RE: My papyrus adventures

Eric,

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to give that a try.

Camden Hardy

camden@hardyphotography.net
http://www.hardyphotography.net

On Tue, July 25, 2006 12:31 pm, Eric Neilsen wrote:
> 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 07/25/06-12:37:42 PM Z