oil print success

Hi:

Had time to play with oil printing this weekend. I was able to make an
oil print image - not a great one - but a start.

For the matrix I used 5% gelatin, (plain Knox gelatin from the grocery
store) One 7g pack disolved in 140 mls water. Coated 3 coats with
poly-nylon brush on stonehenge. Let each coat dry before next.

To sensitize soaked sheet two minutes in 5% K biChromate.

Made three test exposures through a pinhole CGP negative, 3 6 and 12
minutes, and let them dry for a few hours

I "superdried" the papers. Held them over a hot plate for a couple of
minutes and then blew a hair dryer on them for a few minutes each

Soaked them for 15 minutes, in 20 degree C water. Actually I soaked them
for a minimum of 15 minutes, while I tried inking each test I left the
others soaking.

Blotted each dry with paper towel - is paper towel a poor choice for
drying?

Inked with a sample of black litho ink obtained from the U's print
department.

Worked the ink on a glazed tile till it was soft, transfered a small patch
of ink from worked ink to the center of the tile with an old cosmetics
brush

Inked from this patch with a foam roller, cosmetic brush and small
stencil brush..

The 3 minute exposure gave the best results. The 6 and 12 minute
exposures were very flat.

How does the soaking time after exposure and superdrying effect the
inking? I left the 3 minute test soaking the longest - perhaps 1/2 an
hour in total. I am wondering if the difference is related to both the
exposure and soaking time, or one more than the other.

Any good techniques for getting ink off the print :) A few spots were
inked way too heavily.

I had much better success making my own matrix this time than I did trying
to use a fixed out printing paper. I tried oil printing some time last
year using fixed out fibre based paper - likely an ilford, or agfa paper -
don't recall what paper I used. I wasn't able to get any image at all.

Any inking secrets out there :)

Do you need to resoak the print when inking? If so how often? How long?

question questions :)

Gord

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Gordon J. Holtslander Dept. of Biology
holtsg@duke.usask.ca 112 Science Place
http://duke.usask.ca/~holtsg University of Saskatchewan
Tel (306) 966-4433 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Fax (306) 966-4461 Canada S7N 5E2
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Received on 05/29/06-10:12:06 AM Z