RE: printing on vellum

I've recently been experimenting with clearprint vellum, mainly as a
substrate for gum, cyanotype and vandyke. I decided, one night, to try
printing negatives with it just to see how well it worked (being rather
translucent after all). Just for reference, it won't work for negatives if
you're looking for nice sharp images, as it adds a grainy/fuzzy effect. Now
since I've been spending most of my time making abstract pinhole images
lately, it added an interesting effect for me. One person's disdain is
another person's new trademark I suppose.

Anyhow, as far as printing out images, it actually prints quite well (to me
anyways). I have two printers, one is an older Epson 600 and the other one
is an HP Deskjet. On the Epson, I've found that the photo settings present
the best image, where as on the HP the transparancy setting works the best
(maybe vice versa, I did this a month ago). So you'll probably want to
print out a few small images and play with the settings to see what works
best for you and your printer. Either way, it takes a few minutes for the
ink to sink into the paper, but once it does you don't have any smearing
problems as with photopaper or transparancies. Well, I didn't actually go
out of my way to test this, but I touched the ink a few times and my finger
wasn't black afterwards. Also, since the paper is so translucent, I've
found that images look the best when they're in front of a white background.

Hope that helps somewhat.

    -David-

*****
"I don't really trust ideas, especially good ones...."
                          -Robert Rauschenburg

-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Kleider [mailto:bkleider@sihope.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 10:07 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
Subject: printing on vellum

I'm trying to simulate the effects of blindness, eye diseases, and other
vision problems experienced by the blind and the visually impaired.

In one set of images, I'll goop up a filter with Vaseline.

I'll throw a toilet paper tube in front of my lens to simulate tunnel
vision.

Does anyone have experience doing inkjet prints on vellum?

Barry Kleider
Photographer. Arts Educator.
612.722.9701
email: bkleider@sihope.com
Web: www.barryphotography.com

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