RE: Printing on fabric

Hi Galina, it seems I missed your message last evening...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Galina Manikova [mailto:galina@online.no]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 12:04 PM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Re: Printing on fabric
>
>
> Hi, Loris,
>
> I have been making cyanotypes on silk for a long time, also
> in very big
> sizes, you can see some on my site (Blue and fireproof and
> Being blue).

I saw them - they're very nice!!! My favourite is the 2nd one in Being
Blue - the texture and color is wonderful.

> You should never use soap with silk, just soak it in water and change
> the water many times. If your water is basic, add some drops of lemon
> acid.

Will try to pre-wash with 0.5% sulfuric acid (5ml to 1lt) and then rinse
reveral times...

>...
> will always be marks one way or another. I usually hang it
> one way and
> turn it the other way after a short while, in order to get the coat
> more even.

That makes sense - thanks.

> As the emulsion gets through the fabric, it is important what
> you have
> under the fabric during the exposure. It will be different with white
> or black background. My exposures on very thin silk were about the

I tried to place a white sheet of paper and liked the result. That way,
I didn't need to prolong the exposure time; I had nicely exposed images
with my standard printing time... What will change if I expose with the
black felt of the printing frame's back under the fabric?
 
> third of the normal times. The image on thin silk is typically very
> weak, low contrast. But if you use a satin shiny thicker
> silk, it will
> be dark blue, but not transparent naturally.

I see, thanks for the tip...

> The reason why it is difficult to get a strong image on thin silk is
> thickness of the coat and transparency of the fabric. It helps if you
> build it up by coating with concentrated emulsion or coating twice,
> but that is tricky.

My images were strong with just one immersion - I guess this depends too
much to the fabric type; testing is the only way to see what happens...

Thanks you very much again,
will post links to scans of my prints soon.

Regards,
Loris.
Received on Wed Mar 10 23:49:36 2004