Re: more on Fabriano Artistico

Ryuji,
     Glad you like the Fabriano. I actually have now settled on that for my
paper of choice, but hot pressed, not soft press. The soft press has too
noticeable cross hatched grain in it for my liking. It isn't a huge deal,
but the hot press works great, and if I have any unevenness, I just whisk
the coating with the Jerry's Artarama cheapy badger hair softener. This is
after buying 30 sheets each of cold, hot, and soft, doing every negative
with all three side by side.
     I've been using it all summer unsized, but the next batch I buy I will
probably size, because I worry less, and development times are shorter.
      I do find, too, that it is not easily absorbent. Cyanotype tends to
sit on the top longer than on, like, Rives BFK, even with Tween added. It
is also, as Kerik pointed out, very alkaline. Gum works great, though. I'll
be interested to try liquid emulsion on it, after hearing about your
experience.
     I just really wonder what the sizing agent they use is. It feels like
something akin to glut. An added benefit--it doesn't stink.
     Plus the price at Jerry's Artarama is sooo cheap.
     I also find it is dimensionally stable--even with hanging up with
clothespins, it may be off only a hair's width (estimated 1/32 to 1/64th
inch?) in quarter sheet sizes.
Chris

> So I printed them, and coated more for next printing.
>
> The paper doesn't absorb much emulsion and it takes some work to make
> an even film of emulsion to stay on top of the paper. I learned to
> use liberal amount of wetting agent (Triton X-100) and antifoaming
> agent (silicon oil emulsion) when roller coating this paper, because
> emulsion didn't spread well on the paper surface with the amount I
> found to work well for those printmaking papers. But this is not a big
> deal.
>
> Emulsion had to be coated 3 times (each after drying the previous
> coat) to get good coating weight. The coated paper gave nicely
> detailed images (though much less sharp than commercial enlarging
> papers due to lack of baryta or resin coat) but the paper texture was
> very emphasized especially in dark area. With those printmaking papers
> images were less sharp but paper texture was less apparent.
>
> Then I toned prints in selenium plus polysulfide toner (similar to
> discontinued Polytoner). Neither the emulsion nor the paper got
> stained. Some commercial papers, as well as some of my homemade
> enlarging papers get stained even with all precautionary measures I
> know of. When I washed the prints, I cut out samples from test strips
> every 10 minutes and run residual hypo test (HT-2 silver nitrate
> test). The residual fixer/toner washed out from both emulsion and the
> paper base to the level generally considered archival in time that's
> comparable to washing time for commercial baryta papers to the same
> residual hypo level (in my processing chemicals and water, 20-30
> minutes).
>
> I also like strong body of this paper even when it's wet. I feel it's
> much easier to make larger prints on this paper than other papers I
> tried. The paper does curl a bit when emulsion dries, but not as much
> as what I had with Rives or Magnani.
>
> One area I don't like is that I need to coat 3 times. Tests with 1-2
> coats weren't good enough. (I can tell while coating because not much
> emulsion gets coated on paper after each coating.) I am hoping that
> this can be solved by making next batch of emulsion more concentrated
> to make up for thinner coat.
>
> Overall, I think this is a great paper, better than those printmaking
> papers, as far as my silver gelatin prints are concerned, because I
> don't have to size the paper yet get good details. My next task is to
> find smoother surface and optimal emulsion concentration.
>
> (Christina Anderson told me about this paper first, when I was
> struggling to improve sharpness with Magnani Pescia. I wish I tested
> it sooner!!!)
>
> --
> Ryuji Suzuki
> "You have to realize that junk is not the problem in and of itself.
> Junk is the symptom, not the problem."
> (Bob Dylan 1971; source: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton)
>
Received on Sun Jul 11 21:45:34 2004