From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 03/30/03-11:14:24 PM Z
On Sun, 30 Mar 2003, Rauch, Shelley wrote:
> At the last moment, ie Friday, our teacher realised that there wasn't
> enough chemical for us to do Van Dyke, so now we are to do cyanotypes
> instead. She demonstrated, however, using the VanDyke process and
> chemicals.
Do you get to grade the teacher? (I'm going to demonstrate the bicycle on
my skate board -- hope I get an A.)
> I purchased the chemicals to do the cyanotype at home. I blacked off my
> bathroom, purchased a 60watt bug light for a safelight, mixed up my
> chemicals and coated the paper. The chemicals turned blue upon coming
> into contact with the paper. I let them dry in the dark bathroom for
> about 30 or so minutes until dry to the touch.
Coat cyanotype by normal room light -- bug light is impossible. Impossible
to evenly coat yellow liquid by yellow light -- and no point. Better to
*dry* the paper in the dark, probably, but also not crucial. Lots of
folks dry under a table, or -- my tests show right out on the table in the
light for a half hour didn't make a whole helluva lot of difference.
> My concern is... how slow? Since I haven't seen this actual process demonstrated, I feel like I'm out in left field. Why is my paper already blue? Does the chemical evaporate, or has it been fogged somehow?
You may run into trouble using such a freshly mixed emulsion -- I found it
tends to wash off, or require much more exposure, unless it has "ripened"
for a day. My exposures average 8 minutes -- the same as VDB & platinum.
Tho that's affected by the density of the negative, and the light source,
also the paper.
Judy
> This is due tomorrow. I had followed my teacher's somewhat vague
> instructions to the letter. I need guidance, please!
>
> Thanks,
> Shelley
>
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