RE: My papyrus adventures

Camden, It sounds like you need to treat this like Bein Fang for both
Exposure and post exposure. After you coat the papyrus, are you humidifying
at all? If so how long? As for drying, you might try this...

Hang the sheet up to add a bunch of humidity and when you put the sheet
under glass, use a series of pieces of tape to pull it back tight slowly
going around the sheet to stretch in taught.

After washing, back side squeegee the print, then flip it over and on a
sheet of glass of plexi, use a hair dryer to slightly dry the sheet. When
you get a hint of what I'll call ice cycling you pull the sheet carefully
off the glass and put in in a blotter press to complete drying. Make sure
that you have even pressure of you may get irregular shape prints.

Eric Neilsen Photography
4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
214-827-8301
http://ericneilsenphotography.com
 
Skype : ejprinter
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Camden Hardy [mailto:camden@hardyphotography.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 11:32 AM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
> Subject: My papyrus adventures
>
> As many of you probably know (refer to my previous postings on
> the
> subject), I have begun a mission to get a good palladium print
> on papyrus.
> This post is an account of my experiences thus far as well as
> my initial
> impressions of the material for printing.
>
> The paper itself. I purchased my papyrus paper from
> http://www.dickblick.com/zz112/39/. I was given a choice of
> "light" or
> "dark" color, at which point I went for "light". The paper is
> gorgeous
> (refer to the website for a picture). As far as wet-strength
> goes, it's
> one of the strongest materials I've ever worked with. Once
> wet, it's
> incredibly difficult to tear.
>
> Coating. Coating was quite a bit easier than I expected it to
> be. The
> drop count for papyrus worked out to be about 1 drop/2 sq.
> in...roughly
> the same as Arches Platine. I used a magic brush to spread the
> sensitizer. The papyrus didn't absorb the chemistry to fast or
> too slow,
> which made it a very pleasant experience.
>
> Development. I used a 3% potassium oxalate solution at room
> temperature
> for 3 minutes. The color of the papyrus combined with the warm
> tones of
> pot ox development is stunning (sorry, I haven't had a chance
> to scan
> anything yet...once I get a good print I'll post a link).
>
> Issues to overcome. There were some issues that became
> apparent as I was
> working through this. The first one happened between the
> coating and
> exposure. Moisture makes that papyrus curl/wrinkle like
> there's no
> tomorrow. As a result, when put in the contact printing frame
> (quite
> tightly, I might add), there were several spots that were not
> in direct
> contact with the negative, resulting in blurry splotches. I'm
> thinking I
> will hot press the papyrus after coating next time to solve
> this; can
> anyone see a reason not to do this?
>
> The next problem (not so much a problem) is with drying. I
> finished my
> first print late Friday afternoon, and left it to hang dry over
> the
> weekend. Big mistake. It wrinkled so much when it dried no
> amount of hot
> pressing could flatten it. For one of my test strip prints
> earlier that
> day, I only let it hang dry for about an hour, then hot-pressed
> it. That
> worked out really well. So my advice to anyone wanting to try
> this is
> don't leave it too long to dry.
>
> That's all for now. Friday's work was simply to answer the
> question "can
> it be done". Now that I've got some experience, I'm going make
> a second
> attempt sometime this week and hopefully I'll have a print to
> show off to
> everyone. I'll keep you all updated.
>
> If anyone has had experience printing on papyrus, I would love
> to hear
> about it. Based on my previous thread about this, it doesn't
> sound like
> anyone has, but I'm throwing this out there just in case.
>
> Camden Hardy
>
> camden@hardyphotography.net
> http://www.hardyphotography.net
Received on 07/25/06-12:32:06 PM Z