RE: My papyrus adventures

From: Kate M <kateb_at_paradise.net.nz>
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 08:07:06 +1200
Message-id: <000a01c6b0ef$12c23e70$d226f6d2@kateiwpiarptn6>

Camden said: 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?

Hi Camden, when coating on surfaces that wrinkle, I have stretched my paper
(damp) onto masonite using paper framer's tape. It does make the whole
process more unwieldy, but it also keeps the paper flat! The main problem
with doing this is that you have to then cut the paper off the board as the
tape, once set, is pretty much impossible to remove from the paper. I coated
the masonit in flat emulsion paint to avoid any oil from the board getting
into the damp paper. As for drying, I'd be tempted to stretch the paper
again to dry......means a waste of paper at the edges but at least a
wrinkle-free end product.

I'd be pleased to hear if anyone has any newer tech for stretching paper
than this.

Cheers
Kate

-----Original Message-----
From: Camden Hardy [mailto:camden@hardyphotography.net]
Sent: Wednesday, 26 July 2006 4:32 a.m.
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).

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

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Received on 07/26/06-02:08:02 PM Z

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