Re: Cyanotype toning and lead acetate.

Joachim,
My understanding is that tannic and gallic acids make a stable and permanent
compound, ferric gallate or ferric tannate--I got this from Ware's Cyanotype
book (a must have if you are going to do a lot of cyanotype).

But as far as the lavender colors you may get from alkalinity, they are not
stable--just return a print to an acid state and you can watch it turn blue
again. I figured it was similar to bleaching a gelatin silver print and
having rehalogenated silver waiting to be toned and then not toning it to
completion....

I had the students this semester do a combotype assignment of VDB or
agyrotype on top of or below cyanotype. When I polled the students this
week about which assignments to throw out, they unanimously chose that one,
because both of those are a pain to combine. The cyanotype would completely
disappear due to the alkalinity of the fix or the VDB would disappear due to
the potassium ferricyanide of the cyanotype. I happened to really like a
number that they produced, and the ones that were most successful had a
layer of diluted gesso between the two.

Then there was one smart student who returned the print to acid and voila
the cyanotype reappeared.

That still didn't make anyone like the assignment.

A couple years back I painted Future floor polish on a cyanotype and
produced a lovely lavender color that lasted a long time; however, it did go
back to blue eventually.
Chris

My experience with toning cyanotype prints is that the alterations are
evanescent and not "permanent." If I am wrong, please someone tell me and I
will try to fix me and not the processes. Thanks. Joachim
Received on Fri Apr 21 08:43:23 2006