Re: Everclear

Good morning, Judy et al,

This time testing with glyoxal, I did the separate glyoxal bath instead of
adding it to the gelatin, because if adding it to the gelatin was a
contributing factor to yellowing, I could eliminate that.

I do have a ph meter if I can figure out how to use it :). But I used
distilled water for this whole batch, too.

The thing that I find interesting about glyoxal is that the paper surface
feels...gritty and crystally, instead of smooth like the glut hardened
paper.

I am going to wager a bet that the yellowing has to do with alkalinity,
either of the paper or the water supply. This whole batch I did with
distilled water, and if after 3 months my sample papers don't turn
dramatically yellow, I could retest with tap water. I suppose I could also
test that by adding sodium carbonate to a batch and seeing if the yellowing
increases dramatically. The paper that I had over the summer that did not
yellow was Lenox, and the other one was Fabriano, which I know is alkaline
because Ware's cyano turns lavender on it.
Chris

>
> It occurs to me to wonder what the pH of your water is... Because, tho I
> have seen that yellowing in a bead of gelatin at the edge, that only
> happened once or twice and yellowing has been very rare otherwise... In
> fact i've got some paper out on a couple of surfaces in my studio that's
> been hanging around for a year or two -- unchanged. Since I did see
> strong discoloration from a couple of alkalis (I remember sodium carbonate
> in particular) added to the glyoxal, supposedly to strengthen linking of
> the gelatin, I'm wondering if that could be at work...
>
> What's the pH of Everclear?
>
> Or maybe it's from being IN the gelatin, not over it???? I've never put
> the glyoxal in the gelatin...
>
> Judy
>
Received on Fri Oct 15 06:42:48 2004