Re: Vandyke brown

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From: Tom Ferguson (tomf2468@pipeline.com)
Date: 09/25/03-05:07:58 PM Z


Oddly I'm finishing Photoshoping and printing new digital negs
(Pictorico) today. 8 new negs, 5 of them for Kalli on cloth! That is why
I'm on the web so long. With my OLDDDDDDD 1200 printer that is a
LONGGGGGGG inkjet printing session! But tomorrow in the darkroom
printing will be far more fun :-)

Anyway, I haven't tried soaking the cloth. I suspect it would use even
more $$ chemistry, and an even coat seems to be important here (your
"wringing" comment is probably true).

The Mapplethorpe work was mid/early in his career. Not printed by him.
Most (if not all) of his work was printed by others. He had a "art
factory/Warhol" complex. Hired a lot of his work done: hired shoppers,
art directors, printers. Even used his brother to set up and photograph
(yes,I know, just what was left for him to do?). Not a complaint: when
he was good, he was wonderful.

The work I'm remembering on silk was a hycianda (spelling?) I primarily
remember it because it caused a "slight argument" between my wife and I.
Before he was "controversial" we saw his work in Carmel (California). We
were saving up for a down payment on our first home (Condo). Karen
wanted to buy the print, I put my "foot down" saying that we had to be
responsible and save money for our down payment. 10 years latter we sold
the Condo for 50% of what we paid (OUCH), and the Mapplethorpe platinum
on silk sold at auction for 20 times what we could have bought it for!

Bottom line, I can't tell you what type of silk Mapplethorpe used (hired
used). I just know that when I tried silk with platinum and/or kallitype
it was disappointing :-(

On Thursday, September 25, 2003, at 03:16 PM, Kate Mahoney wrote:

> This sound very interesting - have you tried actually soaking the
> cloth? I
> suppose wringing out the excess would give streaks.....some of the
> students
> here work with cloth and the resultant mess is awe-inspiring!!!!
>
> Mapplethorpe's work you say is on "silk". Any idea what kind??? I'm not
> surprised that there is a difference as the fibres are from completely
> different sources, one's animal protein (silk) and the other's cellulose
> based. When dyeing silk and cotton different chemistry is used so it
> makes
> sense that different processes might work better on different types of
> cloth. Cyanotype certainly works well on silk.
>
> Kate Mahoney
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Ferguson" <tomf2468@pipeline.com>
> To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 9:57 AM
> Subject: Re: Vandyke brown
>
>
>> Yes, because the cloth is more absorbent than paper. What I've found is
>> that cloth really wants to be "saturated". I put a few sheets of paper
>> towels behind my cloth then really paint/soak the chemistry on. Much
>> more even tones and better D-Max than trying to "stretch" a small
>> (normal) amount of chemistry onto cloth. I must admit, this is one of
>> the reasons this project is in silver (kallitype) rather than
>> platinum$$$.
>>
>> I started using "Puma" (Pima??) cotton until local stores couldn't get
>> that for me anymore and I switched to "Kona" cotton. Not much
>> difference. Most any fine thread "dress shirt" cotton seems to work.
>> I've seen Mapplethorpe work on "silk", but I found cotton much
>> better. I
>> wash (then iron) my cloth before coating, some of the chemicals/size in
>> the original cloth interfered. My wife always laughs and says that is
>> the only ironing I'm willing to do! You might want to look at Jeffrey
>> Mathis's web site for some good info (he helped me a lot getting
>> started
>> with cloth):
>> http://home.att.net/~jeffrey.d.mathias/
>>
>> On Thursday, September 25, 2003, at 01:14 PM, Patricia Reed wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks...
>>> Do you mean 3 times the amount of chemistry because the cloth soaks so
>>> much of it up?
>>> What kind of cloth did you use?
>>>
>>>>>> tomf2468@pipeline.com 09/25/03 02:51PM >>>
>>> I've had good luck (and fun) with kallitype on cloth. The needed neg
>>> (with my chemistry and cloth and toning) is very similar to the
>>> correct
>>>
>>> neg for paper. It does take about 3 time the amount of chemistry! See
>>> here (toy series) for a few examples:
>>> http://www.ferguson-photo-design.com/finearta.shtml
>>>
>>> On Thursday, September 25, 2003, at 08:16 AM, Patricia Reed wrote:
>>>
>>>> Does anyone have any experience/insight in printing Vandyke on
>>> fabric?
--------------
Tom Ferguson
http://www.ferguson-photo-design.com
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>


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