density will be very low (much lower than it is on paper -
> which I believe is no more than 1.25 log reflective density, note that
> light will pass thru emulsion only one time, not two times as in a
> print). I doubt you will be able to use your cyanotype negatives on
> glass for contact printing to any emulsion. (?? Please correct me if
> I'm
> wrong)
>
> Regards,
> Loris.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Timo Sund [mailto:kyyhky@saunalahti.fi]
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:14 AM
>> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>> Subject: Cyanotypes on glass
>>
>>
>>
>> Just wondering could I take cyanotypes on glassplates and
>> then contactprint
>> them to paper?
>>
>> My LF camera accepts glassplates easily since it's
>> constructed to use them
>> originally.
>>
>> Main problem is: how to make cyanotype chemicals stick on glassplate?
>> Collodium?
>> Gum Arabic?
>>
>> --
>> Timo Sund
>> Kiihtelysvaara, Finland
>> ---
>>
>>
>
>
Received on Wed Dec 3 06:07:29 2003