From: Grace Taylor (gtay22@earthlink.net)
Date: 03/21/03-02:18:50 PM Z
I'm a relatively new Van Dyke printer--about a year and a half after taking
a great workshop at Photographers Formulary in Montana. For what it's
worth, here's my experience. I fix my prints with a mixure of 30 grams of
sodium thiosulfate in 1 liter of water after washing for two minutes. After
the fix, I put the print in permawash (50% strength) for two minutes then
wash for 20 minutes. When I first began, I followed the recommendation in
Christopher James' book and fixed the prints for 1 minute, vs the two at the
workshop. However, after several images were exposed to halogen light for a
month, white areas appeared in the pictures--much to my chagrin. I got some
good advice from Bostick & Sullivan and did a lot of testing with exposure
of the finished prints in bright sunlight, testing both 1 minute fixing and
5 minute fixing of the same image. The 5 minute fixing held up, with no
change in the image so that is the fixing time I use now, and I have not had
any further problem with changes in the images after long exposure to bright
indoor light. I found that my printing exposure time had to be a little
longer to compensate for the longer fixing time, but I have had no yellowing
from the permawash or fading from the fixing or washing. The paper I use is
Stonehenge. I got interested in the process because I thought it would be
appropriate for a series of rodeo pictures I've been making, and the results
have really hooked me on Van Dyke. Grace
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