Re: New Cyanotype - my first unsuccessful attempt

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004, Ryuji Suzuki wrote:

>> James' book say:
>>
>> "... Mike notes in his book on the New Cyanotype Process that there are
>> indications the citric acid may make the print more suspectible to fading.
>> Because of this, he is now, as of 2000, recommending the use of 1% nitric or
>> hydrochloric acid in place of the citric acid ..."

cut...

> I understand you'd be on the conservative side when unsure about
> things like this, but unless someone do necessary experiments and
> report the results, and show that citric acid and light can fade but
> nitric acid (or others) treated prints don't fade even under a lighted
> display condition and compared against dark stored samples, how do you
> know whether nitric acid (or whatever you choose) is safe? And unless
> you or someone tests for sure, how could one know whether an
> alternative to nitric acid is really safe to the image? It's not my
> issue how people go about this problem, but I just thought to give a
> bit of critical view here.

I think I have Ware's Cyano book somewhere, tho I probably couldn't find
it, but shortly before its publication we had some e-mail exchanges on the
topic, when he said he'd found citric "not archival" and was testing
hydrochloric.... If James says the cyano book commented to that effect,
it seems redundant for someone else to do more experiments & "report the
results," at least not about citric.... Has anyone been to Ware's website
to see if there's an update about other acids?

I'll add, meanwhile, that it's my understanding that very few art
materials withstand fading under prolonged "lighted display" conditions,
assuming that to mean artificial light of viewing intensity -- unless
other safeguards are built in.

Judy
Received on Tue Aug 24 11:49:43 2004