Glutaraldehyde, yupo

Ryuji Suzuki wrote:
>
> From: "Gordon J. Holtslander" <holtsg@duke.usask.ca>
> Subject: Re: Let's switch the New Orleans controversy to glut now please...
> Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:11:30 -0600
>
> > Once mixed into to the dilution used to harden it may not be as
> > dangerous, but its always very dangerous to assume that something
> > isn't dangerous. :)
>
> For darkroom users, I highly recommend to obtain glut in 2.5% or lower
> concentrations, preferrably in acidified solution of pH 4 or
> below. Don't try to save pennies by buying more concentrated stuff and
> dilute them yourself.
>

This is VERY important; this is the mistake I made. I wasn't buying it
more concentrated to save money, but because I didn't want to buy a
gallon of toxic stuff that I might never use and then would have to
worry about disposing of. So I bought a small amount of 8%, the lowest
concentration I could find in a small bottle. HUGE mistake. After my
experience with it, I'll never use it again at any concentration, but I
don't have a great need to size paper and when I do, I find other
solutions work perfectly well. I've never seen speckling on sized paper
(except for recent versions of Arches Aquarelle) and find that either
glyoxal or gelatin- gesso give a wonderfully smooth surface that prints
beautifully on the papers I've needed to size recently.

At the moment I'm printing almost exclusively on Yupo. This "paper" is
FAST, develops with a brief swish in water, and dries (with a hair
dryer) almost instantly. I don't ever have problems registering even on
unsized paper, but for those who do, this plastic surface is very stable
dimensionally. By using the sun for exposure today (in not very bright
sun the exposure was 5 seconds) today I was making two-coat prints from
start to finish in less than three minutes total. You do have to give
it some tooth so it will retain the gum, but this can be done by
scuffing it lightly with sandpaper.
Katharine
Received on Fri Sep 2 01:24:16 2005