RE: ARCHES PLATINE

Chris and all,

> You'll love it; ultimately you can thank Don Bryant for the
> recommendation,
> as he was the one who told the list about it way back when in my notes.

The truth is that I wouldn't consider printing cyanotypes on any other paper
if I want to make a fine print. Platine has the color and texture that I
usually prefer for alt printing. However as I have conjectured to Chris, it
is my feeling that any paper that is satisfactory for palladium printing
will do well with cyanotype printing.

There is one caveat about that statement though, papers that can be made
useful for palladium printing by acidification such as Fabriano Extra White
(soaked in oxalic acid) may not be good choices when given the acid
treatment. At least that is what Sam Wang has mentioned to Chris (the result
of the acid soak caused the cyano layer to deteriorate.)

Double coating never seemed to improve the contrast or DMAX for me. I will
say that I am not very careful about the amount of sensitizer I use. Let's
just say I use just enough. I coat with a hake brush dipped into a glass of
the mixed A+B parts. I don't fret over the humidity other than maintaining a
RH of 30 to 60%. I would be more attentive though to environmental
conditions if I were calibrating digital negatives using Mark Nelson's PDN
system though.

I also have two small sheets of Buxton that I have sat on for a couple of
years. Someday I'll find where I've hidden them and compare them to Platine,
but until then I will stick with Platine even though it too is expensive.
Why look for the Holy Grail when you have already found it? :)

BTW, I order my Platine from NY Central. They give me great service and I
like to spread my business around to help support more than one source of
materials (plus they are on the east coast.)
 
Don
Received on Wed Jun 8 19:56:56 2005