Glossiness of Albumen Prints

[pound]

I always read that Albumen Prints has a glossy surface compared to salt prints. I used powered egg white for coating my albumen prints (single coat) but I see little gloss in the prints.

Would using real egg whites( as in fresh from the egg) better in achieving a glossy surface?
And how does the glossiness of an albumen print compared to one of a FB Ilford glossy paper?

[tjvitale]

I'm surprised you were able to make a coating. We never though of it. Congratulations. The point is to denature the albumen coating (variations on through beating). Evaporating the water from a vat of liquid would do it. Then you need to have sites to absorb the various ions, that would be the question.

We tried to get the fabled glossy coating, but we could never replicate the glass-like layer that was mentioned in the early literature. We tried!

Albumen prints were born with tiny drying cracks because the coating shrinks more than the internal strength of the film formed. We studied this extensively http://albumen.conservation-us.org/science/.

Albumen prints are glossier than a paper [base] with no real contagious coating, but albumen prints are identified by the many small cracks in the surface.

Also, see the "mechanics" article done by V & M (1993) at http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/c20/vitale1994.html.

Tim
510-594-8277

[BarryS]

I always read that Albumen Prints has a glossy surface compared to salt prints. I used powered egg white for coating my albumen prints (single coat) but I see little gloss in the prints.

Would using real egg whites( as in fresh from the egg) better in achieving a glossy surface?
And how does the glossiness of an albumen print compared to one of a FB Ilford glossy paper?

I only use fresh eggs for my albumen, but I tried (supposedly 100%) egg whites in a carton and they didn't work well. Other people are using dried egg whites, so that probably isn't your issue. You can get a range of surface from matte to gloss by the choice of paper and the number of coats. Albumen prints were originally made on thin papers that soak up less of the coating. Thick papers will absorb more of the coating for a matte finish. Double-coating makes a huge difference in surface gloss. Coat once, let the paper cure for several weeks, and give a second coat.

[Bruce Schultz]

Paper is a big factor. I use Crob'Art paper from France. It's thin and doesn't absorb a lot of liquid. You can't buy it in the U.S. Even in Paris last October, I couldn't find it at the store where I'd bought it before, so I went on French Amazon and ordered several pads of it.
Freestyle claims Universal Sketch works as well as Crob'Art, but it doesn't. Crob'Art is 80 grams per square meter, while Universal Sketch is 96 gsm, so it absorbs more liquid and gives low gloss.
Floating paper twice in the albumen is needed to get a good gloss, with a soaking in a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol bath (that contains a salt) between coatings. Maybe Universal Sketch would render a high gloss with 3 coats of albumen, but I'm not going to do that.
I dry paper in a large box that is heated, with coat hangars with clips to minimize curling. Finally, I use a 20 percent silver nitrate solution as recommended by Mark Osterman to obtain an even higher gloss.
BTW, I have used powdered eggs and they worked OK. I've also used the egg whites in a carton and they worked well too but most of them are pasteurized or they have other chemicals added that could interfere with the process. For my last batch, I bought several dozen eggs and whipped up a big volume over a few nights.
My albumen prints are much glossier than fiber based, factory-coated papers.

[Jim Noel]

I use liquid egg whites which contains no additives, and Plate Finish paper. The paper itself has some gloss and the combination works well. Is the gloss equal to manufactureed paper? No, but it is more than the normal paper which is used with albumen.

[Jim Noel]

Very interesting and valuable info Bruce.Thank you.

[pound]

thanks for the replies. Lots of useful information. i suppose thin paper, double coating will give a glossy paper.

I was using Strathmore Drawing paper which is 130g/sm which is much thicker than the Crob'Art paper that Bruce mentioned. I suppose that is the Canson Crob'Art paper as that is the only one that I can find on Google.

[NedL]

Yes it's Canson. I'd love to try some but have never seen it in the U.S. Maybe you can get it in Singapore!

[pound]

Yes it's Canson. I'd love to try some but have never seen it in the U.S. Maybe you can get it in Singapore!

thanks. Checked out the biggest art supply store in town earlier today. They have a few kinds of Canson papers but not the Crob'Art.