Re: Ferric Ammonium Oxalate + Potassium Chloroplatinite Solution Shelf Life

Hi Loris,

It was Marek who put me on to the emulsion mix for Satista and I found it
worked just fine.

I experimented with a contrasty image, making vellum (sheer heaven vellum
purchased from some firm in Santa Fe) and pictorico negs for comparison. I
printed them as Satistas and the usual Platinum print on pre-shrunk
Stonehenge paper. Whereas the Pict negs produced contrasty Satista and
Platinum prints in which the hilights were blown, both types of print made
with vellum negs were softer and the hilights had printed well. I then
proceeded to do gum over Satistas and Pt prints and found that the contrast
problems could not be alleviated.

So if there is a contrast-enhancing agent like sod. chloroplatinate or
whatever, it would be good to see if it would enhance the contrast of
Satista or Pt prints made with vellum negs.

Vellum comes in many varieties and weights. It is translucent and thicker
than tracing paper. The sheer heaven that I chose was because it does not
crinkle in wet procedures. Yet printing pigment-over-platinum images on it
did not hold much promise. As a negative medium it is seems to work and if
contrast can be adjusted at the Satista or Pt print stage, it would be a
cheaper alternative to Pictorico.

I have no information on the vellums that HP and Epson market.

I do not have scans of the above experiments on line but I can send them off
list to you if you wish.

Rajul

on 6/16/04 1:38 PM, Loris Medici at loris_medici@yahoo.com wrote:

> Hi Rajul,
>
> --- Rajul Iyer <eyeear@direct.ca> wrote:
>> Loris,
>>
>> Could you explain why you would use the
>> chloroplatinate instead of the
>> chloroplatinite for doing Satista prints? In my
>
> Oops! Sorry, that was a typo. What I have is
> "Potassium Chloroplatinite Sol. No. 3".
>
>> recent experiments with
>> Satista, Ifound that whereas chloroplatinite (one
>> drop of a 5% solution)
>> worked fine with about 25-30 drops of ~25% FAO for
>> an ~8x10" print, finding
>
> This exacly the same dilution as Marek says "it works
> - but giving much browner prints" in his
> alternativeprocesses.com article.
>
>> a way to enhance the contrast would would be a
>> worthwhile handle to have.
>
> So you're saying the prints were low contrast? Could
> it be that your negative density was not adequate?
> Actually I plan to design a curve from scratch (I use
> digital negatives) for "my working parameters" and to
> never change these parameters - which are: the formula
> of the sensitizer and gold toning time (if I decide to
> do it - using one shot fresh toner).
>
>> Also, using vellum instead of pictorico OHP
>> transparencies as digineg medium
>> can effectively reduce contrast when required.
>
> Well I certainly would like to do it if I could find
> it in Istanbul. I yet have to meet one person who
> knows what "vellum" is? When I ask about it all I got
> is empty looks. Can you suggest where I can find
> vellum (maybe there are businesses which exclusively
> use vellum papers, maybe they just don't call it
> "vellum" here). To what vellum resemble?
>
> Using vellum as negative sounds nice. I guess vellum
> paper is much chaper compared to Pictorico or other
> inkjet transparency media. Also maybe the paper will
> have more dot gain than inkjet transparency - that
> would be nice because: I have problems with pizza
> wheels making marks on my negatives and when one
> inspect the prints with a loupe they reveal their
> "inkjet made" character. A little bit more dot gain
> can cure these negative elements in my printing.
>
> .... long pause ... OK I have made some research: there
> are vellum papers (it's for plotters I presume) by HP
> and EPSON. Will these work with alt. processes? I
> often see "non solvent" remarks about these papers -
> do vellum papers from HP or Epson incorporate
> chemicals and/or fillers/coatings and/or whatnot which
> can prevent successful alt. process prints?
>
> Do you have any scans of your Satista prints/trials
> online?
>
> To all: I repeat my question - Do you think the
> Satista sensitizer will keep well? I plan to mix
> around 100 - 200ml because I don't want to fiddle with
> drops before every coating session.
>
> Another question is: I plan to sensitize in batches -
> 30 40 papers at a time. What do you suggest for
> keeping the paper? Can I keep these in a box face to
> back without separator material?
>
> Regards,
> Loris.
>
>
Received on Wed Jun 16 16:34:44 2004