Re: Mordancage Process

On Sat, 6 Dec 2003, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
>
> I have discovered some fun stuff about mordancage now that I have
> concentrated on it more and these are a few points that are not in my
> article. for one, if you get in a pinch, use a bottle of regular hydrogen
> peroxide from the drug store. It is 3% which is really low, but if you add
> your copper chloride directly to that with no added water you can use it--in
> other words, per liter of the drug store hy per add 15 grams of copper
> chloride which is about a tablespoon.

Chris, I've been puzzling over why my experience with these chemicals was
so different from yours -- as I've noted I found copper sulfate worked
fine, and after I used up my first bottle of bomb-grade peroxide, I began
using drugstore stuff at about a tenth of the price. But I still only
needed about twice the amount called for, and even then the bleach would
keep for a few days & could be re-used, at least with heating.

What occurs to me is it might have been that I was using an old paper --
probably 20 years old at the time, if not more (the Brovira #6). "They"
say old papers didn't have the supercoating, or hardening that modern
papers have, causing problems with bromoil for modern papers (tho they
seem to have been overcome?).

I was doing the mordancage where you etch before fixing, and then
reverse (expose to white light & redevelop), and wash without fixing
(nothing left to fix, presumably). But it sounds like you're doing that
too?

Then below you say something probably isn't archival. Because you painted
on fix? My reversals have as far as I can tell been archival (about 20
years). But they had no fixer.

Judy

 Then add your acetic acid; if you
> don't have glacial, you can fudge with vinegar or stop bath. The point
> is to keep the acidity of the solution low enough for it to work, so you
> can keep adjusting that as you go along. See how easy it can be? Get
your
> bottle of hy per, dump some copper chloride and vinegar in there, and go.
> But if you can, get 20v because the hydrogen peroxide is what does the
> disintegrating. Don't bother with the stronger stuff; it is not necessary,
> really--20v works just fine.
>
> Next, the paper that works hands down incredibly well (I've used
> Bergger, Forte, and Ilford) is Ilford. All types, fiber and RC. It is a
> charm. I have difficulty with Bergger for some reason, but all this means
> is that I bleach, develop, and then bleach and redevelop again, instead of
> just doing it one time. Unfortunately you have more trouble with stain that
> way. So for your first attempt, Ilford is great. It disintegrates in a
> minute or two max.
>
> Third, I have not put some images back in the developer and then
> exposed them in sunlight. You get some really intriguing tones that way, as
> there is rehalogenized silver after the bleaching process. You can even
> paint on fixer at some point with a brush and you'll get even more color
> variations. I would suggest scanning these and filing them on a CD rom
> because they will change over time--it certainly isn't archival.
>
> That should get you started with some ideas; I have lots more :)
> Chris
Received on Mon Dec 8 01:21:58 2003