RE: blue vandykes

Scott, I'd strongly suggest that you do an overexposed cyanotype first and
then coat 1:1 diluted (with distilled and/or deionized water) vandyke over
the cyanotype. It is simplier and that way you won't experience any
bleaching. Don't forget to slightly unregister the negative for the second
printing; the effects will be more pronounced and interesting.

See a sample print made by one of my students here:
http://www.loris.medici.name/sergi_gorseller/images/Didem_Iz.jpg

Regards,
Loris.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryuji Suzuki [mailto:rs@silvergrain.org]
Sent: 12 Ağustos 2005 Cuma 23:52
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: blue vandykes

From: "Weber, Scott" <sweber@mail.barry.edu>
Subject: blue vandykes
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:01:59 -0400

> Does anyone have advice for combining cyanotypes and van dyke
> printing? I have seen a few examples and like the combination of
> colors. I tried a few the other day and found that the cyan on top of
> the vdb bleaches out the brown image. Any help is appreciated.

When this was brought up a few weeks ago, I suggested two possible methods
to overcome this problem. One is to use polysulfide treatment after Van Dyke
before cyano. Another is to use Fuji Ag Guard treatment, similarly after VDB
before cyano.

This bleaching is most likely due to oxidation of the metallic silver.
Unlike silver gelatin, silver is not protected by gelatin, which makes the
VDB silver image more susceptible to all sorts of oxidative attacks. The two
methods I suggested are known to make silver more resistant to oxidation.
Received on Sat Aug 13 03:13:39 2005