Really pretty! The black looks very strong, too. Is the scan representative of the actual print, or is it a little punchier than in the real world? Very minimal staining, too!
toned with sumac gall
McMaster-Carr is a great resource for materials for projects, better prices than the home centers too....For the springs on the back of my contact frame, I picked up 1/8”x3/4” aluminum strips from Lowes. I may swap them out for steel if I can find some thin enough, as I worry a little that they aren’t giving me enough pressure for good contact. ...
Really pretty! The black looks very strong, too. Is the scan representative of the actual print, or is it a little punchier than in the real world? Very minimal staining, too!
Ah, I suppose the calcium carbonate bleaches the print, which then immediately tones in the presence of the sumac gall extract. Btw, I'm familiar with sumac as a kitchen spice, but never heard about sumac galls; do you have a link to a commercial product/ seller?
I doubt calcium carbonate would be an effective/appreciable bleaching agent
I think it is, though, based on the experience of having left cyanotypes for quite some time in hard (tap) water, resulting in them bleaching back almost entirely over the course of several hours. However, its of course possible (likely) that your proposed route is responsible for the majority of the bleaching.
Btw, I'm familiar with sumac as a kitchen spice, but never heard about sumac galls; do you have a link to a commercial product/ seller?
I'll have to give that Bamboo a try. Sounds good. And yeah, we obviously subscribe to the same philosophy with piles of paper. Lol. Variety is the spice of life and all.I really like the Hahn. Bamboo Mixed Media paper. I'm on my second block of the 9x12ish size that I have been using for the final prints of a series of toned cyanotypes I am working on.
Given that my working principle is that one can not have too much or too many types of paper, I say go for it and buy a test batch!!!
As for acid in the first tray for processing cyanotypes, I don't think that the nature of the acid is important as the only thing that matters is having a mildly acidic pH for the first tray.
I am interested to hear about your method of adding citric acid directly to the sensitizer. I have not heard of anyone doing that before. Do you do this in addition to using citric acid in the first tray?
FYI... to have a saturated solution of anything, there must be solid compound (citric acid in this case) remaining at the bottom of the container. I'm not sure if that is waht you wanted to ask about, but there it is.
I do agree about "anything to get around acidifying paper". Life is too short!!!
I'll have to give that Bamboo a try. Sounds good. And yeah, we obviously subscribe to the same philosophy with piles of paper. Lol. Variety is the spice of life and all.
Not much to tell as far as adding Citric Acid to the sensitizer. It stems from my laziness. I didn't want to do the extra step of acidifying paper so I thought I'd give the acid in the mix a try. I think I have a saturated(ish) solution, but you would know better than me. Curious what a saturated solution of Citric Acid would be.
I've found it does the job for the most part. Some papers that don't need a lot of acidification work well. I noticed acidifying the paper can make it last a long time after coating. Like weeks at times. I never write things down but I think acidifying the mix does something similar, though not to the extent of acidifying the paper. Some papers last longer than others. I usually don't use the paper right away after coating, though I try to use it within a week or so. I've acidified paper with Citric Acid and Sulfamic Acid. I don't really have a preference. If I don't feel like going outside, I use Citric. I never use vinegar. Not fond of the smell.
My mix for the Citric Acid solution is purely random. I mix 29g in 58ml of distilled water. I don't know where I got that amount, but I probably looked it up somewhere. Someone like you might know if that is accurate. Then I just put as many drops as ml for A and B. So 20ml A, 20ml B, then 20 drops. Like I said, totally random. Easy to remember though. I also used to add LFN but I've been using Tween lately. I don't know if there is a difference aside from viscosity. I think I need to thin my Tween down though.
One thing I do know after thousands of cyanotypes and experimenting all the time is that keeping everything acidic makes for better prints with few exceptions. The speed is higher and the tonality is better and it is a pretty dramatic difference too. Stonehenge for example will not print a highlight without acid. Adding the CA to the mix has worked out fine, so I keep doing it, even when I acidify the paper first, though in that case it probably isn't needed.
I hope that makes sense. That was quite the word salad! Give it a try though. Like you said, anything to shorten the trip.
Frank those Sumac prints are something else. No staining!
those toned cyanotypes are greaat - I really like the sumac ones. I recently tried to tone a few of my overexposed cyano's, first bleaching and then with "tree nut tannin" ( I think this was for wine making), while I did get some decent blacks, it really stained the Revere Platinum and the canson bristol papers I was using....will have to try to try the sumac.
I do remember on some earlier toning experiments with a toner made from sweet potato skins. I added the calcium carbonate per Annette Golaz's book. I live in Kentucky where all of the rocks are limestone ( calcium carbonate basically) so I finely ground up a bit and added it - not very soluble, but I guess it may have helped. Will try the sumac. I just ordered some tannic acid from artcraft and will see how that works as well. Ultimately if I can get the cyanotypes to give a nice black, I will try it as a base layer for some gum bichromate prints, although the blue cyanotypes also work as a cyan layer ....
Dave
sumac/CaCO3
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