"SS Toner," Darkroom Photography, et al.

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> PS I've been going through old Camera and Darkroom mags, and what a hoot. Two
> articles by Jan Pietrzak, and a gum image of Judy Siegel's. Two gum articles
> by Steve Anchell. I keep looking for alt listers....

Thanks for the mention, Chris, but it's not a gum print (at that point I'd
done exactly one in my life). And it wasn't Camera and Darkroom. Assuming
what you saw was "At the Conservatory," it was Darkroom Photography's
"Final Frame," Nov. '84, tho they ran it again in a reprise of "old
favorites," Feb '88.

Whichever, as explained in captions both times, it was gelatin silver,
Brovira #5, solarized and toned, sky & figures added in paint.

For actual formulas and procedure, see Post-Factory # 3, page 28: "My
Secret Formula/Their Secret Formula." I called it "SS Toner" for
"Specular Silver" but it's also the formula for a toner marketed as
Halochrome. If you can get the hydrazine sulfate and the hydroxylamine
hydrochloride, you get a lifetime supply for about the cost of one kit.

Someone recently asked me if the "SS" toner is the same as Tetanol's
"Bronzing" toner. I don't know, but if that's a bleach-and-redevelop, odds
are it's similar.

(Liam Lawless, Nina Rizzo & Jon Bailey also have toning articles in P-F
#3, in the section titled "Factory Paper Gets Toned.")

Judy
Received on Mon Apr 18 11:22:31 2005